Best Pre-fit Savage barrel? Better than Shilen Super select?

[TG-5150]

Oh boy....lots of stuff here. But here is my .02 worth.

I had a .308 that was a ....yup, you guessed it!
A Savage/Stevens 200 in .308. Anyway- it had strep throat.
So we went had an Excalibur 24" S.S. Spiral fluted barrel in 9 twist chambered for a 7mm-08 A.I. made. It was screwed on by I friend of mine. It clover leafed Fed. Fusions and Rem Cor Locts. And Hornady and Win. stuff wasn't that bad either. And it's most likely gonna produce consistent "ragged-holes" if reloads keep going the way they are. This is the only non-factory gun I have ever owned besides a Gibbs I had a long time ago.
I am gonna try another Excalibur for a Savage 110 action in a Sherman of some sort here very soon.

 

[Dgd6mm]

that's good to hear... you just don't hear a lot of people talk about them like the others

I would definitely have another one anytime, any caliber.

 

[Chargerguy]

Benchmark does prefits too (not sure if that was mentioned yet). Not something they really advertise on their site however.

 

[jasonco]

Finally, put all the pieces together on this 6mm Creedmoor project today! X-Caliber 26" (27 3/4" w/brake), 1-7 twist 5R, 1" Bull. They recommended the bull, it's handlapped. Time to start load development

 

[raider1v1]

Awesome!

 

[elf]

My latest pre fit is a SSSM from Pac Nor. It has been a shooter from day one. I'm not bound by brand loyalty but, I'd have to have a real good reason to not get my 5th Pac Nor barrel. I don't know if I caught them at a good time or not but, I had my barrel in less then 2 months.

I bought a Pac Nor pre fit in 6.5-284 some years ago. It was a bummer - shot worse than the original Savage factory barrel with 1200 rounds thru it. Returned it to Pac Nor and they replied that there was nothing wrong with the barrel. I sold it.

 

[Firefighter749]

Judge the way you want, but this is how I do a custom threaded, chambered, Savage "screw on" barrel. Order a custom reamer the way I want it, drop ship the reamer to barrel manufacture I choose, order barrel, they do the machining, wait for delivery, go down in my basement= gun/reloading room, use my own tools, "screw on barrel" put rifle together,,, Done Deal,,,never had a disappointing one yet. Just did this one last week.

280AI, 1:9 tw, 26" Shilen w/brake, Bell & Carlson Stock, Nikon Black X, 1000,6x24x50, with MOA Illuminated Reticle

 

[jasonco]

View attachment 115800 Judge the way you want, but this is how I do a custom threaded, chambered, Savage "screw on" barrel. Order a custom reamer the way I want it, drop ship the reamer to barrel manufacture I choose, order barrel, they do the machining, wait for delivery, go down in my basement= gun/reloading room, use my own tools, "screw on barrel" put rifle together,,, Done Deal,,,never had a disappointing one yet. Just did this one last week.

280AI, 1:9 tw, 26" Shilen w/brake, Bell & Carlson Stock, Nikon Black X, 1000,6x24x50, with MOA Illuminated Reticle

 

[jasonco]

Finally, put all the pieces together on this 6mm Creedmoor project today! X-Caliber 26" (27 3/4" w/brake), 1-7 twist 5R, 1" Bull. They recommended the bull, it's handlapped. Time to start load development View attachment 115223

Here's how this particular X-Caliber barrel performed first shots, with new Starline LR, 107 Nosler Custom Comp, CCI-BR2, H4350. This was at 100 yards. Velocty avg test #1-3020, #2-3013.

 

[Toecutter]

Obviously a bad barrel. Send to me and ill take on the hassle of dealing with X-caliber. Shall be my good deed for the year

 

[jasonco]

Obviously a bad barrel. Send to me and ill take on the hassle of dealing with X-caliber. Shall be my good deed for the year

It was imbued with magical unicorn fairy dust from the Montana Rockies.

 

[PhilSchmidt]

There are some hit or miss pre-fit barrel manufacturers out there but in my experience if you get one from a top flight company your chances of getting a good barrel are just as good as going with a barrel chambered by a gunsmith.

I say that coming from direct experience with dozens of Criterion prefit's. Google Criterion and try to find a bad review. You'll probably find very few, if any unhappy users but you will find a plethora of very satisfied ones.

Gunsmiths seem to be the only ones bad mouthing pre-fits because they significantly impact their business.

 

[Deviant]

Proof Research.

 

[Yotekiller]

The most accurate gun I have ever fired is a shilen prefit. I have shot .11 moa 5 shot groups with it. Even working up loads I don't think I ever had a group over .3