Barrel choices, don't want to guess wrong! Please share your take.

[Sdvldog1371]

Bartlein, Broughton and Brux are all excellent barrels. It will likely ultimately depend on availability of the length and contour you want. I wouldn't do another Bartlein carbon wrapped barrel, but their stainless barrels are excellent.

I've not had a single Bartlein, Proof or Krieger that shot sub 1" at 100 yds without some fine tuning of the seating depth on ammo, handloaded or factory. However, once you find the proper seating depth I haven't had one that couldn't easily group in the ¼ or sub ¼ MOA for 3 and sometimes 5 shots.

I've also seen Howa and Tikka rifles that shot in the 1½" range drop down to sub ¾" with nothing more than a quality stock. So, maybe check your action is properly seated and torqued, that your scope base, rings and scope are all torqued; and then run a seating depth test starting at mag length and punching them in 6 thou at a time. Shoot 2, if they don't touch move on, if you get a pair that touch, shoot more into that group at that depth. Note the depth and try 3 thou less depth, 3 thou more and 6 thou more. I can usually come up with at least 5 thou worth or good seating depth.

I mean, personally I think ruling out loose fasteners and ammo issues is cheaper than a barrel.

 

[ducky]

Screw Bartline! Yep, I said it. They'll never get my buisness.

I've tried three times to use them over the years. First time was a #3 contour in stainless for my .338-06, they won't make it in stainless I have to use CM. Then they won't make me a #2 in stainless .308 caliber, say I have to use a #2B. Pac-Nor built me both barrels no problem, the way I wanted them.

I recently tried for two weeks to order a custom contour 1:7 twist .277 blank. I emailed a simple drawing of what I wanted. 2" shank, .250 radius, .850" at 5" and .750" at 22" in stainless for a .270 WSM build. Sales rep said to call him so we could discuss things, as he felt it needed some tweaking to use stainless as my dimensions were too small. It's a variation on their featherweight contour that they don't list as CM only so I'm thinking what's the issue?

I'd call, leave a voicemail asking the sales rep to call me back, never recieved one. So I'd email asking him to call me, said he would. So after leaving three voicemails and twice as many emails, I'm blacklisting Bartline.

I'll never buy one of their barrels for any of my builds ever, F-EM. If there to busy to talk to me, then why use them? I'm sure they don't want my business either.

I would have used Pac-Nor again, but they aren't building a 1:7 twist .277 yet. So I went with Prefered Barrel Blanks, as I've heard good things. I didn't get my custom contour but the PBB straight taper .750 was close enough to work. The only thing that I didn't get from PBB was the .250 radius I wanted. They might have built one for me, but I didn't ask as this was close enough, and gives me a 3 lbs barrel finished at 22".

It would have been nice to have that radius to look similar to a M70 fwt barrel. Since I'm building on a M70 action and Wildcat stock that looks like a fwt. The most important was .750 muzzle to thread for my suppressor.

 

[tomcat818]

Came down to Bartlein or Brux and I went with Brux. I like the 1.250" shank dia. Targets don't lie and Brux barrels are run by world champions across many shooting disciplines.