The barrel is one of the cheaper components

[SKWERLZ]

 

[Liven The Dream]

Don't forget the maintenance cost of said barrel during it's life.
Chemicals, (including beer during the cleanings) brushes, swabs,
patch's. and the like......It's only money.

Plus on a good Day a$10=$18 Cigar...........

 

[Rob01]

Now days what’s the average price of having custom competition rifle built?

Now you can put it together yourself. Cost will depend on what you want to spend. As an example:

Zermatt Origin $900
Prefit barrel from PVA $750
Timney Hit trigger $200
Manners TCS stock $1450

Tools to put it together at home:
Action wrench $90
Barrel vise $70

You can buy used and save some on that too.

 

[LHSmith]

Lapua even quit making .220 Russian leaving those who formed their own cartridges SOL

Still listed on Lapua website. Vendors like Grafs have it in stock. Did I miss the memo?

 

[Charlie-NY]

Bart Carbon bbl $850
Gunsmith work $450
Shipping back & forth $200

Grand total for my new barrel $1,500 - that isn't just chicken scratch

 

[Rob01]

Who’s winning with a prefit barrel ?

What are you wanting to win? Lots of PRS winners use prefits. Unless you are shooting top of the BR game I bet you would be pretty surprised how accurate prefits can be now.

 

[SKWERLZ]

Plus on a good Day a$10=$18 Cigar...........

 

[urbanrifleman]

Who’s winning with a prefit barrel ?

People have been using prefit barrels from Kelbly for decades. I bet they have won some stuff.

None of the actions that are "winning" require fitting. The "winning" actions are built to print.

 

[urbanrifleman]

I’ve used a prefit on a Savage that shot fairly well but the question was ~ winning with a prefit barrel ?

If you can your gunsmith and he makes you a barrel from the print of the action, that's a prefit. Modern custom actions require no real hand fitting.

You could also send a barrel to a gunsmith and have them copy a barrel. That's a prefit.

Same thing.

There are also nut barrels. Which were always called Prefits. But now shouldered barrels are "Prefits".

 

[urbanrifleman]

Can you name one top Br shooter that’s using a prefit off the shelf barrel that’s winning or consistently placing in the top ten ?

Just curious..

I don't follow BR. I did have a guy placed 3rd in heavy gun in Washington state at the Br nationals in November using my nut barrel.

"Off the shelf". No idea what that means. Seems like a silly term to me. All barrels are made to order by someone.

Somehow the old "who's winning with that" argument pops up like a rabid gopher. Every time.

About 2 percent of the target shooting community competes. Probably 1 percent of those compete above club level.

 

[Bottom Fodder]

Now you can put it together yourself. Cost will depend on what you want to spend. As an example:

Zermatt Origin $900
Prefit barrel from PVA $750
Timney Hit trigger $200
Manners TCS stock $1450

Tools to put it together at home:
Action wrench $90
Barrel vise $70

You can buy used and save some on that too.

Yep l do all of mine for a lot less than that, don’t need all the bells and whistles lol

 

[Rob01]

I’ve used a prefit on a Savage that shot fairly well but the question was ~ winning with a prefit barrel ?

And I told you plenty of guys win PRS matches with prefits. Lots of guys shooting use prefits because it’s a lot easier than sending off your action and waiting a year for the smith to do the same thing as he won’t be doing anything to the action and just cutting the barrel like a prefit and installing it. Prefits have come a long way over the years.

 

[Idaho-Lefty]

Who’s winning with a prefit barrel ?

The SAGE Rats and PD's,.. ARE,. LOSING !
As group's in the .2's and .3's ( way, Way under, 1/2 MOA ) Gets it,.. DONE for,.. Me.
My CRITERION 6 XC Barrel, on a SS Short, Rem 700 L-H action,.. shoots, pretty Small and when, my .22-250 Rem 700 L-H, goes "South",.. I'll Buy another, Pre-Fit Barrel for, it and make it,.. a RemAge, too !
My $1,000 to $2700. Rifles,.. ARE "Plenty" for,.. Varmints, Steel Targets, and All-Around, fairly Accurate,.. FUN !
BR Competition ( And $15,000. Rifles ) hold, NO interest for,.. Me !
I'll Take, the $12,000 Savings and buy Me,.. a New, Fishing Boat

 

[urbanrifleman]

@urbanrifleman
Ah’ synonym’s.. yes we can have a gunsmith follow a Bat action diagram to cut a tenon and thread pitch but that’s not what I’m asking.
You mentioned using a prefit to save cost, who’s using you’re $470 prefit and winning long range or short range competition.

Jim

I use diagrams to make prefits that I sell using my blanks. I could do that using any barrel blank.

Still a prefit. Same as everyone else. I just got started making shouldered Prefits. So, let's give it some time.

This nationals win by a customer was a nut barrel of mine. I already mentioned it before. It was $319.

 

[Rob01]

PRS accuracy requirements aren’t quite the same as BR.
A hit is a hit and no one is measuring group size with calipers for aggregates.

Jim

Obviously you just want to argue so have at it. lol You won’t know until you try one and a Savage nut prefit is not it.

Guys shooting PRS have very accurate rifles because they aren’t shooting off a bench or prone but off props so yeah the rifles are very accurate but maybe not top shooter in BR accurate but 1/3 moa to 1000+ is not bad. Better than most need. Guys do shoot their rifles for accuracy before matches so you know. It’s not all hitting steel.

 

[urbanrifleman]

Obviously you just want to argue so have at it. lol You won’t know until you try one and a Savage nut prefit is not it.

Guys shooting PRS have very accurate rifles because they aren’t shooting off a bench or prone but off props so yeah the rifles are very accurate but maybe not top shooter in BR accurate but 1/3 moa to 1000+ is not bad. Better than most need. Guys do shoot their rifles for accuracy before matches so you know. It’s not all hitting steel.

There are people that post here that think Accurate Shooter Forum is Benchrest Central. They argue every point based on anything that is not embraced by their tiny group is illegitimate in shooting sports.

 

[FrankG]

Well this is probably going to really stir the pot but I keep reading posts that you cant use this cartridge because its hard on barrels you can only use these. Smith's cost too much and barrels are too expensive.

Yes I understand it is not just about barrel price there is some inconvenience in bringing your rifle to a smith but I decided to do some math and I think some will be very surprised.

To keep things equal we are going to use todays pricing.

High end match grade barrel thats chambered and installed we will say $900.

Now we are going to pick on the 284 win since lots use it.

55gr of powder at todays $75 a pound. We will round it up to 59 cents per shot. I am being nice if I used R-26 price per pound it would be 4 to 5 times that per shot.

180 Berger Hybrid we will say 80 bucks a 100 with tax and shipping. That 80 cents a bullet.

Federal 210 match primer we will say $120 per 1000 so thats 12 cents a piece.

I am going to be nice and not even include the price of brass. Most guys I know that shoot comp have a minimum of 500 cases per rifle.

Now if my math is right one round without the cost of brass is 1.51 per shot.

Guys say they get 2800 rounds down the 284 win before the barrel is toast so we will go with that.

Thats $4,228 dollars without the cost of brass.

Dont worry I wont tell your wives but I think we can agree the cost of a chambered barrel should not cause the heart failure it does after seeing that price breakdown.

I made a post about something this not to long ago... Here is what I posted in another thread.....

So this is a good one... Just recently got an accuracy test barrel back from a ammo maker. 308win is the caliber. When ever they retire one of our barrels as they typically go a long time barrel life wise. They will ask if I want it back and usually I say yes.... anyways I get it back and we look at it.

So the accuracy test barrel I got back was officially retired when it hit 27,160 rounds fired thru it. That's not a typo! Not 2k rounds but yest 27k rounds fired thru it!

The barrel was testing five different types of ammo/bullets. Barrel is a 1-12 twist 308win.

At 26,550 rounds the barrel was still shooting groups at from .4 to .5moa at 200 yards and it was getting a 150 rounds a day fired thru it. 10 shot groups by the way.

So while we where looking at it the thought went into our heads. How much powder got burned thru this barrel?

It got roughly a 154# of powder fired thru the barrel.

At a cost of lets say current retail of $70 per pound of powder... that equals $10,800!

27+ boxes of 1k count primers at $85 per 1k that equals $2,295!

270 boxes of bullets (100 count boxes) at a rough retail price of $50 per box that equals $13,500 in bullets!

That total dollar wise comes to $26,959 if you had brass to start with and used your reloaded brass every single time.

If you had to buy brass and only shoot the brass one time.... that would be about $16,740 for brass. That would give you a grand total of $43,335!

Just food for thought.

Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels

 

[Rob01]

I asked who is winning with a prefit barrel and you couldn’t answer that question. That’s not arguing..

Bradly had one guy out of 36 competitiors that placed third. Ok great..

Because I don’t shoot BR! To me it’s boring as hell. lol So do you win BR matches?

 

[SKWERLZ]

Because I don’t shoot BR! To me it’s boring as hell. lol So do you win BR matches?

Good question

 

[Kevin1990]

I don't think your math is mathing. I mean for that cartridge sure, but for things like a 6br, 6BRA, 22br 6ppc, 22ppc, absolutely not. Let's say you retire it at 2000-2500 rounds, which is extremely generous for a few listed.

Action: Idk $900-2300 or more depening?
Brass 200 pieces $260+ or -
Primers .10 a piece
Powder: 16 pounds N140
Ammerman bullets: (custom route) 103s $1000

Barrel you're looking at $400-450 plus shipping let's say $30-40 a trip, then chambering at $400, and another trip. Possibly around $860+. On a single "consumable"

I'm not a competition shooter, but that's not peanuts to me, that's a lot of money. If you're already tooled up to chamber barrels then its a different story.