Opinions on Krieger vs Bartlein barrels

[Hoodoo]

I read that and it gave me a chuckle!

On a serious note....the rifling most likely wouldn't line up!!!

C'mon now Frank, if a guy can time flutes how hard would it be to time a couple lands together

 

[Laurie]

Yeah and you could have a 60-inch barrel too. Think of the MVs !!!

 

[SG4247]

I have 4 Bartleins and 4 Kriegers, 1 Brux and 1 Broughton.

I consider those above, all interchangeable.

All of my other barrel brands, are not in that category.

 

[Tim s]

Laurie, Lederer Barrels. His name is James Lederer. He use to work for Rock Creek and is on his own now but if I recall correctly he is using Rocks equipment. To my knowledge he is only making 6mm's and .30cal. barrels. Not sure what all groove styles and or twist. Maybe James will pop on here or someone else and update us with more info.

Later, Frank

Frank,
As to the 6’s, they’re 4 groovers, 13.5 twist,
We have a couple of them just starting out here, mixed in the the Bartlein, 13.5’s, gain twists, and Hart 5 R ‘s.
They’re finished quite nicely and shoot well.

 

[Ned Ludd]

I read that and it gave me a chuckle!

On a serious note....the rifling most likely wouldn't line up!!!

I can just see some poor schlepp trying this with a Krieger 4-groove at the breech end and a Bartlein 5R for the second half...you know - to be easy on those jackets in the second half of the barrel when they're moving right along. LOL

 

[FrankG]

I can just see some poor schlepp trying this with a Krieger 4-groove at the breech end and a Bartlein 5R for the second half...you know - to be easy on those jackets in the second half of the barrel when they're moving right along. LOL

Nedd, That is a good one! The scary part is your probably right!? Someone would probably try it!

On a serious note....even if both barrels where 4 groove, 5R etc...it really wouldn't work....what the bore size and groove size was rifled too as well as the groove width. As you sharpen the tool the groove width will change ever so slightly.

So trying to get them to match up wouldn't work well.

 

[Thud]

I had to get a new bag of popcorn for this thread

 

[CaptainMal]

Knowing both Krieger and Bartlein people are reading and responding does not intimidate me. I used Krieger mostly for years. Lots of them. Well a few years ago I noticed trouble getting some of my 6mm BR format rifles to shoot as well as I expected. Switched to Bartlein. Just bought two more and now that makes 6 Bartleins in a row. All are 7.5 twist 5 R's in 6mm. All have been satisfying to a degree that I have not axed any early.

 

[farmerjohn]

I am just damn glad that we have so much top quality manufacturing available to us. I remember back in the early 50'smy uncle sending his old Springfield off to PO Ackley to get the barrel"re-refreshened" along with his sizing die. Don't remember the size but he still used his old 06 brass ... now if a barrel opens up to 3/8" we pull them off and make PD barrels out of them...

 

[cinch29433]

Where is Geza Nagy when we need him...

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Bad barrels from the better makers are extremely rare. As in most will not get one in a life time let alone more than one.

 

[greisdor]

I seem t get all those exceptions - and never had a hummer from anyone.... crap.

 

[Evan]

I seem t get all those exceptions - and never had a hummer from anyone.... crap.

I think Alex might be insinuating that a lot of us aren't as good as we think at tuning and shooting , which is completely fair. I frequently feel like my skills are inadequate to the task of getting the best out of a barrel!

 

[D.Stone]

I know I have a Bartlein and a Kreiger for my Surgeon. I think that the 308 barrel is a Bartlein and the 6.5mm is a Kreiger...but I honestly do not know. I use both brands interchangeably.

My preference is for Bartlein, but that's more because I can randomly harass Frank G on this forum and get a response.

My gunsmith thinks that the Bartlein barrels he has gotten have ran just a little bit straighter than all of the rest, but that's based on a feeling and not real empirical data.

I'm sure you might be able to distinguish something if you had fantastic measuring equipment, and 100 barrels from each manufacturer...and even then the experiment is only accurate for that lot of barrels. I'm sure there are little things that can affect things like different lots of steel, the sharpness/hardness of the cutter, and just luck of the draw. Basically a bunch of little things that might mean this bucket of Kreigers runs .0001 more true than this other bucket of Bartleins.

My personal opinion is that the gunsmith that is cutting the chamber is more important than the barrel manufacturer. There are a lot more mediocre gunsmiths than there are mediocre barrel manufacturers.

 

[jepp2]

My personal opinion is that the gunsmith that is cutting the chamber is more important than the barrel manufacturer.

Well said!

Turns out I went with a Krieger this time. Mostly because I want a similar comparison between my two rifles. But I have already decided it will be a Bartlein going on next.

 

[FrankG]

Yeah and you could have a 60-inch barrel too. Think of the MVs !!!

Longest barrels we have done have been around 51” in calibers like .416 and .50cal.

Longest what I will call standard calibers we have done in like .30cal and .338 have been 41” blanks.

 

[Longrange57]

That's a loaded analogy. Bartlein sponsors prize tables. Many of the things changing on that site from year to year are heavily affected by sponsorship and fanboy dollars.

To the OP. As stated repeatedly above you are trying to pick from two of the best of the best for barrels. There is no wrong decision to he had with your two options.

This is a very good reply. Brux has not been mentioned and I currently have 2 that shoot great with over 2 thousand rds on each. We often forget that many choose based upon what may be available at the time. Bartlein and Kreiger are both phenomenal barrels....awesome service! Great folks to deal with!

 

[243Mendoza]

It's good to see that a major barrel maker monitors this site! We can get first hand info. Thanks, Frank.

 

[urbanrifleman]

I love my two Bartleins and my two Kreigers. All shoot INSANE good. My Rock Creeks are pretty awesome too!!!

I just got my first Brux and wow... That is a fine barrel too. Wow.

 

[Clark]

I use Krieger, Bartlein, Lilja, Benchmark, Shilen select match, PacNor super match, etc all interchangeably.