Who makes the best carbon fibre barrel ?

C

CaptBeach

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Re-posting...originally in "Getting Started", probably the wrong forum...my bad...still new around here...


So who makes the best carbon fibre barrel and how much are they?

Are they SIGNIFICANTLY lighter than steel contour for contour?

Are they worth the $$$

Looking to build a very nice Savage tactical in .308/30-06 and considering CF...

Discuss...


Capt Beach
http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/editpost.php?do=editpost&p=532769
 
I have the Christensen Arms Carbon Fiber Barrel for my .338 win mag and have no complaints. The largest positive about this barrel is that makes the rifle so light. This is a huge plus for me given that this rifle goes with me to Colorado for elk hunting. Packing in all your gear 6 miles at 10,000 ft elevation is hard enough.

I have read numerous posts saying that the CA barrels are garbage, but my shot group and 700 yds can consistently fit into a 18" diameter circle all day long.
 
Copengr33n said:
I have the Christensen Arms Carbon Fiber Barrel for my .338 win mag and have no complaints. The largest positive about this barrel is that makes the rifle so light. This is a huge plus for me given that this rifle goes with me to Colorado for elk hunting. Packing in all your gear 6 miles at 10,000 ft elevation is hard enough.

I have read numerous posts saying that the CA barrels are garbage, but my shot group and 700 yds can consistently fit into a 18" diameter circle all day long.
Click to expand...


Do you really mean an 18" group? 2+ MOA group at 700 yds would cause me to work up a new load to find one in the 5" range.
 
18" is good for me. I like to play around at long distances for target shooting, but my .338 win mag is strictly a hunting rifle. I am not going to take a shot past 350-400 yrds. In fact, due to the terrain I hunt, I don't have 300+ yrd visibility.

I guess the intent of my post was to say that I truly believe that the weight savings for the carbon fiber barrel is worth it. These things are super light compared to a bull barrel. However, my interests are in hunting. If I was going to build a target rifle, I would not care about the weight and would not dabble with carbon fiber.

That being said, (I hope I don't highjack the intent of this post) I think Jarhead is right. Something is wrong with my load. I have sub MOA groups out to 400 yrds and then something happens to the ballistics and my groups start to open up very rapidly. Again, I don't think it has anything to do with the barrel. My load is just screwed up.
 
also curious about carbon barrels, have done plenty of research on the subject and seems a lot of people have had bad luck with ABS customer service and i see they have sold their rights and a new company is being formed "Proof Research" hopefully they will be getting barrels out in a timely matter. i also see that magnum research is starting to sell carbon barrels and am interested in them as well, i would like a smaller contour though the one they have in 7mm at 24" says it weighs 3.1 pounds. I think i can get lighter than that with a steel barrel. Pac-Nor's sight says a #5 countour .7" at the muzzle will come in about the same (with 8 flutes).
 
I have only played with 3 carbon fiber blanks. One was a saturn 338 sendero contour CF blank. I chambered it in 338/06 and it has been a very accurate lite weight rifle, but the recoil is not for the faint of heart. I hate brakes on hunting rifles.

DSC_00042.jpg


One with a Rock blank I chambered in 300WSM for a buddy of mine. It shot good during break in, but I am not sure how much he has shot it since.

IMG_3311.jpg




I did the other a 7.5T Rock in 243AI for a buddy. After I broke it in and worked up a load I hated to let him leave with it. I was sad it had to leave. I guess all my experiances have been positive thus far.
 
Supposedly The CF greatly improves cooling which extends barrel life. Also supposedly the wrapped tubes can have pretty significant POI shifts at different temps. I do not think that a 600+ dollar premium is really worth it, unless you just like to spend A LOT of money.

If I won the lotto I would build a rifle on a Surgeon action with a Krieger tube wrapped in CF with a titanium suppressor and an AI chassis in some uber cartridge like .410 or .408 with a Schmidt and bender scope. Instead I'll stick to my custom .300win mag and save for a predator action in .338 LM with a McMillan A5, and NF NSXgun)

I have shot one in .300 rum and the recoil was atrocious as compared to my .300 win mag. Neither rifle had muzzle break all shooting factory ammo My rile came in at .7moa and no one could get his under 1.2 MOA and certainly no one could stand much more than three shots.
 
Copengr33n said:
18" is good for me. I like to play around at long distances for target shooting, but my .338 win mag is strictly a hunting rifle. I am not going to take a shot past 350-400 yrds. In fact, due to the terrain I hunt, I don't have 300+ yrd visibility.

I guess the intent of my post was to say that I truly believe that the weight savings for the carbon fiber barrel is worth it. These things are super light compared to a bull barrel. However, my interests are in hunting. If I was going to build a target rifle, I would not care about the weight and would not dabble with carbon fiber.

That being said, (I hope I don't highjack the intent of this post) I think Jarhead is right. Something is wrong with my load. I have sub MOA groups out to 400 yrds and then something happens to the ballistics and my groups start to open up very rapidly. Again, I don't think it has anything to do with the barrel. My load is just screwed up.
Click to expand...

I have shot numerous CA rifles and have never been impressed or even got one to shoot good let alone great, 18" @ 700 yrds could be your barrel as easy as your load if my hunting rifle was shooting this type of group I would yank the barrel off and send it back to where ever it came from with a nice little note of my opnion of there barrel, if you want to go carbon fiber ABS is the only way to go, but I will give CA this they do build a light rifle.
 
Last edited:
Proof Research makes the finest, most accurate carbon fiber wrapped barrels.

proofresearch.com

We use Rock and Satern barrel blanks pre-contoured to our specs. These barrels get wrapped and shipped as fast as we get them in and a "typical" turn-around time from original order to shipment to customer is averaging about 1 month or so.

No more BS, song and dance, or drama. You place an order and we make it happen. It's as simple as that.

Call Proof Research at 406-756-9290 for questions or ordering.

*Camp Perry is in full swing so right now we can't get any barrel blanks. When things settle down after Perry, we should be back to normal very quickly!
 
What Ranger1183 did not say is that HE bought ABS barrels and HE is PROOF Research. The link I provided has some really solid information on ABS / Proof barrels tech. If i buy a carbon barrel, it will be a Proof.

Happy Shooting,
Gary
 
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