Shilen Shop Tour
Wade Hull, the president of Shilen Rifle Barrels, invited me to visit the Shilen shop for a tour. Took him up on his invitation this evening. The Shilen shop is in Ennis, less than forty miles south of Dallas.
Spent a little over three hours with Wade Hull. Hull walked me through every step from raw material receiving to finished barrel. Spent time at every machine discussing its advantages and issues.
Wade Hull started working at Shilen when he was 14 years old sweeping floors. Hull is in his mid-30s now. Wade Hull has done every job in barrel making from unloading incoming steel to setup and operation of every machine in the shop. And not just once as a demonstration. Wade did make time to go to college and become a computer tech guy.
Wade Hull's father Bill Hull, a serious benchrest shooter, has worked at Shilen since the mid-1980s doing every job there is and has been running the barrel department for the last 14 years. During those years he made a lot of championship and record breaking barrels.
Wade Hull and his wife J bought into the company and joined Mikel Shilen,Ed’s daughter) after Doug Shilen,Ed’s son) decided to retire from the industry.
Hull is very knowledgeable about the other barrel makers in the industry and has high praise for them. I learned a lot about the entire barrel making industry this evening.
Since Ed Shilen first designed and built the only rifling machine the Shilen company has ever had, the rifling machine at Shilen may have produced more national championship and world record setting barrels than any other competitor’s individual rifling machines.
Shilen is very well known in competition barrels as well as in hunting barrels.
An interesting recent offering is making prefit aftermarket barrels for Savage rifles. It is becoming an important part of the Shilen business and one that Wade Hull is proud of and intends to continue pursuing.
When Shilen first entered the Savage prefit business the actual demand was three times greater than they had anticipated. As sometimes happens when a manufacturer is unexpectedly overwhelmed, a few of these barrels got out that shouldn't have. Hull is very sorry that happened and appreciates the tolerance and patience shown him by the Savage shooters who were involved. Shilen is working diligently to make sure mistakes like those don’t happen again.
Last year MidwayUSA and Shilen invited Savage shooters on the internet to recommend a line of prefit Savage barrels that MidwayUSA would keep in inventory. Those suggestions have done well. The first shipment to MidwayUSA sold out in 21 hours. And the rate has not let up. Not a single chambering or other spec suggested has been dropped. So what was perhaps the first stab in the gun industry at customer recommendations internet surveying did OK commercially.
Now if ya'll had just recommended the 219 Donaldson Wasp with a 13-inch-counterclockwise-twist in a 32-inch-long scalloped-octagon barrel as an off-the-shelf inventory item...
Given the current growing rate of orders, the business looks good for the future.
.
Wade Hull, the president of Shilen Rifle Barrels, invited me to visit the Shilen shop for a tour. Took him up on his invitation this evening. The Shilen shop is in Ennis, less than forty miles south of Dallas.
Spent a little over three hours with Wade Hull. Hull walked me through every step from raw material receiving to finished barrel. Spent time at every machine discussing its advantages and issues.
Wade Hull started working at Shilen when he was 14 years old sweeping floors. Hull is in his mid-30s now. Wade Hull has done every job in barrel making from unloading incoming steel to setup and operation of every machine in the shop. And not just once as a demonstration. Wade did make time to go to college and become a computer tech guy.
Wade Hull's father Bill Hull, a serious benchrest shooter, has worked at Shilen since the mid-1980s doing every job there is and has been running the barrel department for the last 14 years. During those years he made a lot of championship and record breaking barrels.
Wade Hull and his wife J bought into the company and joined Mikel Shilen,Ed’s daughter) after Doug Shilen,Ed’s son) decided to retire from the industry.
Hull is very knowledgeable about the other barrel makers in the industry and has high praise for them. I learned a lot about the entire barrel making industry this evening.
Since Ed Shilen first designed and built the only rifling machine the Shilen company has ever had, the rifling machine at Shilen may have produced more national championship and world record setting barrels than any other competitor’s individual rifling machines.
Shilen is very well known in competition barrels as well as in hunting barrels.
An interesting recent offering is making prefit aftermarket barrels for Savage rifles. It is becoming an important part of the Shilen business and one that Wade Hull is proud of and intends to continue pursuing.
When Shilen first entered the Savage prefit business the actual demand was three times greater than they had anticipated. As sometimes happens when a manufacturer is unexpectedly overwhelmed, a few of these barrels got out that shouldn't have. Hull is very sorry that happened and appreciates the tolerance and patience shown him by the Savage shooters who were involved. Shilen is working diligently to make sure mistakes like those don’t happen again.
Last year MidwayUSA and Shilen invited Savage shooters on the internet to recommend a line of prefit Savage barrels that MidwayUSA would keep in inventory. Those suggestions have done well. The first shipment to MidwayUSA sold out in 21 hours. And the rate has not let up. Not a single chambering or other spec suggested has been dropped. So what was perhaps the first stab in the gun industry at customer recommendations internet surveying did OK commercially.
Now if ya'll had just recommended the 219 Donaldson Wasp with a 13-inch-counterclockwise-twist in a 32-inch-long scalloped-octagon barrel as an off-the-shelf inventory item...
Given the current growing rate of orders, the business looks good for the future.
.
