Anybody have IBI barrel reviews ?

Sinasta said:
Worth more than yours.
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Sinasta said:
Worth more than yours.
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In all seriousness, I'm okay with my opinion not being worth much to you, that's your choice and I respect that you have the choice to do so.

My point stands no matter what site you are on. CGN, Facebook, etc. It's always good to take in a matter of opinions from different people and sources, and balance them out with your needs and expectations, while understanding the experience, needs and bias of those you are getting opinions from.

Everyone has their preference of gear for a reason, valid reasons or not. It's good to understand where others are coming from with their opinion in order to see how it can applied to what your intended uses within your budget/resources are. Depending on what the end users needs and wants are, my opinion on gear may not be as valid as others (or vice versa) and I understand and respect that. It's up to the end user to do their due diligence to sort through the "noise" and figure out what works best for them.

My comments in this thread reflect the experience of multiple gunsmiths, a team AB ELR shooter, as well as a manufacturer from an earlier run of IBI barrels. That's all I can speak to, as I don't personally know anyone that has a recent one, so I have to go off of what others are saying, whom I don't know anything about, and don't have any credibility with me. For what it's worth, that one manufacturer is now supposedly using IBI barrels again, so they have seen improvements and trust the new product from IBI.

I have nothing against IBI or any of its employees, and I really hope they turn into a really successful outfit producing awesome barrels from the Canadian market. That would be a huge win for Canadian consumers. It sounds like they are producing better barrels, which I posted earlier, but like I said, I can't personally corroborate that. I gave my recommendations based on my experience and those directly around me in my shooting circle. I only recommend products I 100% trust.

I think that IBI is an excellent choice for some, based on their requirements and price range. There's obviously a group of people happy with them, I just don't personally know them. With the Canadian dollar tanking, IBI could be a very logical choice for most Canadian consumers. I just hope for everyone's sake that they keep their pricing in Canadian dollars, rather then swapping to USD to hedge against poor CDN like other Canadian manufacturers are doing.

My barrel brand preference lies elsewhere, for reasons I've made known. I try to be as transparent as possible in the reasons for my gear preferences. Some people take my gear preferences as a slight against them when it doesn't align with their preferences, which I'm not sure why. These are my opinions formed through my experience and those directly around me. If you are happy with a different product then me, then my experience shouldn't invalidate yours.

This world would be pretty boring if we all 100% wanted the exact same products. This is just my opinion, whether that's worth anything and valid for what you are doing is up to you to decide.
 
I should also add that I want to have 100% confidence in my barrel and chamber job, so any down range anomalies are on me, not my system. That's a quirk of mine. This game is every bit as mental, if not more, then physical, and having confidence in your gear, whatever that looks like to you, is important.

It's why I choose top end barrel brands and gunsmiths with good history of quality. I've had too many friends that have tried cheaper and local (Canadian) barrel brands, and lesser known gunsmiths to save a buck or help them out, but end up with way too many problems, with lots of extra time and money to fix it. Sometimes it's cheaper to initially spend more money. I personally can't justify spending the money on a barrel blank from a brand with mixed reviews and the ensuing gunsmith costs, when I can get a Krieger and know I'm getting an excellent product.

I'm not saying that if you are going to buy a current IBI barrel that it's going to be disappointing for anyone here. They are a young company, that initially had teething issues that are now supposedly fixed. They may very well shoot within your requirements and skillset. In my mind they need a bit more time and experience to get established for me, but that also requires people trusting them and purchasing their products, which I'm glad people are doing.

My preference is to go with the barrel makers that have been around for a long time, and have many, many years of barrel making experience under their belts. That's my preference, but it doesn't have to be yours.

OP, talk with the gunsmiths you trust to spin up your barrels and ask for their opinions on IBI barrels. If you trust them and they've done good work for them, their opinion should be worth more then some stranger's on the internet (including mine). If they trust it, go with it and let us know how it shoots.
 
I am working on a IBI 300 PRC barrel and it is starting to show some promise. Not there yet but getting dialed in. Not really used to the magnums yet but shot a few different loads in the 2 inch +/- range at 400m. Without the fliers they were in the 1inch +/-. 230 g Bergers, Hornady brass and Retumbo.
 
MartyK2500 said:
Dammit IBI, can't they just make a CGN thread where we can post results?
Eff FB I stay as far away as I can from that ####.
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I agree. I hate FB. The rhetoric echo chamber is strong on Facebook gun groups, there's no room for candid discussions there, heaven forbid if you say something that goes against the grain of the current rhetoric hyperbole of the day.
 
Yep they might have had a bit of a bump at the beginning but they've had everything sorted for a good while now and make solid barrels!!

Here is 5 shot group at 100m with a IBI 308 match barrel. 24 inches long, M24 profile.
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I have run a number of IBI barrels from my precision rifles to a stag 10 down to 22lr on my cz. They are solid barrels that shoot very very well. If you go back you'll see kthomas has a hate on for IBI for whatever reason but he has zero personal experience with them its always the same story second hand information from guys that got ahold of some first run barrels back when the company was starting up and not selling to the public yet. Maybe time to he get some first hand experience? So as someone that shoots them on a variety of platforms they shoot very well and I will continue to support a solid Canadian company that produces a top quality product.
 
It is always the same story for Canadian manufacturers. You must prove yourself a success in the US before Canadians will accept you. IBI is the same. They are doing a good job and produce excellent products but they are Canadian and therefore suspect. I use IBI and they are superb barrels. I have used Krieger, Brux, and Bartline in the past. Now I use JC and IBI. Both make barrels as good as any top US producer. I get really tired of the same old B.S.

Thomas spews the same old story about anything Canadian. No experience but lots of BS. Very toxic and never credible in my experience!!!
 
SteveB said:
It is always the same story for Canadian manufacturers. You must prove yourself a success in the US before Canadians will accept you. IBI is the same. They are doing a good job and produce excellent products but they are Canadian and therefore suspect. I use IBI and they are superb barrels. I have used Krieger, Brux, and Bartline in the past. Now I use JC and IBI. Both make barrels as good as any top US producer. I get really tired of the same old B.S.

Thomas spews the same old story about anything Canadian. No experience but lots of BS. Very toxic and never credible in my experience!!!
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This guy gets it.
 
SteveB and AlexSherwood, just bringing another view point in from what I've seen and heard from close shooting friends. These are people whom I talk with weekly, whom I've shot with around the continent and who have a lot of credibility in my book. I think it's good to have open discourse, echo chambers are good for no one.

I haven't been disparaging at all in this thread to IBI, I've actually been fairly positive on them compared to the past. No where did I say that the OP shouldn't get an IBI. Nothing I've posted is disingenous or fiction. I feel like everything I've posted is relevant to the discussion. It's disappointing that some members actively discourage open discourse for certain products, this is probably the only forum I'm active where open discourse is not encouraged, seems that some would prefer an echo chamber.

I'm happy to hear that they are getting better. I still question if they are the quality of Krieger, Bartlein, etc. based on their short and bumpy history. It wasn't too long ago that barrels were being sent out with issues. That personally gives me pause.

I'm sure if you and/or your close shooting buddies had issues with a product, and their was a clear trend, you would be hesitant to recommend it. Similar reasons as to why I don't recommend Curtis Custom actions, though I'm a lot more positive on IBI then I am on that brand.

I'm willing to give IBI the benefit of the doubt, and look forward to their success and longevity as a quality barrel supplier. I'm just giving the OP another view point with some history, which I think is fair to discuss. I'm not trying to discourage the OP from buying IBI, if he feels confident with the brand and his gunsmith is happy to work with it, then he absolutely should get one.
 
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I just installed a new IBI last week on my F-Class rifle chambered in 6.5 x 284. I broke the barrel in using less than 10 rounds then shot a 17 round relay at 500M on Tuesday in which I scored a perfect score and high V count. The barrel then had a total of 26 rounds on it.
I went back last evening to test at 300M using my old match load with the bullets simply adjusted for the new OAL.
No attempt at tuning for either load or OAL.
I was fireforming new brass.
I was shooting at first in 3-5 kph breeze which died part way through and I was not compensating for wind
I shot a 10 shot group.

The total size was 1.25" x 1.25" but once the wind died the last 5 went into 1/2" x 1/2"

There are no issues with IBI barrels. They are equal at least to anything else being produced. Most of the comments about question of quality are from people who heard that somebodies second cousin third removed had an issue or can't shoot themselves or the quality of their rifles aren't good enough to shoot straight.

I had trouble last night getting the pictures posted so will get a friend to post it below. The shots bottom right were shot in the wind without compensation and when the wind died the shots started to cluster.

That cluster is better than the last Krieger I bought.

Remember this is 300 meters, fireforming brass and no tuning the load.
 
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I don’t have personal ownership of an IBI barrel but they are used a lot in our shooting group. I had heard that they had some issues out of the gate but that seems to have been fixed long ago. They are a good Canadian manufacture and support many events in our shooting communities.
Main points I have heard lately are that they speed up substantially after about 200-250 rounds. They seem to get dirty a little faster the. Some of the others (not sure what could be the main cause)
I don’t think they are the same quality as Bartlien or Kreiger but they are also far more cost effective.
I have one on order and will get to compare for myself against my Kreiger and Benchmarks
 
I've seen the owner offer to lend a barrel to someone tlso they could compare it to a krieger, I'd say thats some confidence.

I have a 20"hbar for my now banned AR and soon to my MS that I just finished building didn't even have time to test for groups
 
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