Shilen barrels

[Happ571]

I was just wondering if anyone has sent a action to Shilen to have a barrel installed sounds like they do great work, Looking for pro's and cons? Not a gunsmith locally and wanted to use a Shilen barrel. Thanks

 

[James Jones]

I have used a couple of thier barrels and while they shot great it seemd to me that they were on the soft side of being heat treated. I haven't heard anybody complain about their barreling services but I don't know anybody personaly thats had them do more than ship a barrel. I know that Hart and Pac-Nor do good jobs on their rebarrels as I've seen a couple of those.

I gotta ask though any particular reason your going with a Shilen barrel over any of the others? And if your shipping the thing out why not use a reputable smith ,their are several here.

 

[eddybo]

If it would be just as easy to ship the barreled action to one of the smiths here and have them rebarrel with the brand of choice that is what I would do.

 

[Happ571]

Any gunsmiths you would recomend?

 

[eddybo]

I can only reccomend someone who has done work I have seen, so 308Nate and Fiftydriver would be the only smiths here I could actually reccomend. But there are others who will do you a fine job. I cant keep up with all of them. Maybe someone else can give you reccomendations.

 

[J E Custom]

Happ

I use Shilen a lot for barrels and they shoot great.

As to having them barrel your action I would agree with james
that a good gunsmith would probably be best.Not that Shilen
would not do a good job.

The only thing that might make a difference would be the time
it takes some smiths to get your rifle to you(some times 1 to 2
years) where as Shilen would/could probably give you a shorter
delivery time.

If shilen has the barrel I need in stock then I normaly order from
them, if not then I use Lilja . Lilja barrels are as good as they get
and the delivery is the best of any barrel maker.

I have used many other brands of barrels (hart,douglas,kreiger and
others if the client requested with good results .

I dont think you can go wrong with a shilen if they will give you a
good price and good delivery date but I would check around first
and see what others offer.

Good luck on your build
J E CUSTOM

 

[Happ571]

I also had a friend mention to take a look at Badger barrels, You don't see many posts about them what do you guys think?

 

[James Jones]

I have a friend that shoots ALOT of black powder guns and he uses Badger barrels , Ihaven't heard of anybody using them for centerfire rifles , their are actualy a bunch of barrel makers out their alot of whom most folks have never heard , the big names are the guys that do it out of big shops due to high demand rather than out of a garage , not saying that the smaller guys barrels arn't good but the Kreiger , Lilja , Hart , Barlein , Shilen , Spencer , Schnider , Rock Creek , Broughton , Obermeyer and on and on are generaly the tops makers you see and hear about. Generaly for the most part all these guys barrel cost with in $25 of eachother.

I look at what caliber I'm gonna be shooting to help make my decision ,if I'm planning a 6mm-O6Ai to shoot the heavy VLD style bullet at warp speed then I know I need a fast twist probably button rifled , preferably with 5 or more grooves , as the lesser groove barrles help tear bullets up , but I'f I were looking for a 308 to shoot 175gr Sierra Match Kings for as long as possible then I'd likely choose a cut rifled barrel with 3-4 grooves.

Differant barrel makers are known for their specific barrels , like Hart may have a great drill and button right now that making the record setting barrels and so on.

 

[Derek M.]

I Have 2 Shilen Bbls

I sent my 300 RUM and 7mm Rem mag to Shilen in 2002. They did an excellent job of rebarreling. Each barrel is a #4 contour. The 7mag is 24" and the 300 is 28".

I do not recall turn around time but it was not long.

If the folks as Shilen do any less of a job, it does not show at the range. These 2 rifles are among my least finicky and easiest to find a load and I've killed a lot of big game with each.

Last evening was my first time at the range testing the 168 Berger VLDs in the 7mag. I only loaded up ammo to test for max load. I used half grain increments of Retumbo. Even though each shot had a different powder charge, they all hit inside of 3/4" at 100 yards. The bullets were seated to just touch the lands. I found this to be rather remarkable and will be doing final range tests tomorrow.