i recently bought a bartlein barrel (6.5mm, 5R, medium palma) from the chou brothers but they are too busy to take any new work. i also contacted tactical ordnance and they said the same thing. im looking to have the barrel chambered for 6.5 creedmoor, muzzle threaded and bedding done (tikka t3x ctr in bell&carlson stock). are there any gunsmiths that you guys would recommend?
looking for a good gunsmith for some work
- Thread starter thechineseguy
- Start date
hometownhero
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Toon Town, Sk
- Location
- West Quebec
^^^ That who I was thinking of as well
Aprilia Man
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Canadian "WET" Coast (Raincouver)
The guy in the BC interior correct ?
Munkey1973
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Regina, SK
2 for Black Art. I had Terry true my Rem 700 SA and fit a new on it 2 years ago. I was pleased with workmanship and his turn around time.
If you plan your business right, you won't have any downtime with a gunsmith. There are actions out there that the gunsmith doesn't even need to see. The others, he only needs to see once, they can save the measurements and spin up future barrels without the action in hand.
Get your barrel, put it in a barrel vice, torque it up with action and torque wrench and you are set. Easy peasy, plus you get a superior product IMO.
hometownhero
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Toon Town, Sk
I got a prefit done for my tikka by Harley at insite. No stupid but either headspace was spot on.
I am not sure how a prefit with a floating bolt head would be an inferior product?
Still a novice reloader/shooter by all means, my prefit can sub 1/2 moa 25 rounds in a row @200M(split in 5 groups)
I’m sure with more experience i could squeeze more
You are limited with pre-fits when you buy off the shelf ready to go pre-fit barrels: limited to certain barrel companies, limited to reamer/chamber designs, etc.
If you buy a shouldered barrel from a gunsmith, you really have any combination available to you. You can use the top tier barrels: Krieger, Bartlein, Hawkhill, Benchmark, Rock Creek, etc. You can use any reamer design available - tailor it to your needs and components to extract the ultimate precision, rather than being limited to generic SAAMI spec designs.
Sure, a gunsmith can spin you up a pre-fit with any of the above, but then it loses that so-called time advantage over a shouldered barrel. And you would still have to deal with that ugly barrel nut and go/no-go gauges. Most gunsmiths will tell you that if you are after ultimate accuracy potential to go with a shouldered barrel, but I will say that some pre-fits can shoot really good.
I like that I can call up my gunsmith have a shouldered barrel spun up with any barrel make, contour, reamer, length, etc that I desire. I can spin it on in less than 2 minutes, and the zero will not be off by more than 0.1 mils of my other shouldered barrels.
If you buy a shouldered barrel from a gunsmith, you really have any combination available to you. You can use the top tier barrels: Krieger, Bartlein, Hawkhill, Benchmark, Rock Creek, etc. You can use any reamer design available - tailor it to your needs and components to extract the ultimate precision, rather than being limited to generic SAAMI spec designs.
Sure, a gunsmith can spin you up a pre-fit with any of the above, but then it loses that so-called time advantage over a shouldered barrel. And you would still have to deal with that ugly barrel nut and go/no-go gauges. Most gunsmiths will tell you that if you are after ultimate accuracy potential to go with a shouldered barrel, but I will say that some pre-fits can shoot really good.
I like that I can call up my gunsmith have a shouldered barrel spun up with any barrel make, contour, reamer, length, etc that I desire. I can spin it on in less than 2 minutes, and the zero will not be off by more than 0.1 mils of my other shouldered barrels.
I don’t disagree that custom barrels rock,
Just that my IBI barrel is a prefit,
And lack to see what it gives up to custom chambering,
For 1 they got reamers you can custom ask for,
I had mine cut 26”, M40 profile, 1:10, 5R, 3/4x24 muzzle...
Nothing wrong using a go gauge, kept the gauge in the barrel until it was tight, then tight the barrel nut.
My first shot casing measured 1.630” in headspace.
Touching lands at 2.820” with 175 SMKs, loading them at 2.800” gives me that nice 20 thou jump, and i have 2.900”+ mags i have that i can use to chase the lands.
Barrel nut is hidden under the handguard chassis tube, easy to forget that’s it there on a modern rifle.
I don’t disagree that your setup is efficient and you can have your barrels prepped in advance with a few minutes change between each other.
I can do the same, but still fail to see what i am giving up by going prefit.
What is the time advantage?
Just that my IBI barrel is a prefit,
And lack to see what it gives up to custom chambering,
For 1 they got reamers you can custom ask for,
I had mine cut 26”, M40 profile, 1:10, 5R, 3/4x24 muzzle...
Nothing wrong using a go gauge, kept the gauge in the barrel until it was tight, then tight the barrel nut.
My first shot casing measured 1.630” in headspace.
Touching lands at 2.820” with 175 SMKs, loading them at 2.800” gives me that nice 20 thou jump, and i have 2.900”+ mags i have that i can use to chase the lands.
Barrel nut is hidden under the handguard chassis tube, easy to forget that’s it there on a modern rifle.
I don’t disagree that your setup is efficient and you can have your barrels prepped in advance with a few minutes change between each other.
I can do the same, but still fail to see what i am giving up by going prefit.
What is the time advantage?
