Shilen Field Trip

[BerdanIII]

Just got back from the annual Shilen Barrels Open House / Swap Meet.

I took the plant tour and was amazed. Barrel (round) stock is received and analyzed to make sure it meets specifications and is cut to length and given an initial heat treatment in big electric kilns (How would you like your toast?). The bore is drilled on WWII-era Pratt and Whitney machines with carbide cutters made in-house. After ensuring the barrel is straight (crooked barrels are tossed; Shilen doesn't straighten barrels) it is reamed with reamers that are also made in-house. It was weird watching the reamer work. The free end of the barrel was wobbling all over the place while the chucked end was still. The guide (an employee) said the reamer just follows the hole made by the boring machine. Rifling is by the pull-button method and takes about 30 seconds a barrel. The buttons are made in-house, too. Stainless barrels are hand-lapped to remove the lubricant used in the rifling process and then both stainless and chrome-moly barrels are sent back to the kiln for stress relief. After that, they're done. After looking down the bore of a finished barrel with a bore scope and looking at the barrels in the sale rack, I realized that all my barrels are about as smooth as the inside of a cast iron sewer pipe.

All-in-all the best field trip since I went to a steel mill in Junior High.

[eka]

Wow, that would be a cool trip for sure.

Every Sunday a handful of guys get together at the local club for the weekly shooting and BSing session. This takes place at the rifle range, with me being the only cast guy, of course. However, a couple of the guys have recently turned into Shilen groupies. They have bought four Shilen barrels and mounted them on Savage actions in .223, 22-250, and two in 6.5-55. I'll have to say, these barrels are absolutely beautiful. And they will turn in some amazing groups at long ranges. These four barrels are the only ones I have been around, but to say I'm impressed is an understatement. The wait time for the barrels were around eight weeks. I can't remember exactly what they cost, but it seemed very reasonable for such slick units.

Thanks for the cool post.

Keith

[Down South]

I have one rifle that I had a stainless steel Shilen barrel installed on. The barrel was then melonite coated. I had this barrel mounted on a 257 Weatherby. It is a tack driver.

[bobthenailer]

i have 3 rifles and a xp-100 all with shilen match grade barrels all are extremely accurate with a broad range of loads. if i was changing another barrel it would be a shilen for sure

[Johnch]

Well how many barrels did you buy ?

I just missed a chance to buy 4 barrels for Savage rifles
They went cheap

And to think I was 8 min late getting to the auction

John