Rodger that, and I should have made that clear. They were the only ones that came to mind as having dabbled in both, though the cut barrels are their claim to fame. I also forgot to mention there's a certain degree of flexibility inherent to cut rifled barrels that you don't have with a buttoned tube. I originally started using Kriegers for testing a certain .30 cal bullet, since most of the shooters in this particular competition used tighter bores than normal SAAMI spec .308s. The usual vendor that I bought most of my test barrels (buttoned) through, wouldn't do the special dimensions required for this game. Since Krieger was supplying most (or at least the lion's share) of the barrels used by the competitos, I called them. No problem at all. With the first vendor, if they could have been convinced to do the order, I would have had to foot the bill for the button, and additional cost. I'm sure they would have turned out wonderfully shooting barrels, but I didn't need the extra expense. Since then I've dealt with several other cut barrel makers, and all of them seem to afford this same sort of flexibility. Tell them what you need, and they'll cut it that way.
I recall a piece in Precision Shooting Magazine some years back about testing twist rates, and the results were quite interesting. This, mind you, wasn't the cleaning rod & ruler method that gives a rough measurment at best. This was done via a computer system and some sort of stylus or guidence method that accurately tracked the grooves. Not only was there some degree of tolerence that varied in the twist, the twists were often not constant throughout the bore. The sped up or slowed down at some points, slightly, but measurably. This is what I was describing when I mentioned the hard or soft spots in the steel. This is not the barrelmakers fault, and is just one of the vague spots that they have to work with, even buying from a good steel vendor. Again, I'm not knocking any method of barrelmaking, and I truly believe the quality and perfromance of the finished barrel is far, far more dependant on the skills and attention to detail of the machinist, rather than the method he's using. Fine barrels made in any of several different ways out there.
Kevin
