284 barrel options

[1K6BRA]

Have a question for you 284 people out there. I shoot a straight 284 for 1000 yard competition on paper and steel targets both. I shoot 180 grain hybrids and have been running a heavy varmint taper Lilja three groove nine twist 30 inch barrel with great results. Part of me would like to try a different brand of barrel and a different configuration. What are some of your opinions on what has worked for you. Thank you for your response!

 

[284winner]

Broughton 5R barrels work for me. Had great rests with a 30" 9 twist HV contour. Shooting 180 vld around 3k fps. Great groups to 1000k. Break in easy and clean up fast. Trying my first Bartlein barrel in a 284 now. Hoping for the best.

 

[FrankG]

Broughton 5R barrels work for me. Had great rests with a 30" 9 twist HV contour. Shooting 180 vld around 3k fps. Great groups to 1000k. Break in easy and clean up fast. Trying my first Bartlein barrel in a 284 now. Hoping for the best.

Brougthon's are not 5R. He calls them 5C for canted lands but only puts the angle on one side of the land. The 5R has the angle on both sides of the lands.

The style and number of grooves for the most part has nothing to do with accuracy or barrel life. I've shot everything from 2 groove up to 8 groove in calibers from .22rf. up to .338's.

Some say if you want hard core accuracy you want conventional rifling (where the lands basically meet the grooves at a 90 degree corner). This is what is called Enfield style rifling or conventional rifling.

We primarily make the 5R and 4 groove barrels.

Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels

 

[284winner]

Brougthon's are not 5R. He calls them 5C for canted lands but only puts the angle on one side of the land. The 5R has the angle on both sides of the lands.

The style and number of grooves for the most part has nothing to do with accuracy or barrel life. I've shot everything from 2 groove up to 8 groove in calibers from .22rf. up to .338's.

Some say if you want hard core accuracy you want conventional rifling (where the lands basically meet the grooves at a 90 degree corner). This is what is called Enfield style rifling or conventional rifling.

We primarily make the 5R and 4 groove barrels.

Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels

Yes your correct. It's the 5C. Not 5R. It is the canted lands barrel. It is a very accurate barrel regardless. But the proper name of the broughton barrel I have IS the 5C barrel.

 

[Willow]

Barrel brand shouldn't matter a huge deal I would think. Any of the well established brands out there can lay claim to having their barrels on match winning rifles at one stage or another. I've used Maddco, Benchmark and Brux but found my Maddco to produce tighter groups than the other two. I've got a Bartlein 7mm and Krieger 6mm ready to go for new builds.

 

[dkhunt14]

Broughton 5R barrels work for me. Had great rests with a 30" 9 twist HV contour. Shooting 180 vld around 3k fps. Great groups to 1000k. Break in easy and clean up fast. Trying my first Bartlein barrel in a 284 now. Hoping for the best.

After years of good winning and record breaking Broughton 5C barrels, I tried a Brux and a Bartlien. After all the reviews I read on here. They were just mediocre barrels at best. Good luck on your quest. Matt

 

[284winner]

Building with a Bartlein currently and believe it will be as accurate a barrel as my broughton barrels. No doubt they have earned great reputation in the precision shooting community. I do believe all of the custom barrel makers do make very accurate barrels today. Can't buy them all so I just read the reviews and get them as I need them.

 

[FrankG]

After years of good winning and record breaking Broughton 5C barrels, I tried a Brux and a Bartlien. After all the reviews I read on here. They were just mediocre barrels at best. Good luck on your quest. Matt

Based on what? There are more variables then just the barrel. Bullets are a variable as well as powder, the overall load, how the shooter is cleaning the barrel and not to even mention cleaning damage done to the barrel, as well as the gunsmith doing the build/work and what reamer is being used etc...seen bushing drag marks on the lands or throats really rough etc...and they wonder why they don't shoot and the biggest variable is the guy behind the trigger. No barrel maker has control over it all. Usually the first thing that gets blamed is the barrel though! So go figure. A couple of years ago a benchrest shooter who supposedly was ranked 7th in the world that year called with a complaint that the barrel wouldn't shoot and that it only shot in the .2xx's. So he sent it in for us to look at. The barrel looked like a million bucks but there was a drag mark on the breech cone. Hmmm....bolt hitting the barrel? Guess what! Yep it was! Breech cone was given .005" clearance and the barrel dropped to mid .1xx's for group sizes. I've also seen barrels loose on rifles on the firing line and the shooter complains about the accuracy of the rifle. Yes loose to the point I could turn it with my hand! Of course it's the barrels fault though!

Also just recently a Swat Snipers brought his rifle in for us to look it over. Guess what. Putting the rifle away dirty etc...and the barrel is pitted. Lack of proper maintenance.

Take a look at a couple recent matches....Team Berger cleaned house at the F-Class Champs in the open class and all shot our sticks. Same with the FTR in the team matches. The top two or top three teams all shot our sticks if memory serves me correctly.

Also the Benchrest Nationals where just held like a week and a half ago in Phoenix. 7 out of the top 9 shooters all ran our sticks. Larry Costa won the whole thing. His grand agg. for the 4 gun was a .2111" for 200 rounds fired.

If our barrels where mediocre at best then why would the top shooters be running them?

Later, Frank

 

[msinc]

Yep, the first thing you learn in this sport/hobby is that EVERYONE is a benchrest gunsmith!!!!! Knowing how to troubleshoot accuracy issues is half the battle...going thru all the steps to rule out those issues is the other. Few will stick to it and find the problem. Many assign blame and give up, only to move on to another gun and usually a whole other set of problems.
I can say that in the last twenty years I have never had a problem I positively was able to trace back to a custom barrel. Many people blast this brand or that, but I really don't believe there are any bad ones.
I can say also that what a borescope may reveal doesn't necessarily correlate to a given barrels performance. I have never seen what appeared to be a flaw in the Bartlein, Lilja or Pac-Nor super match barrels I have looked at. I have seen tooling marks in Douglas, Shilen match and several others, but that didn't mean the flawless ones automatically shot better. What it does tell me is that those makers do go the extra step to help insure I get the best barrel I can.
I have been told that Bartlein requests the mill certificate on all their steel and that this certificate is not free for the asking. I did not get this info from Bartlein. Just one more step in getting us the best barrel possible.

 

[1K6BRA]

While participating in the last couple of shoots of the year at Williamsport Pennsylvania I did take notice that a large percentage of the guys and gals shooting there had posted on their equipment lists they were using Broughton barrels.

 

[284winner]

Since Bartlein barrels has begun building barrels, they have earned a great reputation in the precision shooting and competitive shooting field as well as many other areas. In fact, Bartlein has left all other barrel makers in the dust so to speak regarding competitors shooting which barrels out there. Kreiger and Bartlein have basically taken the most numbers in that area. I chose Broughton way before Bartlein began building barrels. Sure Frank Green worked for Kreiger when i was using Broughton barrels but Bartlein wasn't born to my knowledge. Kreiger was popular but I had to pick a barrel so it was a Broughton. They claim there 5c barrels are faster barrels. I was building a straight 284 win long action on a 28" barrel and wanted good velocities. Without getting into a 7mm mag I chose the 284. Researched and spoke to Tim North who claimed that his canted lands has smaller top sections on the lands that progress down approximately 40°. Claiming there's less force on the bullet while traveling on the rifling causing less distortion and disruption of the bullet jacket because the bullet doesn't have to squeeze over the 90° corners of the larger surface areas of the conventional rifling. This gives his line of barrels the name faster barrels. I wanted lower pressure and as fast a barrel as I could get. That's my reason for Broughton. Today Bartlein has twist gain barrels that Frank says has 3 advantages to his barrels. This I loved to hear so I ordered one of his barrels and I'm currently building on it now. Loving the reviews on Bartlein barrels today so very much looking forward to hitting the range with it. I'll post my results when I'm finished.

 

[C. Collins]

I use a Bartlein 5r in 9 twist with a 1.25 od. It has brought me to high master at mid range f class this past year. No complaints from me.

 

[284winner]

I use a Bartlein 5r in 9 twist with a 1.25 od. It has brought me to high master at mid range f class this past year. No complaints from me.

Great to know. There at the top all over. I think it sounds like what I'm using soon.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Based on what? There are more variables then just the barrel. Bullets are a variable as well as powder, the overall load, how the shooter is cleaning the barrel and not to even mention cleaning damage done to the barrel, as well as the gunsmith doing the build/work and what reamer is being used etc...seen bushing drag marks on the lands or throats really rough etc...and they wonder why they don't shoot and the biggest variable is the guy behind the trigger. No barrel maker has control over it all. Usually the first thing that gets blamed is the barrel though! So go figure. A couple of years ago a benchrest shooter who supposedly was ranked 7th in the world that year called with a complaint that the barrel wouldn't shoot and that it only shot in the .2xx's. So he sent it in for us to look at. The barrel looked like a million bucks but there was a drag mark on the breech cone. Hmmm....bolt hitting the barrel? Guess what! Yep it was! Breech cone was given .005" clearance and the barrel dropped to mid .1xx's for group sizes. I've also seen barrels loose on rifles on the firing line and the shooter complains about the accuracy of the rifle. Yes loose to the point I could turn it with my hand! Of course it's the barrels fault though!

Also just recently a Swat Snipers brought his rifle in for us to look it over. Guess what. Putting the rifle away dirty etc...and the barrel is pitted. Lack of proper maintenance.

Take a look at a couple recent matches....Team Berger cleaned house at the F-Class Champs in the open class and all shot our sticks. Same with the FTR in the team matches. The top two or top three teams all shot our sticks if memory serves me correctly.

Also the Benchrest Nationals where just held like a week and a half ago in Phoenix. 7 out of the top 9 shooters all ran our sticks. Larry Costa won the whole thing. His grand agg. for the 4 gun was a .2111" for 200 rounds fired.

If our barrels where mediocre at best then why would the top shooters ank, be running them?

Later, Frank

Frank, your talking with Matt Klein. Maybe the best 1k BR shooter in the world with a 300 wsm. He can tune em and make em shoot. http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com...oots-2-815-record-at-1000-yards-with-300-wsm/ My advise would be to put barrels in somebody like this' hands and see what can be done to make them better.

 

[Keith Glasscock]

I've used Benchmark 3 and 5 groove barrels (32") on my 284. The first barrel, (3 groove 9 twist) got me to long range high master. The 5 groove 8.5 twist actually shoots just a touch better than the 3 did. I've gone from making HM to making it onto the top of the list with that barrel.

I have shot Krieger, Benchmark, Brux, and Bartlein. They all have shot excellent groups for me. Each one had its own personality. Knowing your barrel is half the battle.

 

[rpierce]

I use a ton of brux barrels. Customers and I have won a ton of championships and records with them. I primarily build long range hunting rifles for my customers but build a few fclass rifles for a select number of people. Every customer has sent me 1/4 moa and better groups in every rifle Ive built. The brux barrels also clean up quick and are an extremely straight barrel. Its hard to ask for much more in a hunting rifle. Ive also chambered Krieger's for a couple of my customers that work there. They shot lights out also with numerous national records, medals etc being won with them. The bartlein barrels Ive chambered have shot outstanding as well. They are a very straight barrel. I think its hard to go wrong with any of those 3 barrels. Ive chambered a few other brands but have been less than impressed with them so Brux, Krieger and Bartlein are the ones I stick with.

 

[Lbart]

I have shot out more barrels than I care to think about nor have my wife find out about in my 50+ years of competitive shooting. While doing so I have used K&P, Shilen, Broughton, Brux, Krieger and Bartlein. They all performed well for me but shortly after Bartlein opened its doors I tried one and have shot them since. I use the 5R groove type and I must say I have never had a better barrels. I have shot F-Open (hard on barrels) for 17 years and have placed pretty well in the various championships and set a few records and this would not have been possible without great barrels. Please keep in mind any barrel blank is only the beginning. It has to have the proper chambering work done and for that my choice is Kelbly’s. BTW, 284winner, I use 1.25” no taper barrels.