Just a general Q; has anyone installed one of the current production RKS barrels on a HW, Ballad or Stevens and if so how good did it shoot? I am looking to replace the barrel on my bench rest HW and I have heard that the new/current production barrels are not as accurate as the older Ron Smith produced barrels? I realize that the company is still within the family and so I would assume it's the same process, inspection and quality, accuracy etc.. I realize that part of rifle accuracy is attributed to the gunsmith, bullet and mould, So I was just wondering if comments I had heard had any validity or just people whining/complaining? thanks in advance.

Over the last 35 years Ron Smith has had his son and grandsons making the barrels.

They use the same equipment and Ron has taught them to provide the same quality he has provided producing precision manufactured barrels since 1975.

I build custom rifles using RKS barrels and there is absolutly no concern with these barrels.
I still consider them to be the best barrels manufactured in the World. 

Pictures of a Yukon Caribou, Antelope, and Rocky Mountain Ram shot with newer rifles with RKS barrels I custom built.

The rifle with the Antelope is a .30-06 Match Chamber Remington 700 Mountain rifle (6 lb.) with stainless steel RKS gain twist barrel finishing at 12:1 twist (max length is 180 grain bullets) with pillar bedded Cooper style stock with Timney Trigger and Kwik floor plate with Swarovski scope.
Same rifle was used to shoot two Caribou - one in the Yukon and one in Newfoundland.
This Caribou was shot at 475 yards.
I also custom loaded Paul's ammunition to find the best sweet spot for the barrel.

I have five barrels recently, four of them are still in the works - me being a slacker and all - they're not done yet.  One of them mostly finished, (polishing) it's a 22lr, cut in an octagon, 30" LH, GT, 1:16 on a Turbo action, Calfee 2 chamber, GRS stock, shoots extremely well in the bottle cap game we play.  Holds the local best score so far of .284" accumulated distance from a measured center for 12 discs.
I did shoot it in a candy match this summer,(shooting through the hole in a lifesaver) at 25, 50 and 100 yards, I don't recall my exact score with it but I threaded quite a few bullets through lifesavers without breaking them.  A couple may be luck, but there were a few more than that in my results.
   
The rest of my barrels in the lineup are another 22rf, a 28, 32, and a 50.  I have no doubts in my expectations for these and they should be shooting before next spring.  I'm going to order a 25, a 6.5 and maybe a 30 in the near future.

Within the last 8 years I've built rifles with barrels from RKS and I don't believe they were all by Ron and of those 16 or 18? the only issues I've had was the learning curve of some of my processes.  They still shoot well but I've changed a few things, especially on the 22rf.  I've revisited a couple of these and they perform even better with my changes. 
My 2¢
Greg

Be prepared to wait a bit. I think they are farmers as well and this is harvest season as well as getting winter crops planted. I ordered mine back in the spring when they were busy getting planted so it took a little longer than normal.


JMH