Krieger or Bartlein best barrel

[johara1]

It's very easy to see if they are crooked, ask Tim or Stan at Douglas……. jim

 

[JRS]

Well…… if they are "banana" shaped, it wouldn't take much of an eye to see it ;D

 

[Trapper243]

Savage actually uses a straightener on their barrels and a guy eyeballs them as he bends them. Saw it on a TV show featuring the Savage factory.

 

[dkhunt14]

I would think it wouldn't matter if they straighten or not. If they don't stress relieve they will walk when heating up. Matt

 

[Erik Cortina]

It makes me LOL everytime I read about "indexing" the barrel to point up. The top gunsmiths do not index barrels because their chambering methods do no require it.

I saw a "precision" video with Gordy Gritters and he talks about indexing the barrel up. He spend the entire video talking about how the bore does not match the OD of the barrel, but when he indexed the barrel he put an indicator on the outside of the barrel! Then he marked the barrel at the muzzle with a sharpie and transferred the mark to the chuck by eyeballing it. He then eyeballed the action timing to the 3/16" thick sharpie line on his chuck! It turned into a comedy video real quick for me!

So, if your gunsmith is talking about "indexing" the barrel, I suggest you find another smith. My $.02

 

[Shynloco]

Savage actually uses a straightener on their barrels and a guy eyeballs them as he bends them. Saw it on a TV show featuring the Savage factory.

Trapper, I'm not disagreeing with what you saw, but if that's the method Savage uses to "straighten" their barrels, sure doesn't sound very scientific to me and really isn't encouraging to buy their products. I just hope they make sure that guy "eyeballi"n the barrels hasn't had any Jim Beam lately.

Alex

 

[hogpatrol]

I have my hunting gun barrels indexed to the left and when I set up for long range stuff, I always try and get the wind blowing left to right. Saves a lot of figuring on the windage adjustment and I can usually hit 'em within 6" of where I aim. The gain twist helps too.

 

[Ross308]

I've heard nothing but good reports on the barrels being discussed here. Both are good buys. That being said, I'd would like to hear some input from some experienced gunsmiths out there on this indexing myth. I've read about this problem off and on for a long time and more or less believed it. I know that stress and heat can make steel act in strange ways but having worked in steel fab. for a lot of years I can't see where shaping a barrel on a lathe would add
stress.
But if it does I definitely want it indexed. Nice article. Thanks.

 

[dkhunt14]

I think if you induce stress you need to remove it or the barrel m oves when heating up and you can't score good at long range. Krieger has put freezing in house now from what I heard. Matt

 

[Hoier]

Now don't bust my balls to bad guys but my experience is go Bartlein. My first custom bench gun had a Kreiger in 6dasher and I put 1500 rounds through it and never could get it to quit throwing fliers. I shot almost a whole year at 1k and only had 1 group under 10". Then I scrapped the barrel and went to a straight 6br and a Bartlein, thats when life got fun. At our money shoot I won light gun score and set a score record for our range and also took light gun overall. So I say go Bartlein and don't look back. I won't buy a Kreiger again, I will be buying Brux and Bartlein.

 

[Erik Cortina]

Now don't bust my balls to bad guys but my experience is go Bartlein. My first custom bench gun had a Kreiger in 6dasher and I put 1500 rounds through it and never could get it to quit throwing fliers. I shot almost a whole year at 1k and only had 1 group under 10". Then I scrapped the barrel and went to a straight 6br and a Bartlein, thats when life got fun. At our money shoot I won light gun score and set a score record for our range and also took light gun overall. So I say go Bartlein and don't look back. I won't buy a Kreiger again, I will be buying Brux and Bartlein.

I bet you will eventually run across a bad Bartlein or Brux, what will you buy after that?

My point is that maybe it was an isolated incident. My best barrels to date have been Brux and Krieger, but I would take any of the three.

 

[Hoier]

I might go back to Kreiger after the other ones send me a bad one. After getting a bad one why would I wanna chance 600-700 bucks for something I've already had a bad experience with?

 

[Erik Cortina]

I might go back to Kreiger after the other ones send me a bad one. After getting a bad one why would I wanna chance 600-700 bucks for something I've already had a bad experience with?

I understand. One question, $600-$700? Are you getting your barrels gold plated? ;D

 

[Hoier]

300ish for the barrel and my smith gets $350.

 

[BradY]

Its $700+ and still rising for a quality barrel in Aus, then add the $300 to the smith. Getting bad barrels isnt nice, to shoot or for the hip pocket.

 

[MDM]

Indexing, or timing the curve of the bore, as I would call it, does nothing to improve on accuracy. All it does is center the bore up so you can get the most adjustment out of your optic, or not have to use excessive amounts of windage to get a 100yd zero. All bores have some degree of curve to the bore. From what I've seen, anywhere from .015 to .030 on average total indicated runout. Last one I put together was a 28" Bartlein and it had .028 tir the length of the bore. This is roughly 4 moa of adjustment in your optic at 100 yds. Time it to 12 oclock to get the most out of your adjustment range. Time it to 9 oclock and you will have to use up some of your windage adjustment to get zeroed at 100. Its good practice to at least time the curve to 12 or 6 oclock, but does nothing to make the rifle shoot more accurately. IMHO of course.

Case in point...Bartlien 264 cal dialed in to..yes, I'll say it .0000" on the chamber end...
YouTube

The same barrel on the muzzle end...
YouTube

It had about .028 tir, and I wouldn't change a thing - the barrel is an absolute hammer.

 

[nashlaw]

I have had excellent results with Krieger, Shilen and also have several Douglas barrels that were spun on by ITD that are .50-.75 moa. Matter of fact, I am waiting impatiently on a 6.5x55 from ITD as I type.

Having said that, Bartlein has become my favorite maker for full custom builds. Beautiful finish and consistent shooters. Ordered a barrel and they acted like I was the only customer they would ever have. Very nice folks.

As said before, it probably means more who does the smith in than the barrel maker.

 

[Keith Glasscock]

I've had only one Krieger. It is a 5R 30 cal that is on my F/TR rifle. It hasn't been without its challenges, It coppered for the first 1200 rounds, but just plain hammered. It now has something north of 1600 and no more copper - still hammers too.

For my Open rifles, I'm sticking with Benchmark for the time being - they are in my backyard, and do great barrel fitting work. Oops, never mind the last comment

 

[Down South]

Indexing, or timing the curve of the bore, as I would call it, does nothing to improve on accuracy. All it does is center the bore up so you can get the most adjustment out of your optic, or not have to use excessive amounts of windage to get a 100yd zero. All bores have some degree of curve to the bore. From what I've seen, anywhere from .015 to .030 on average total indicated runout. Last one I put together was a 28" Bartlein and it had .028 tir the length of the bore. This is roughly 4 moa of adjustment in your optic at 100 yds. Time it to 12 oclock to get the most out of your adjustment range. Time it to 9 oclock and you will have to use up some of your windage adjustment to get zeroed at 100. Its good practice to at least time the curve to 12 or 6 oclock, but does nothing to make the rifle shoot more accurately. IMHO of course.

Case in point...Bartlien 264 cal dialed in to..yes, I'll say it .0000" on the chamber end...
YouTube

The same barrel on the muzzle end...
YouTube

It had about .028 tir, and I wouldn't change a thing - the barrel is an absolute hammer.

Buddy of mine that chambers barrels was telling me that when he chambered his first barrel he checked it and it had .014 tir and he called the barrel maker to talk about it, they told him if thats all the runout he had (.014) he had a good one............ ;D............His gun was a hammer.

 

[Coolhand]

Savage actually uses a straightener on their barrels and a guy eyeballs them as he bends them. Saw it on a TV show featuring the Savage factory.

Trapper, I'm not disagreeing with what you saw, but if that's the method Savage uses to "straighten" their barrels, sure doesn't sound very scientific to me and really isn't encouraging to buy their products. I just hope they make sure that guy "eyeballi"n the barrels hasn't had any Jim Beam lately.

Alex

Back when SAKO made steel rifles such as the L61R Finnbear , Sako barrels were straightened by hand , there was an article in Guns and Ammo from the late'60's early '70's as I recall but it may have been another publication , pictured was one of Sakos highly skilled barrel straightening guys , the barrel is inserted into a pair of split bushes that grip the barrel, which is then fitted into an immense hand operated press , the guy looks through the bore and rotates/manipulates the barrel and applies pressure to the bias via a massive hand wheel a lick at at time until he is satisfied. Back in the day Sako made the claim that they produced the most accurate factory rifles. Having owned a number of them from .25/06 .270 30/06 & .375 H&H and will attest to their claim.
1974 I bought a L61R 7 X 64mm , quite the finest off the rack rifle I have ever owned with a factory barrel and the most accurate.

regards
Mike