For years I belived that stainless steel and fine lead bullet accuracy were mutually exclusive. Then I started to see RKS barrels pop up in the winnwe circles. I decided to put a smith barrel on a bench gun. When I talked to Ron he made no bones about his perference for stainless. I decided to listen as long as I went to him for his expertise I thought I ought to listen. Best decision I ever made The rifle is a tack driver in stainless.

40 Rod

My Ruger 30-20 has a Dan Pedersen (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) cut rifled stainless barrel on it.  That rig will flat out shoot if I remember to do my part!      

Years ago Doug Shilen told me that stainless barrel steels are a bit softer than chrome moly steels, but resist throat erosion much better.  You just have to be a bit more careful in cleaning to avoid rod damage on either the throat or crown.   

David
Montezuma, IA

.

For instance I've had a wide range of accuracy results from many of the more prominent barrelmakers like Douglas & Shilen & Badger, which maybe is to be expected from any mass-produced item. But I've also had somewhat spotty results from some of the smaller custom makers as well, such as Hart, K&P, Kreiger & others. 
Good luck, Joe [/quote]


Hart and Krieger "small"?????? Joe, with all due respect you might want to take a fresh look as to who's who in the barrel community. Douglas is a "semi-custom" maker, Badger is a 'niche" maker. Hart does everthing from br to bushmaster factory barrels and I can assure you is not what I'd call small as I'm down there several times a year. Kreiger probably does more br group shooters barrels than anybody else, and that would be world wide.

All depends upon your frame of reference, Tim, as you pointed out. I haven't used a Hart barrel (either Hart) since the '60s and am glad to hear that it's a bigger outfit these days.

When I hear the words 'large barrelmaker' I tend to think of outfits like Green Mountain, where they make more than 1,000 barrels per day. GM makes both cut-rifled and buttoned barrels and their barrels have held and still hold many single shot shooting records. Rick Sanborn, their head honcho, is an extremely nice and knowlegeable fellow and can give you more details.

I actually thought Douglas and Shilen were of approximately the same size and capacity; are you saying that Douglas is smaller than I thought?
Regards, Joe

Well, again it kinda depends upon your frame of reference. I wouldn't classify either GM or Douglas as primarily a match barrel maker, but their barrels hold many, many records. Actually I imagine, between the two makers, their products hold about as many single shot records as any of the others. As with most makers, their very best products are the equal of any other shop's; the difference IMO lies in their QC and the fact that they market more than one grade of barrel.

Even guys like Tony Whatshisname, the fellow that wins all the Benchrest goodies every year, will readily admit that he gets 'hummers' from Douglas regularly. The rub is that he also has to discard lots of barrels, from lots of different makers, because, again, IMO no one can guarantee a barrel's accuracy prior to shooting. Kenny Jarrett, the well-known bean-field rifle builder, has said that he frequently discards as many as 2 out of 3 barrels, and he theoretically uses only the best.

I personally have sometimes gotten mediocre results from both Douglas and GM, but the most accurate barrel I currently own is a Douglas 30 cal that shoots in the .3s and my GM 45-90 is by far the most accurate big-bore barrel I've ever fired. So, as I said, sometimes it seems like a crap-shoot.

Another barrel that I recommend is the Lothar Walther as sold by Brownell's. I've used only a few and none were 'hummers' but none were mediocre either. All have been sub-MOA performers and clean up really easily, apparently they're quite smooth inside and in my experience they have been very consistent performers, at least so far they have done well for me. My own Mauser 223 sporter with LW bbl shoots in the .6s and I'm happy with that.
Regards, Joe

I heard of RKS barrels from a few guys I shoot with once in awhile,  I being frugal checked into RKS barrels and decided to buy one in 32 cal.

I called talked to Ron, he gives good info and then asked me what groove diameter I wanted, when it came it was dead nuts on the 321 I asked for, and the taper was just as Sdave said, as best as I can measure it.

When it came I eye balled down the bore and I have NEVER seen a brand new barrel that looked like it was broke in already, it was smooth as glass, I wish I had a borescope.

If I were to buy another barrel I would be on the phone to Ron, no qualms at all, no matter what cal it was.

Oh, I shot the best scores I have ever shot the first time out with that barrel, and was told, "It gets better when it breaks in"

The barrels are not manufactured, Ron makes them once they are ordered, one at a time.

It took longer to get it through customs than to make it.

Tim, please see your Precision Shooting back issues for the interview with him a few years back. If memory serves, he confessed to trying as many as a half-dozen barrels in a season, many of them from different makers. However that was a few (over 10 IIRC) years ago and things may have changed. I've used a number of Kreiger barrels up to 50 cal and have had no bums but no hummers either, still have one on a Mauser sporter in 280 Rem and it won't set anyone's house on fire in the accuracy department, only about 1.25 MOA with game bullets.

Please buy whatever you want, that's why they make chocolate and vanilla. All I can do is report what I believe to be true and what is my opinion. My Douglas 30 cal air-gauge will blow the doors off any Krieger or any Shilen or almost any other I've ever seen or fired above 24 cal and my old (only example, unfortunately now traded) RKS 32-40 SS gain-twist was superb in every way. OTOH I've had some Douglas & Shilen bbls that simply wouldn't shoot accurately for me or anyone else I tried. Goes back to what I said earlier about quality control and different levels of barrel quality by the same maker. BTW GM holds plenty of single shot records, FWIW. Probably more than Krieger for that matter and lots more than Shilen for instance.

Like the Madam said to the Bishop, "You pays your money and you takes your choice!" I have used and continue to use lots of different makers' barrels but recommend only a few.
Regards, Joe

These kinds of threads are always fun and educational for me. If I had to sum up, while in the discipline that I compete in, I shoot or have shot barrels that include Hart, Shilen, Lilja, Broughton, Krieger, Calfee. That being said there is now just a tremendous amount of experimentation and developement going on in the barrel making community and much of it will lead to the betterment of ALL the shooting sports.