The barrel is one of the cheaper components

[AlNyhus]

With the glut of inexpensive barrels that have been out there a while now, it's interesting that barrel life is being discussed more and more.

Good shootin' -Al

 

[Bottom Fodder]

Remember no matter if you take $20,000 or $3000 to the line you can still blame it on the wind and mirage

 

[wildcat3d]

Its not just the price of the barrel. Its the time and annoyance of starting over with load development and gathering data.

I find that to be fun and a challenge, 6ppc my hot rod...

 

[wildcat3d]

$5,000. to, $6,000. should get you into, a local, "Club Shoot", Winning Rifle ( Scope & Mounts included ).
National's,.. ???
$9 / $10K and,.. Up ! Un-Less Your, the Gun Smith doing, Most of, the "Work",.. Pro-Bono !
Have any of you Priced Out, a March or Night Force, etc.,.. Bench Rest Quality,.. Scope ??

March 48x HM about 2,000

 

[dakor]

I haven’t paid more than 55 and average $40 for powder. Are you shooting Alliant or what? I’m just trying to help.

I guess you did say “popular” and not “good.”

When you shoot r-26, H-1000, Retumbo, H-4895, and H-4350 you are going to pay for it.

 

[jackieschmidt]

After watching a series about car collecting and concourse shows, I've decided shooting is very cheap and I can't afford the cars! I do like the look of those V8 muscle cars though.

I have had my ‘67 Malibu since 1992. The picture in my Avatar is the engine.
I half jokingly yell people that I am on a quest to spend $400,000 to have a $40,000 car

 

[searcher]

So just that we are clear, a "prefit" being a prefit (a shouldered prefit) has nothing to do with the blank that you use.

Many, if not all of the top gunsmiths make shouldered barrels without the action present. This is for custom actions that don't require fitting.

That's would be exactly the same as a "prefit". Meaning that there's no fitting required because the action is built to such a tight tolerance that it doesn't require fitting. That's where the name came from. I remember a time on this very forum where people would brag that their actions didn't require fitting they could just call their gunsmith and make them a barrel or they could call Kelbly and order barrels that just screwed on and fitted and that was a point of superiority. Now somewhere along the line pre-fit has become something that people now say is not a good thing? I get confused.

I think that is because when only Kelbly, Bat and a few other manufacturers had receivers that were consistent enough to be able to shoulder and thread by specs, the barrels being made for their rifles as "pre-fit" were also being made more by folks specializing in those particular rifles for benchrest purposes. Over the past five to ten years or so, the number of receivers made by new entrants has multiplied seemingly tenfold - as has the number of "pre-fits" to attach to them. I doubt many top shooters would argue against it being better to have a good gunsmith have the action in hand, regardless of who makes it for the BEST fit. Not all of these new receiver makers have the quality control required to have a pre-fit made by anybody fit really good EVERY time, and the same goes for a fair number of those making the pre-fits - thus there are those disenchanted buyers. Makes sense to me. That is not to say some of them won't fit like a glove and do as they were intended. I think, for some disciplines, pre-fits make sense more than other disciplines and for some budgets, pre-fits make sense. After all - for some, the lower cost of pre-fits allows them to shoot in a sport where not having lower cost alternatives might otherwise preclude them from the sport. I only own one barrel that was made for another BAT action (bought on this forum from another member here) of the same model as mine. I bought it lightly used for a fireforming barrel, screwed it on my rifle and it was an extremely accurate barrel. So that could be called a "pre-fit" of sorts. That the barrel (Bartlein) was chambered by one of the best benchrest gunsmiths for a BAT, I tend to think of that as the best of "three worlds" - a quality barrel, top notch gunsmith and made for a receiver known to have tight quality control. In defense of you, not all of your competitors make good pre-fits as I have shot (benchrest) against many guys who used them who I believed were just as good of shots and had the reloading skills - but I'm confident the barrels just weren't up to it - even though some were made by some respectable names for their barrels alone. If they had been shooting my barrels, I'm pretty certain their successes would have increased dramatically. If I were a top ranked shooter, I can't imagine opting for a pre-fit unless I knew the gunsmith and his experience pre-fitting for my action - and assuming I had a good action to start with. There are companies on this forum I'd not hesitate to buy from - but I'd still feel better if they had my action in hand, no matter the make. If I were looking for 1/3 to 1/2 MOA, I wouldn't need to go further than a pre-fit with a quality company. But just 1/8" MOA difference can keep one way down on the leader board in benchrest. And that is why there are such differences of opinion here. Different needs and expectations.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

Yes travel expenses are huge.

On the other hand if you’re that serious you probably dont shoot up every barrel. You’d buy 4 or six at a time and only shoot half of them in competition with the other half being tomato stakes. So that could effectively double the barrel cost per shot (in competition) and we hadn’t accounted for that yet.

That really doesnt happen in long range. I dont have anyone that does that. Not to say some are not better than others. But most are good enough to compete.

 

[justinp61]

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 just reread the first post of this thread and didn’t see anything about BR shooters or BR shooting mentioned. In fact I didn’t see any discipline mentioned, so how did this come to be about BR shooting?

 

[jackieschmidt]

I just reread the first post of this thread and didn’t see anything about BR shooters or BR shooting mentioned. In fact I didn’t see any discipline mentioned, so how did this come to be about BR shooting?

Benchrest Shooters, whether Long Range or Short Range, ( of which I am one), tend to judge the entire shooting world by the requirements of what we do in order to be competitive in Matches. When, in truth, many of the things that we are so darned anal about are non issues in majority of shooting Disciplines.

 

[Texas Solo]

Even though gas prices are better now than they were, fuel to and from the range remains a big part of the expense.

Agreed. I spend $15 in fuel per range trip.

 

[justinp61]

Benchrest Shooters, whether Long Range or Short Range, ( of which I am one), tend to judge the entire shooting world by the requirements of what we do in order to be competitive in Matches. When, in truth, many of the things that we are so darned anal about are non issues in majority of shooting Disciplines.

Perception meets reality. Most of us aren’t BR shooters, I’m not anyway, but I grin like a mule eating saw briars everytime one of my Shilen barreled Savages shoots a 3/8” group or kills a groundhog at 500 yards.

 

[wright brothers]

Where are these cheap barrels?
Whole load of em in the back of that cheap pick-up.
But the location is a secret.

 

[Rob01]

The OP mentions high grade match barrels’ then in post #49 Robo turned it towards BR, after I simply asked about prefits in post #47 ( prefits meaning entry level blanks chambered by unknown smiths with whatever reamers )

Jim

Yeah it’s my fault. lol I was giving info and you were the one who had to have a list of BR winners. You started the BR BS. I don’t care about BR just like most all of the shooting sports as it’s a boring sport and getting smaller every year. Look how many times you asked me and others about who is winning BR matches. That BR is all you.

 

[Jayplace]

The OP mentions high grade match barrels’ then in post #49 Robo turned it towards BR, after I simply asked about prefits in post #47 ( prefits meaning entry level blanks chambered by unknown smiths with whatever reamers )

Jim

I would guess the reason BR was brought up, would be, High Grade Match Barrels was used as a reference. When comparing equipment there needs to be a reference point and BenchRest is the most logical place to start. It seems logical that Benchrest shooters use all the tricks in the book to eliminate variables. Only then can barrels be reasonably compared with many other barrels. The original question was about high grade match barrels.

Anything other than shooting off of a rest and the use of wind flags, and using the best benchrest guns will provide repeatable results to compare with. Ok, maybe using a rail gun or a test bed would work, but you'll never see a comparison of many barrel /or guns.

Even though people may not have a desire to get involved in Benchrest competition, that is where a lot of the best and repeatable information starts for many other forms of accurate shooting.

 

[Tangent]

I have had my ‘67 Malibu since 1992. The picture in my Avatar is the engine.
I half jokingly yell people that I am on a quest to spend $400,000 to have a $40,000 car

Ah a Chevy man, nice car with a proper engine. I think I'm probably a Ford fan, love a Mustang GT500 or Boss 429 but might need a lottery win for those! The cars of that era had some real character.

 

[X Count]

And cheap barrels end up being expensive. More trips to the range and components trying to get them to shoot. Just get them to shoot "ok" and waste a year of events not winning until it wears out

 

[justinp61]

And cheap barrels end up being expensive. More trips to the range and components trying to get them to shoot. Just get them to shoot "ok" and waste a year of events not winning until it wears out

Please define “ok” and what discipline it’s “ok” for. IMHO, if I were shooting for money I wouldn’t buy a cheap barrel. Cheap is relative though, it’s not the same for a guy making 300k$ a year as it is for a guy making 50k$ a year. If the gun/barrel isn’t competitive why keep throwing components at it until it’s worn out?

 

[X Count]

Please define “ok” and what discipline it’s “ok” for. IMHO, if I were shooting for money I wouldn’t buy a cheap barrel. Cheap is relative though, it’s not the same for a guy making 300k$ a year as it is for a guy making 50k$ a year. If the gun/barrel isn’t competitive why keep throwing components at it until it’s worn out?

Some people attend events as they enjoy the travel, like catching up with friends and buring powder. Not everyone attends an event with the goal to win.

For those people an "ok" barrel is good enough. A barrel that might win a relay or scare a few at the pointy for a day but in the end the owner knows it won't string multiple days of top scores together to win an agg.

 

[muleystalker]

And cheap barrels end up being expensive. More trips to the range and components trying to get them to shoot. Just get them to shoot "ok" and waste a year of events not winning until it wears out

Your right, it only takes getting one bad one and wasting money on components, range trips, time and chambering cost to make that bunch of cheaper barrels now cost more than good barrels.