Barrel makers?

[Don McDowell]

Chris I think you've really nailed an often over looked part of how good a barrel is. The chamber, and chamber that is a bit on the larger side can cause some problems , but you can get past those problems by learning to work with what you have to work with. On the other hand a chamber that is to tight, may give you fits, that the only way to cure is to rechamber. Finding that sweet spot is the real secret to success.

[country gent]

One thing I found in my years of compition and having purpose built rifles made. A well assembled and properly bedd rifle with everything right seems to shoot everything good, the diffrence between best loads and worst loads isnt as much as a rifle that has other issues also. My hepburn and CPA ( 45-90 on the hepburn and 40-65 on the CPA) both came up with good loads out od f the box and a little tuning made them better but not the big jump you see sometimes. My pedersoli sharps in 45-70 did take a little playing with the load and sizing but its a performer now. Im hoping the High wall thats on its way comes up as quick and easy as the other 2 did.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

The best barrelmakers have moments when everything goes right, and moments when they don't. The two best I ever had were Shilen, but I think that there is more difference between barrels than there is between barremakers.

As a sweeping generalization, the sort of error that is ten times as big at a thousand yards as at a hundred is due to the barrel. The sort of error that isn't, is ammunition or gunmaking.

[BrentD]

Before I tried a Green Mountain barrel I would have guessed they are nowhere near the top. But after looking at the results of a couple of LR matches I've attended, it's clear that a Green Mountain barrel can shoot very well. Check out the recent results on ArizonaSharpshooters.com.

I have been shooting one for a year and a half or maybe two years. It's as good as any .45 cal barrel I have. I've got Badgers, RKS, Shilohs, and a Krieger barrel. I think a lot of it comes down to who chambers and installs the barrel. And the particular chamber used.

Chris.

I'll second ALL of this. I got tired of getting beat by GM barrels, so I bought a couple of my on and immediately started beating everyone else. I have Krieger, Badgers, Douglas and others. GM rule.

But the most important part, as Chris said, is, "who chambers and installs the barrel". I've had it done wrong and that cost me 2-3 yrs of bad shooting just trying to fix things that weren't broke. It was the barrel mounting that mattered.

I've got a coupon for a Shilen that I won (with a GM barrel). I'll save it for a .22. I know they make great stuff, but my centerfires will remain GMs for the foreseeable future.

[Deadeye Bly]

I think Shiloh only makes 40 and 45 caliber barrels. I shoot a Shiloh and I do well with it. They purchase barrels from other sources for other calibers. I know they use Douglas for some calibers, 405 and 30/40 Krag. I'm not sure about the 38 calibers.

Green Mountain barrels are hard to beat. My son owns three national records with a GM barrel. I know they have only been around 10 years or more but they have constantly improved. Three of the winners at the American Creedmoor match last month shot GM barrels.

The absolute straightest barrel I ever used was a Krieger. Looking thru it while spinning in a lathe there was no perceptible run-out. It was not mine but he shoots well with it.

[Gunlaker]

There is maybe a tiny bit more to the Green Mountain barrel story. I know that at least some of the guys using Green Mountain barrels are using older, cut rifled, barrels rather than the button rifled one that I shoot. When I was in Byers last year Eron was talking about the Green Mountain cut rifled barrels.

When I looked at the GM web site afterward it seemed that the profiled blanks are button rifled, but the unprofiled round blanks were cut rifled. That seems weird to me.

You wouldn't know it by how poorly I shot in Phoenix, but I honestly do believe that my rifle with it's GM barrel is very accurate .

Chris.

[Jeff Houck]

I can think of 6 GM barrels in our club. All fitted and chambered by the same local tool and die maker\gun smith. One .38-55, two .40-65s and 3 .45-70s. They are all sub MOA guns.

[country gent]

Round blanks fit in the rifling lathes chuck better most being 3 jaws with bored jaws to hold a certain dia. 8 sides ( octagon) dosnt fit in the chuck as well. Most rifling machines have 3 or 6 jaw high precission universal chucks on them. I have green mountain barrel on my CS hepburn a great shooter. The Highwall Im about to take delivery off from them is a mcgowen I think. I have a GM blank here to go on a rolling block shortly. My CPA is a douglas. A great barrel can be ruined by the wrong chamber or miscut chamber. an on square muzzle face or bad crown again can make a great barrel look bad until its fixed. A to tight fixed pilot on a reamer can damage the first rifling causing problems also. Theres so much at work and working together here. I had one barrel ( brand new lilja) countoured and chambered by big name smith. It shot okay but not as good as I thought it should set it up indicated in both ends and reached up into chamber just below shoulder to find out chamber had wandered it wasnt zero anymore just below shoulder. Cut 1" off the back set up straight and true and refit blank and cut new chamber straight and true to bore. Barrel shoots very good now. Want to be really scared buy a hawkeye bore scope and start looking in new barrels and fresh chambers. Ive seen some pretty rough tooling reamer marks and tooling marks from chambering thats pretty vivid chambering leave tooling marks 90* to the bore in throat lead too

[M-Tecs]

Want to be really scared buy a hawkeye bore scope and start looking in new barrels and fresh chambers. Ive seen some pretty rough tooling reamer marks and tooling marks from chambering thats pretty vivid chambering leave tooling marks 90* to the bore in throat lead too

That's the primary reason I switched to carbide reamers. The finish on neck and throat produced by carbide reamers is vastly superior to HSS.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I always assumed that Green River blanks were ground or milled octagonal after drilling in the round - which ought to be satisfactory if they take a thin cut from each side in succession - rather than drilled into octagonal bars. Does anybody know if this is true?

[country gent]

Kriegers i believe the stock cut to length and stress relieved drilled reamed and rifled, countoured and rough chambers ( cut short .050 or so) if desired. The GM blank I have here contours tool marks that look like it was done with the side of an end mill. With the new cnc machines cutting the octagon contour should go pretty quick since the program takes care of taper ( no having to offset head to tail) A axis takes care of rotation. X +Y axis work together for taper. Z axis keeps the cutter at right hieght and from hitting tooling. On a solid machine 20" feed per min or better .010 per pass climb milling with a full coolant flush. a pass made rotate thru then another step in.