Barrels 2020

[FEENIX]

I would think RL26, H1000, Retumbo, and IMR 8133 would all be good powders for the 264 and 156 Berger's.

The powder recommendations are between RL-25 and H50 burn rate.

 

[nmbarta]

I've owned , brux, Bartlien, shilen, broughton, proof, and lilija.
They are all good barrels and all shot well.
The brux stood out to me, I've had four.
They clean up really nice, but also all of those rifles were easy to load for and had above average velocities. Four isn't enough to make a conclusion for anyone but me. Fast, easy to clean, and for whatever reason (maybe unrelated) they were all easy to load for.
Those were
7 saum
7 rem ma
7x 300 win mag
And a 6.5x284.
Bartlien would be a close second for me.

 

[Buster Hemlock]

I've owned , brux, Bartlien, shilen, broughton, proof, and lilija.
They are all good barrels and all shot well.
The brux stood out to me, I've had four.
They clean up really nice, but also all of those rifles were easy to load for and had above average velocities. Four isn't enough to make a conclusion for anyone but me. Fast, easy to clean, and for whatever reason (maybe unrelated) they were all easy to load for.
Those were
7 saum
7 rem ma
7x 300 win mag
And a 6.5x284.
Bartlien would be a close second for me.

I can agree that the Brux I'm shooting on my 338 Lapua is much faster than expected and a Brux I have on a 223 that hasn't seen much attention lately is pretty fast too

 

[Joejack]

Wow
You're the first guy with good knowledge to give x caliber a good review.
I've heard nothing but bad stuff about them

I have put together 4, 22 creedmoors with xcaliber barrels last one on a rem 700, 40rds breakin at 200yds

 

[Will Gray]

I have one Lilja and several Shilen barrels. All are just fine. I now only buy barrel blanks from Shilen so I can enjoy the hobby of profiling, chambering and threading them. $225 for a blank delivered to my door: perfect in my view.

 

[Sam Pace]

I have been thinking about this for awhile and I want to make a thread discussing barrels and their quality as of now. Barrels like all things go up and down and change over the years. I know of a few barrel manufactures who have stepped their game up in the last couple years and seem to be producing better results. I currently am running Bartlein barrels and have no complaints about them. I however am very curious and I always like to experiment and learn more.

Having said that, if any of you could just give me a brief review or opinion on recent barrels you have used/installed/inspected I would really appreciate it. This is not a bashing thread, but I want it to be sort of a guide and understanding of where barrels stand as of 2020. I'll start off and say from my experiences , I see mainly Bartlein, Brux, Krieger, and Proof barrels. Those all seem to do well, but how about all the other guys

I've got a Mark Chanlynn barrel (Rocky Mountain Rifle Works) on my 6.5 PRC. It is out standing.

 

[Alibiiv]

Shilen - Seems like they just don't care anymore. Multiple returns to get it right. When the thing finally is what was ordered it usually works just fine.

Lilja - >10 years ago was THE barrel to have. Back then I would never use anyone else. Nowadays, I just don't use them at all but I suspect they're still excellent.

Columbia River Arms/Black Hole Weaponry - Extremely consistent, always easy to load for, always what I ordered, pricing is hard to match. I use these almost exclusively now. The polygonal rifling has given me up to 50% longer throat life and MUCH easier cleaning. Best high volume shooting barrels I've had.

Hart - Just a great barrel every time but I only use them for Metallic Silhouette barrels.

I have two rifles that have Lilja barrels on them, no issues whatsoever. They will both shoot better than I can shoot them. The rifles are built on trued Ruger 77 actions, 26 inch barrel, contoured to the original Ruger barrel dimensions. They will shoot 2 shot MOA at 300 yards, after that there will be a flier that is about an inch out from the group. I believe this is due to the thinner contoured barrel and heating up. I am presently putting two more rifles together, fitting the wood up now. One can talk about barrels, however I do believe there's a lot to be said about the gun smith putting those barrels on. If the action is not trued up and the head spacing isn't done correctly, the best barrel in the world isn't going to perform well. Then there's the variable of bedding...............

 

[ZReed85]

I've had em all brux, bart, proof, rock creek, hart, Broughton, benchmark, and hawk hill.

I prefer hawk hill over all of them. They clean and break in the easiest and AMAZING accuracy everytime.

Brux and bart would be a close second for me

 

[JAYgs8163]

Preferred Barrels formerly MGM
Total garbage, same goes for Oregon Mountain Rifles.
My smith said the last one he received was crooked in two different directions, no wonder I couldn't get it to shoot consistently.
McGowan isn't much better

I've used 3 McGowan Barrels, 7 mag and 2 6.5 CM, with great results, also a Preferred Barrel Blanks Barrel with excellent results on a 300 short mag.

 

[Mram10us]

Don't discount wilson arms. Very affordable, great to machine and shoot great. I have built a lot of rifles with them in 6.5 cm upto 300rum and never had a problem.

 

[19 Badger]

1 Benchmark (currently getting another one from Hells Canyon made)
1 Pac-Nor
1 Wilson.
All three clean up nicely and shoot awesome.

 

[Bigdad]

I didn't see Criterion mentioned in this thread. I have one of their pre-fits on my Savage 12FV 223 Rem and it will consistently shoot under a .5 MOA, generally around .35 MOA. I also have a X-caliber in 6.5X55, it took a lot of load development to get it to shoot .5-.6 MOA.

 

[reconrover]

I have a .338 RUM from Lilja, a 6.5 creed from Bartlein, and a Hart on a .308. I have been happy with each one of them. Had some drama with a Shilen. I also have a .308 from Black Hole Weaponry which is the tightest of the group. I am currently considering another Hart purchase for my .338 Lapua

 

[Greyfox]

While I haven't used a wide variety of different barrels I like, and have stuck mostly with Kreiger and Hart over the years for precision work. More recently, I was pleasantly surprised with the results I achieved when I attempted my first self-install of a Criterion drop-in barrel barrel in my PRS rifle/Bighorn action. I have since had equal success using this barrel system in a couple more competition and hunting rifles. Besides performing exceptionally well, the convenience, and fast turn around is hard to beat.