The barrel is one of the cheaper components

[FrankG]

That is definitely not what I am talking about. I am talking about quality barrel blank being turned into a prefit. And all the prefits I have used which has been over a dozen in multiple calibers have been one offs. I order it and they make it. Not a budget barrel off the shelf. I never thought of them as that.

to add to Rob's post.... we have gunsmith customers that will order a barrel blank for they're customer. That gunsmith can or does keep notes on work he has done for that customer before.... and he doesn't need the customers action in hand after the initial fitting. He can thread, chamber, set headspace etc... and all works like it should.

 

[pdog06]

I just finished prepping for a prarie dog trip I’m leaving for in 3 weeks. Loaded up over 1000rounds of 6br (all Lapua brass!), another 500rounds of 22/250, and bought another 500 rounds of 17hmr.. I used alot of Varget, 87’s and 105’s, and cci450’s(all of which are 1shot and done).
Believe me when I say, my 3 prefit barrels are not anywhere near the top of my expense list over a few years of this before I have to replace barrels. Although I try to set it up where I am not replacing them all at once.

 

[cyranis]

I’ve seen this pop up on multiple forums and Reddit—either someone’s polling opinions or a smith is fishing for work.
My stance: no matter how good the craft, I won’t wait months. I can snag a pre‑fit barrel from dozens of retailers, get 90–100 % of custom performance, burn it out, and swap it before most smiths even start. At half the cost, that pre‑fit effectively doubles its barrel life for me.

 

[searcher]

Now days what’s the average price of having custom competition rifle built?

Figure 3K +/-, less scope and rings, depending on components used...

 

[Kracken McGraw]

Realistically, most would be adding $1500 to the post above.

 

[Clancy]

If you buy it local any of the popular powders are 75 bucks a pound with tax. You buy it online you are going to pay that with shipping and hazmat. Even from my distributors by the time you pay shipping and hazmat you are at 75 bucks a pound. No way around it.

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.”

 

[Idaho-Lefty]

$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 ??

 

[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

 

[JFrank]

Because I don’t shoot BR! To me it’s boring as hell. lol So do you win BR matches?

I’m just a ham and egg shooter but I put in my work and get a piece of the pie once in a while. I must point out that winning at LRBR is extremely difficult and takes a lot of time and dedication, maybe that’s why our community is smaller than most.

 

[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.

 

[JFrank]

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?

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