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.

 

[Axl]

I have used quite a few Bartlein in carbon wrapped and SS. They all shoot fantastic.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

I would not put a custom barrel on any rifle that didn't have the basics done, ie: blue printed action, proper bedding.

You could drop $800 into a finished barrel and have it still not shoot to your expectations.

 

[LBEdgin]

Yes I'm going to have more in it than I could possibility get out ot it. And Yes I'm sure I'm going at this somewhat the wrong way. But it's really really fun to me, I must say figuring out why a gun will not shoot is a whole lot of fun, and when you do give the gun what it wants and it preforms is highly rewarding. I thank you guys for sharing as it give me ideals for not only this build but others as well.

 

[ObiJohn]

I'd consider having the action checked and trued if I was getting a replacement barrel to have a much better chance of ending up with an accurate rifle. If I'm spending over $500 for the barrel and install I'm going to spend another $150-$200, because doing so later will add the cost of barrel removal and reinstallation, shipping, etc.

One thing I've learned is the thrifty man spends the most.

 

[LBEdgin]

I ran up on this last night from Bravo 4, he had it at a very good price and I decided to go this way.

 

[JAYgs8163]

I ran up on this last night from Bravo 4, he had it at a very good price and I decided to go this way.

Hopefully you realize that's a competition contour barrel? Weighs over 7lbs and has a very large diameter contour.

 

[JAYgs8163]

Here's the drawing.

 

[Mark37082]

Yes I'm going to have more in it than I could possibility get out ot it. And Yes I'm sure I'm going at this somewhat the wrong way. But it's really really fun to me, I must say figuring out why a gun will not shoot is a whole lot of fun, and when you do give the gun what it wants and it preforms is highly rewarding. I thank you guys for sharing as it give me ideals for not only this build but others as well.

Good for you. Half the fun of trying something new is the planning and process of finding something that improves performance. I would probably get bored with something that didn't need tweaking (load or components). Let us know how it works out.