Adams & Bennett barrel ?

[TRECustom]

Have a chance to pick up a varmint weight, 24' crowned, large ring Mauser threaded, short-chambered Adams & Bennett barrel, still in the original box.

Called Adams & Bennett, but they didn't know anything about this barrel, and said they only make 10-22 barrels.

I've got time to decide to get it or not, so would like to know more about it.
does anybody know if they are a quality barrel, cut or button rifled, etc?

Thanks, Tom

 

[orwapitihunter]

A&B barrels are a mid to lower end replacement barrel. Accuracy levels vary with .5' to 1.5' being the normal range. Go to MidwayUSA.com and do a search on these barrels and read the customer reviews.

 

[Spook]

Tom, I've had a few of these that were quite accurate but all gathered copper like a wino needing a bottle.

 

[Preacher]

$40.00 is about all they are worth these days...
They may make into a deer rifle if you don't plan on shooting much over 50 yards

 

[TRECustom]

Thanks to all for their replies. I had no idea that E.R. Shaw was making these barrels. This one is in a A & B box with part #, etc. A & B is an old company. Did Shaw buy them out? Looked on Shaw's website, and couldn't find this barrel. I knew that they weren't premium barrels, but I didn't make the connection to A & B. I didn't have anything in mind for this barrel, but out of curiosity, I may call Shaw just to see what the deal is.

Also looked on Midway. They had 3 A & B blanks. $79.99 ea, I think. That is cheap.

Thanks again to everyone for the info.

Tom

 

[btrapr]

I have built a few A/B barreled guns on Mausers and for the $$$ they shot great! NOW they are in no way a premium quality/benchrest barrel but I would not expect that at the A/B prices...

1st one BRNO 6.5mm F34 taper chambered in 6.5x55___Bold adjustible trigger, bedded and handloads would consistently go around 3/4'...

2nd one a 6.5mm F34 chambered in 6.5-06___Remington 700 bedded in a factory black Rem stock. Running a 130 Accubond at 2930fps and this gun again is a 3/4' group gun....

***For hunting rifles at reasonable ranges I would take a 3/4 MOA gun any day! THESE barrels do COPPER like crazy...I tried Tubb final finish in the 6.5-06 and could definately tell a difference in the way the patches slide down the tube! Still getting Copper though...some more rounds down the tube and it sould settle down____I have talked to other guys that said after about 150-200 rounds they smooth out...

For a range gun, blow-out barrel, and general hunting rifle these are hard to beat______especially if you use them with a lesser expensive Mauser receiver_____
***One trick especially on a cheaper barrel that COPPERS____One size down copper brush wrapped with 0000 steel wool___little solvent and smear it with FLITZ! IT will polish the copper away____

 

[Ackman]

Thanks to all for their replies. I had no idea that E.R. Shaw was making these barrels. This one is in a A & B box with part #, etc. A & B is an old company. Did Shaw buy them out? Looked on Shaw's website, and couldn't find this barrel. I knew that they weren't premium barrels, but I didn't make the connection to A & B. I didn't have anything in mind for this barrel, but out of curiosity, I may call Shaw just to see what the deal is.

Also looked on Midway. They had 3 A & B blanks. $79.99 ea, I think. That is cheap.

Thanks again to everyone for the info.

Tom

A&B isn't an old company. It's not really a company at all. Midway has a machine shop and gets barrel blanks, then threads/chambers them. The name Adams&Bennett is for marketing, like Sears and Kenmore.

My A&B barrel was bought in '99 as an experiment to see if they were any good. That barrel and a Schneider,both 14' twist) were chambered at the same time for .223AI. The Schneider is very accurate with good velocity, the A&B never printed anything better than about 5/8' and was pretty much 3/4'-7/8' after it got warm. Maybe that's acceptable for deer-size game or larger, but it's too crappy for a varmint gun. Shooting the exact same 40gr. load, the A&B is 200fps slower than the Schneider. The Schneider doesn't foul, the A&B fouls about like a factory barrel. That thing now sits on a shelf. I knew of a couple other A&B barrels at the time that never would shoot worth a crap either.

An industry person who's in a position to know told me back then that A&B barrels came from several different makers. My own barrel is very slow and I haven't measured, but think the bore is probably oversize. My guess is the blank was a second? How else could they sell a threaded-chambered-fluted barrel for $90 unless they got it real cheap? Now they're using Shaw blanks which is still low budget and I wouldn't buy one.

Some people have said A&B barrels are ok, others say they're junk. Guess it depends on your criteria and whether you happen to win the crapshoot. Consider that a good blank costs 2-3X what an A&B finished barrel costs. Quality costs but cheap is just cheap.

 

[Clark]

I put put two A&B barrels on 2001, a a bull barrel 243 and a medium taper fluted stainless 308.

a) The 243 would shoot 1 moa for one group and then foul to 3 moa. A couple days of cleaning would get it out.
b) The 308 is much better, but starts out at 3moa.

----------------------------

More A&B barrels were lying around for 7 years so....

I put two A&B barrels on in 2008, a bull barrel 243 and a skinny taper stainless 243.

c) The skinny barrel is 3 moa. This was built for a daughter of a friend of a pen pal.
d) The bull barrel is 1 moa 5 shots at 100 yards with 65 gr Vmax moly.

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Some of these guns may find a use, but if I had life to do over, I would never touch an A&B barrel.