Lothar Walther Alum Sleeved Ultra Light or ABS Carbon Fiber?

[CaptBeach]

OK...building a high end 300WM in the fall, I've got action, stocks on order and still choosing scope and barrel...

The end goal is the lightest tactical rifle I can put together...

Stock is a McMillan Game Scout with graphite cloth at somewhere around 30oz or so...scope going to be 22-28oz

Barrel...anyone familiar with the Lothar Walther Ultra Light Weight sleeved barrel? According to my emails back and forth with them I can get a Varmint profile match quality 21 3/4" barrel blank pressed into an aluminum sleeve and be at 2lbs finished product...I don't think the ABS Carbon Fiber can do that...

Feedback? Anyone familiar with Lothar Walthers accuracy? This particular barrel?

Price is about the same $835-850 for the LW and $950ish for the ABS Carbon Fiber.

Like I said...shaving weight is my end goal. The barrel will sport a brake.

Capt Beach

[comfisherman]

Have had a few CF wrapped rimfire barrels, they were about 3x the cost of stainless and 2x the cost of the aluminum sleeved barrels. But they have shot great, the 1 aluminum sleeved barrel I had shot ok, but for the most part I think the liner was more to blame than the sleeve. (in high speed ground squirrel shooting the barrel would heat up and have a wandering poi like you wouldn't believe)

I don't have any experience with the LW barrels, only could find mfg literature and one article by accurate shooter. But after watching aluminum interact with stainless, and stainless interact with composites in harsh environments I'd go composite.

Seems to me at the end of the day the quality of the blank would be a deciding factor, is 100$ more worth it to have a rock cut rifled barrel? The big hang up for abs for a lot of guys was the lead time, but now that it is proof research and not abs maybe that issue has cleared up.

Looking to build a similar setup to what you described this fall, just about over half way through the saving process for the components, and I'll be going proof research or a light taper Lilja.

[ZSteinle]

just received my magnum research carbon/graphite wrapped barrel in the mail. 1 week 2 days after i ordered it. Pac Nor barrel liner, no taper, 1.2 inch for the full length and it weighs 3lbs exactly. Price was 599 so it is cheaper than the abs barrels. If you havnt looked into them you might want to check it out.