# Name Your Custom Barrel



## CoyotieKiller (Jul 2, 2010)

I'm thinking hard about finally getting a aftermarket barrel for my Remington .300 Ultra (after deer season).
What have you used, and what do you like? Feel free to add details such as contour and length.  
Right now I'm kinda eyeing Hart barrels.


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## Longshot (Feb 9, 2004)

This is what I have, PacNor Super Match: http://www.pac-nor.com/


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## People (Jan 17, 2005)

I have shot Lilja and Krieger. Have not really tried any others. I do like the three groove barrels.

Chuck Norris doesn't churn butter. He roundhouse kicks the cows and the butter comes straight out.


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## xdeano (Jan 14, 2005)

I prefer a Bartlein.

But I'd take a Brux, Benchmark, Rock, PacNor SM.

Basically when you're looking at barrels you want to find a mfg that gets good steel and uses a cut rifling to do their barrels. It's going to be a more precise finished product. There will be fewer rough edges and everything will be sily smooth, which makes a lot less work for you in the cleaning process as well as a small velocity gain.

I'd probably do a 10 twist in a medium Palma or Rem varmint/sendaro contour. Basically the same. except if you want a little longer barrel just go with the med palma.

Barrel contour and length kind of depends on what you've got planned for the rifle. Are you going to sit on a hill and play or carry it around? I'm guessing you'll be doing a little long range with it so weight isn't going to be an issue. I have one gun with an MTU contour and it's a beast, but it kicks like a kitten.

It's all in what you want, that's why its a custom, *your* custom.  But i'd still do a cut rifling in a 10T.

xdeano


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## AdamFisk (Jan 30, 2005)

xdeano said:


> I prefer a Bartlein.
> 
> But I'd take a Brux, Benchmark, Rock, PacNor SM.
> 
> xdeano


I only have experience with Bartlein. It's good!! But I wouldn't hesitate to go with any of the others mentioned above. It may come down to what manufacturer can get you the barrel you want in the time you're looking for. I know if you order a Bartlein today, you're looking at probably a minimum of 7 months.

I assume you have a factory Rem Sendero? If so, just get a Rem Varmint/Sendero contour if you plan on sticking with the same stock. Not a big deal, but if you go with a med palma, there will have to be some minor modifications to the stock. Might want to consider a brake put on at time of rebarreling too. My buddy has that exact rifle (if we're talking Sendero 300 RUM here) and a gunsmith just designed and installed his brake on it. We have yet to test it out however. I put one round through that thing prior to the brake and call me a Sally, but I'd need either a brake or suppressor on one of those for it to be enjoyable for any amount of target shooting.


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

I can only speak of Bartlein, but I have a Krieger that should show up any day in 6.5 Creedmoor. The Bartlein is a 28 1/4 inch 300 Win Mag. My chronograph says 3017, but I shoot over everything at 1000 yards. I thought maybe my chrono is wrong so I just kept increasing the velocity until it matched. It matched at 3125 fps, but I know that can not be because I am shooting a 210 gr Berger VLD. I got up to 3000 fps with a 26 inch barrel, but I just can not believe 3125 fps. I have to use it though to get my program to match field performance.


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## CoyotieKiller (Jul 2, 2010)

I actually have a Rem 700 LSS lefty(discontinued now). It has a stainless 26" sporter barrel 1:10 twist. I put a H-S Precision stock on it right after I got it. Which will need some major trim work on it for a heavier barrel. 
I've thought about the suppressor, but for now am going to hold off on it.

I do and still will be carrying this rifle when I go searching for elk and such in the mountains. So I'm partial to something along the lines of a semi-varmiter weight, but i would like the 28-29" range for length.

I have to admit I didn't know what button rifling was until today, I kinda think I'll steer clear of that style.

Plainsman, do you know the ballpark turn around time for your smith once he gets the blank? (I'd need the lugs and bolt face lapped, and a bigger recoil lug put on as well.)

Hey Sally ( :rollin: ) :wink:

It's a pussycat compared to the .458 win mag off the bench (I'll only be doing that once! :shake: Thank you very much. Found out the hard way that it's a standing/kneeling gun. :laugh: )


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## AdamFisk (Jan 30, 2005)

Ouch, a sporter to boot.

I have a #3 Bartlein on order right now. If you compare barrel contours it's basically similar to most all others #4 contour. It's not a pencil thin barrel, but not a varmint either. I hope it will be the right compromise between the two. I will never own another mountain weight rifle again, but I want something lighter than what I currently have, with a traditional hunting rifle look.

Another thing is I don't know what model stock you have, but with some designed for sporter barrels, you can't fit it for heavy barrels. There just isn't enough material to allow that on some. If you look at stock descriptions, at least from Manners and MCM, they will usually tell you up to what barrel contour the stock can handle. Not sure on HS.


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

> Plainsman, do you know the ballpark turn around time for your smith once he gets the blank? (I'd need the lugs and bolt face lapped, and a bigger recoil lug put on as well.)


It depends on how busy he is. He has a couple of days a week free. If you give him a heads up (or give me a call I"ll get ahold of him) I would guess he will do it in a week. You know how people are though. They will dink around all year then 20 of them will bring in rifles the week before deer season. I would bet the day after deer season he will have free time. Or, I'm sure he could do it in September some time.


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## CoyotieKiller (Jul 2, 2010)

AdamFisk said:


> There just isn't enough material to allow that on some.


I realize I may have to get a different stock. But before I give up on the current one I have I was thinking I'd try shaving off enough to fit the new barrel and if I went through the hard exterior shell of the stock I'd try applying some fiberglass resin to seal up the foamish interor and give it some support. Isn't like there is much market value in used *LEFTY remington *stocks.



Plainsman said:


> I would bet the day after deer season he will have free time. Or, I'm sure he could do it in September some time.


Well with the wait times for new barrels, I think I'd be looking at next May or June. :-?

I better do some research and pull the trigger on ordering a barrel this month so it doesn't end up being July or later before I get it!

:sniperstill my favorite smilie face icon I've seen.)


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## CoyotieKiller (Jul 2, 2010)

AdamFisk said:


> I have a #3 Bartlein on order right now. If you compare barrel contours it's basically similar to most all others #4 contour. It's not a pencil thin barrel, but not a varmint either.


I like the sound of that.


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## CV-580 (Apr 29, 2008)

Satern and Kreiger...


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

CK the Kreiger barrel I ordered is a heavy sporter. I was told it may be as late as November when I get it. Yesterday the wife and I went to the movie Lawless at 4:00 PM. When I came out and turned my phone on I had a message that my barrel has been shipped.


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## CoyotieKiller (Jul 2, 2010)

Plainsman said:


> I was told it may be as late as November when I get it.


When did you order it??


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

CoyotieKiller said:


> Plainsman said:
> 
> 
> > I was told it may be as late as November when I get it.
> ...


July 6th.

Edit: Hmmmm, I see I ordered brass in June, so I must have ordered my dies and things on July 6. I must have ordered my barrel in June. They didn't charge my credit card until they shipped, and I can't find a record of exactly when I did order.


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## spitfire_er (Jan 23, 2010)

With the rifles that I have built personally for myself include, Hart, Krieger, Rock Creek, Shilen, Brux, and a lonely Adams & Bennett.

All of the Harts I have used have always been top notch shooters and they are button rifled. In general, button rifled barrels leave a smoother finish than a cut rifle, however, with hand lapping like just about all premium barrel manufactures use, the finish of both ends up being very smooth and there isn't much difference there. As far as stress in the barrel between cut and buttoned, the button rifle barrel makers have proprieary methods to relief and pretty much elimnate any stress that may be produced in the rifling process. My last rifle I built was a .308 Norma with a #4 contour and it would shoot 1/2" 5 shot groups with just about any bullet I put down the tube.

My Brux Barrel is a cut rifled and lapped CM target barrel in 7mm Mag. It shoots 1 hole 5 shot groups when everthing is in harmony. This barrel is 27"

My Rock Creek SS which is a cut rifled barrel is a #5 contour in 6mm-06 improved. It will hold 1/2MOA out to 500 yards which is the furthest I have shot it to date. It is 26"

The shilen Match SS barrel is a 6.5-280 Improved, 26" and which after some barrel break in, about 200 rounds, it now holds between 1/2" and 3/4" on regularity. This blank was not as nice as the others on the outside, and I don't believe they lap this grade of barrels, but it's good enough for a mid range hunting rifle for me.

One of my Kriegers is on my F-class rifle. It is a 1.25" straight tube at 30". It is chambered in .280 Improved and it holds 1/2"MOA out to 600 no problem, but i'm not done doing load development on it yet, so I expect it to do a little better.

I do have another Krieger .338 barrel waiting for me to put together. It will be a .338 RUM and it is a #6 contour and 28". It's a 10 twist set up for mainly 225's but I will shoot the occasional 300 SMK's in it. This will be my long range elk rifle.

In general, most of these barrels will out shoot the shooter. Of the top barrel makers, one will usually shoot as good as the other, and with a hunting rifle, they will be 10X more accurate than most off the shelf rifles. As far as cleaning between button rifle and cut rifle, I don't ever really see a big difference. The Chrome Molly barrels however do tend to foul quite a bit easier than Stainless barrels and take longer to clean. My 7 Mag Brux barrel shoots like crazy, but some bullets still foul the crap out of it even though it has been lapped by the maker and it have a few hundred rounds down it. All my stainless barrels don't ever really foul. Most of what comes out of them usually "falls right out" and is just as much powder fouling as copper.

I would say for what you are looking for a #4 or #5 Stainless barrel ether cut or button rifled and lapped will be an excellent shooter. A 10" twist will allow you to shoot up to 220 gr bullet which should cover just about and of the lower 48 big game animals. I find that a 26" barrel on a magnum cartridge will make it more efficient and the #4 or 5 contour is a good trade off between weight and enough metal to make it a little more accurate. As far as wait times, last I heard Hart was 2-3 months, Krieger I'm not sure, and Rock Creek does not even note expected delivery dates due to high order volume. I think I waited 4 months for mine last year.

Another option is to go online and look around for whichever barrel you want. Midway sometimes has barrels in stock, and you can sometimes find uncut blanks on some of the bigger hunting/Bench rest forum sites.

Oh, on a side note, I just re-did a mauser with a Rem varmint take off barrel. The guy had it re-barrled because it didn't shoot worth a crap and he wanted a quicker twist. He couldn't get it to shoot under 1.5". I took that barrel bore scoped it and found one side of the lands were eroded more than all the others. That indicates the chamber was originally cut out of specs. I recut the back end of the barrel, re-chambered, and re-crowned and it shoots about 1" with crappy factory ammo. I have yet to take my hand loads out with it, but I expect it to shoot in that 1/2" to 3/4" range.


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