The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Okay oomans, now for perhaps the most important bit: the barrel.

We'd like your recommendations for a barrel, and why. We're looking for information on specific barrels, not a general discussion on cut versus button versus hammer forging - that's been done elsewhere. Barrels we have heard of include:

Border (and Archer)
TruFlite
Bartlein
Krieger
Lilja
Lothar Walther
Armalon

We're sure there are many others. We'd like your reasoned opinions on their relative merits please.

meles meles wrote:Okay oomans, now for perhaps the most important bit: the barrel.
Border (and Archer)
TruFlite
Bartlein
Krieger
Lilja
Lothar Walther
Armalon

Probably a very TR-shooter-centric view, but...

Bartlein or Krieger are the two I trust and have had on my rifles; although there have been recent rumours of Bartlein barrels turning out the odd duff one recently

Trufilte have a good reputation, but I've never had one so can't comment personally
Border are too expensive and allegedly have a shorter life than other barrel makes
No one I know of stocks Lilja over here, ditto Pac Nor, ditto Obermeyer
Lothar Walther and Armalon don't any kind of good reputation that I'm aware of

Cheers,

Gaz

We have a couple of TruFlite barrelled rifles here and they both shoot well, equally I have two Border barrelled rifles here that have both stood the test of time and both have shot exceptionally well.

One one I like most is the Schultz & Larsen.

When I bought my RPA (or actually, SportScotland bought it for me) it had a Lothar Walther barrel. That won the Bisley Easter meeting more or less out of the box, and lasted over 8000 rounds before I got cold feet and changed it.

I was told (and have no reason to disbelieve) that because Walther is such a big outfit in comparision with the other specialist manufacturers, they have access to test equipment that others simply cannot afford (eg X-ray testing for voids) and thus the risk of a duff product is reduced.

OTOH, I did my very best shooting with a 30 x 1/13" 5g Border on a Swing action. 150.28 to win Queen's 2, 297.36 for 2nd in the Queen's, won the SouthWest Africa Cup, missed a Palma team place by a whisker, Scottish Champion 3 years in 4 ...

That barrel was worn out by the rather hot handloads we used for the Palma, which I then continued using in Africa on two tours. I came back from the 2004 Namibia tour and it wouldn't shoot RG at all.

The replacement never worked and it took me 5 months and a rubbish Imperial Meeting to convince myself that it was the gun and not me.

TruFlite has my vote any day and when I am to change barrel or get another rifle it will have a TruFlite on it, if it is available that is.

I have only seen good results with the TruFlite I have, that could of course also be a combination of all the parts my rifle consists of.
However the barrel has not been the subject of anything negative.

Are the TruFlites expensive?
Are they stainless?
What do people think of Shilen ?

Yes TF are stainless and no they are not as expensive in the great scheme of things.

I have an Archer on my RPA, Got about 5K through it and still shoots far, far better than I'm capable of......!!

I believe Archer are regarded as "bargain basement" in regards to custom barrels, if so, then the "good ones" but must be boody outstanding!

We wouldn't be planning on popping hot loads through a barrel, in fact it would just be off the shelf canned bangs - often military surplus. What kind of barrel life might we expect, given that we'd clean it well after every outing so corrosion ought not be a problem.

I'm very pleased with the Shilen on my Savage actioned 6BR. It's a select grade stainless - I ordered it direct as a personal import - For a savage action the barrels are ready chambered and as long as you have a go/no-go gauge they are ready to screw on.