shilen and Douglas barrels, any thoughts?

sharpsguy said:
Shilen and douglas barrels, are they any good ? Do they suck, are they good value, are they capable of good accuracy? What are your thoughts?
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Shilen clean up in the short range matches. Not sure why they are not popular for 1000 yds.
Douglas is your typical mass produced match barrel. There will be lots of good ones and probably the odd not so good.
 
The last two Douglas barrels I had were very soft.. throats burnt out very quickly... .17 Ackley Hornets using 12 grains of powder!

I have used hundreds of Shilen barrels since 1967... they are an excellent barrel.

Gaillard in Saskatchewan makes a barrel just as good.
 
I don't know where the idea that Douglas are the typical mass produced barrel comes from. Possibly because they are one of the older custom barrel manufacturers. In reality, they are excellent barrels. Their premium barrels are as good as any. I've used a bunch of them and have never had one which disappointed.
Shilen barrels are also great barrels. I have installed, literally, hundreds of Shilens. Again, none have been a disappointment. My short range BR rifle wears a Shilen. They still win benchrest matches because they still build a benchrest quality barrel.
When I started gunsmithing, the barrels most guys wanted on their custom rifles came from Hart, Shilen, and Douglas. There were aother makes used, of course, but these were the most popular. All of these old line companies still make quality barrels. In fact, due to greater competition, they may be better than ever. Regards, Bill.
 
I had a Douglas heavy match M14 barrel on one of my tricked M14s and it was awesome.:D

I currently run a McPhee Stainless match barrel on my AI 700 and I am extremely pleased with it's performance.:dancingbanana:

We have some excellent barrel makers here in Canada and we should try to support them when we can.

Some of the Canadian barrel manufacturers are:

- Rob McClennan
- Mick McPhee
- Ted Gaillard
- Ron Smith

Can't really go wrong with offerings from any of these guys.;)

SKBY.
 
I have used Shilen barrels and they were very good. Anyone out there used one of Mike Rock's 5r barrels and what are your thoughts on Rock's barrels.
 
My 270 Wby is a Douglas Supreme barrel and was installed on the action more than 30 years ago. It has somewhere around 700 rounds fired through it, none of them pussyacts.

The throat is not perfect, but still excellent condition, and the rifle continues to put 130 gr Hornadys, Nosler partitions and Barnes X into an inch easily at 3500 fps. :)

Ted
 
EC- My .308 F class wears a Mike Rock 5R tube. I'm super happy with it. Shoots 175 SMKs very, very, well. Easy to clean, excellent velocity, and it shoots. What else could I ask for?
 
Duck_Hunter said:
Anyone know if Rob Mclennan has a website?
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No he does not have a website. If you can even get if on the phone you would be lucky. Buy if you can get in touch with him, you will not be dissapointed with one of his barrels.
 
yeah i have his phone number....well his last known phone number, lol. He sounds a bit mysterious, haha. I've heard some excellent reviews of his work. I just can't decide if I want to lay down the cash......but rifles are no fun unless they're accurate right?
 
Once you factor in costs of export and time lag, the Cdn barrel makers are very competitive. Have used three Gaillards and they have been superb.

I have used Shilen Super Match, and Douglas XX and Krieger. I can say that the Krieger was much better then the Shilen and Douglas but the Gaillards are every bit as good.

Read my posts on the 6.5 Mystic project rifles and you will see what these pipes are capable of.

Jerry
 
In my experience both are good makes and certainly best "for the money".....both are button rifled and I prefer cut rifled barrels for cast bullets...my choice is Badger Barrels! I have contacted two Canadian makers and they didn't seem to enthused about making another barrel!
 
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