So the barrel folks said send it back, but your smith said that it is probably OK? Is this the same barrel that you had trouble with "McGowen" that you also posted?
It's not the same barrel, this one was made by preferred barrel blanks. I should have just gotten a tried and true brand. But I figured for a hunting rifle it wouldn't matter so much, and maybe it doesn't. I have only 20 down the tube to season it. I got 1.5" groups fireforming and shooting crap bullets. So it could possibly be a shooter, but I've never had a 5R barrel and none of my other rifles have the raised bosses down the lands. They may wear down over time, but could this have intermittent good and bad precision? That was my 1st question to PBB, but they instantly went to pointing fingers (this set me on edge and puts a bad taste in my mouth). Ultimately the quality control aspect of this falls squarely on PBB, I know my smith should have seen this, but he doesn't deal with low end barrels. I won't name him for obvious reasons. But he has built some winners.
I should have learned my lesson about buying from low end companies. I also know a blind hog will find an acorn now and then, so of course there are gonna be reviews of how great the low enders are. For a hunting rifle, I was willing to take the chance. I mean 1.5" ain't bad though, but I wanted assurance that as the barrel wears in it'll stay kinda consistent, this was my only concern, I expected PBB to be able to field that question with solid answers. But I guess not.
I also know that they offered a "solution" but I didn't originally contract them to build a rifle for me, nor did I order a pre-fit. So they should honor my original game plan of using an accomplished gun smith, not their in-house smiths (that built the sub par barrel to start with)
I'm no smith, but I have extensive NASCAR race engine building knowledge, along with centrifugal, reciprocal and screw compressor rebuilds. I'm also an HVAC engineer, so know when I see what's sub par, or could be sub par, although sometimes I reach out to the "experts" to figure out specific items such as this.