Barrel recommendation

[Kingair001]

Think about Prime ammo (130 bergers), it out-runs the 140's until your close to Mach 1.2 and honestly the SD, bullet consistency and Lot to Lot performance seems better that Hornady... Oh ya, and save the brass, it is much better than Hornady.

I bought a few boxes of Prime Ammo in Creedmoor 6.5 last week

[ar15barrels]

Here are some targets using 3 different factory loads from one of my customers who does not reload:

[LynnJr]

Bartlein was the shizzzz years ago. They wouldn't be my first choice at this point. The most popular 130 to 140 gn. 6.5 bullets will run in a 1/8 twist with no issues. Try to find a Hawk Hill barrel. They are sold out everywhere for a reason. I'm on my first one and can throw any load at it and it shoots great. Another would be a Proof Research stainless steel barrel (not carbon fiber). A Proof barrel will be just about as straight as you could possibly get. IMHO, all barrel manufacturers wish they could have a facility and machines like Proof.

I hadn't heard that Bartlein barrels quality took a nose dive.
I have never seen a Hawk Hill Barrel on a Benchrest equipment list so far. I must be getting the wrong benchrest magazine?
On a good note it is great to hear Proof Research has a nice facility. The more important question is how do there barrels stack up in competition?

[milotrain]

Lynn,

Hawk Hill and Proof Research dominate the PRS circuit and as we all know that is the litmus test of mechanical accuracy.

Those guys can shoot, no doubt about it but it's a world of field positions and ranging. Barrel is important but it is so far from the weak link in that style of shooting that using it as a benchmark for mechanical accuracy seems dubious.

[Hateca]

I hadn't heard that Bartlein barrels quality took a nose dive.
I have never seen a Hawk Hill Barrel on a Benchrest equipment list so far. I must be getting the wrong benchrest magazine?
On a good note it is great to hear Proof Research has a nice facility. The more important question is how do there barrels stack up in competition?

They haven't.

[ar15barrels]

I hadn't heard that Bartlein barrels quality took a nose dive.

LOL.
You made a joke.

[LynnJr]

Randall
When you meet me in person you wouldn't believe I am the same poster on these forums from what others have told me.
I take this stuff very lightly but apperantly it doesn't show up in my posts.
I did look up Hawk Hill and they make very few barrels.
I have shot the proof research carbon barrels but never a all steel version. My take was okay for hunting.

[ar15barrels]

When you meet me in person you wouldn't believe I am the same poster on these forums from what others have told me.

I misread your comment above as "I have heard that Bartlein barrels quality took a nose dive." just as Randy did.

I have chambered hawk hill and proof research barrels.
They are not as nice as Bartleins.
They show up in the PRS stats because they are cheaper and giving away barrels as prizes at PRS matches and sponsoring a bunch of PRS shooters.
They are both very low volume suppliers who are trying to make a name for themselves.

I would use one if I pulled it off a prize table, but I would not pay good money for one when Bartlein is an option.

[milotrain]

This brings up a fairly important point.

•*One does not know the numerous factors that go into the choices that some great shooters make. Factors like availability, cost, and convenience often overshadow the factors that we would like to assume were the most important.

We know that the Hornady 75gr HPBT bullet is stellar, it also happens to be the cheapest thing out there in a match bullet. If someone won the nationals with that bullet a pile of people would buy them up thinking that the choice was made based on a complex load development program when it's far more likely that "it's good enough and available at $0.14 a bullet."

[Kingair001]

I misread your comment above as "I have heard that Bartlein barrels quality took a nose dive." just as Randy did.

I have chambered hawk hill and proof research barrels.
They are not as nice as Bartleins.
They show up in the PRS stats because they are cheaper and giving away barrels as prizes at PRS matches and sponsoring a bunch of PRS shooters.
They are both very low volume suppliers who are trying to make a name for themselves.

I would use one if I pulled it off a prize table, but I would not pay good money for one when Bartlein is an option.

So I was thinking to get a Bartlein, Hawk Hill or a Benchmark for my new custom build rifle

After reading this post . . . it doesn't seem easy what brand of barrel I need . . . .

[LynnJr]

Kingair
I am kind of biased because I like Frank Green and Tracy Bartlein.
That said most of the Bartlein guys came from Krieger and after the shops close it is not unheard of for the Krieger guys to drink a beer at Bartlein.
What sets Bartlein apart is they don't use WWII sine machines like 99% of the barrel makers out there do.
They modernized the machinery so to speak.
You can build a world record rifle in your garage with an old South Bend lathe or you can use the latest Haas CNC machine and get the same results. The Haas does a barrel in 5 minutes and the South Bend takes an hour. Either method will produce a winning combination if done correctly but the Haas method takes away the i am having a bad day and this barrel is dialed in good enough barrels.
You get a gunsmith to get a Bartlein a Krieger a Obermeyer on straight and it will shoot small.

[milotrain]

Either method will produce a winning combination if done correctly but the Haas method takes away the i am having a bad day and this barrel is dialed in good enough barrels.

This is one of those "secret" truths.

[LynnJr]

Milotrain
Dick Wright who used to write for Precision Shooting Magazine had a post about guys pestering there gunsmiths.
I posted his earlier article showing Tony Boyer standing over Dwight Scott's shoulder while he dialed in 18 new barrels for the upcoming season.
One is considered the best Shooter of all time and one is considered the best gunsmith but the best Shooter still wanted to see it in person.

[milotrain]

Lynn,
The flip side of that is that if you aren't winning competitions run by governing bodies in the shooting sports you should let your gunsmith and barrel maker make all the decisions. Don't be that guy who watched a youtube video about gunsmithing and now "requires" that his gunsmith uses a certain method.

[3100FPS]

What Gofasterdammit was referring to was an anomaly with Bartlein barrels that happened probably two years ago. The shooting club I belong to used to do Barlein group buys, sometimes 200+ barrels at a time. A few members experienced an extreme loss of accuracy in less than 800 rounds with no hot rod loads. There were a few other people in different parts of the country that had Bartleins take a dump early but I cannot vouch how fast they were pushing them. I know for a fact that Frank Green replaced a few barrels with no questions asked. At that year's SHOT show, people close to Bartlein mentioned there was an issue that got resolved but would not elaborate. Everything seems good and well with them now. Now on to Randall's comments. Pretty much all barrels are around the $320 to $350 price point. Depending on where you get it, Bartleins are cheaper than Hawk Hill. Proof Stainless barrels are $310, cheaper than the aforementioned two. At every PRS match I've been to there's been about the same number of barrel certs on the prize table. There are at least two certs from Barlein, Benchmark, Proof, Hawk Hill, sometimes Hart or Kreiger. It's not like the Bartlein certs are the holy grail and it's not like Hawk Hill puts 20 barrels on a prize table to try to get people to use them. As far as Randall saying other barrels are not as nice as Bartlein, I don't know where that's coming from or going. And for the prize table comment, the only time I've seen Randall at a PRS match was behind a spotting scope. PRS shooting is not benchrest and benchrest is nothing PRS but I can tell you that the top 20% PRS shooters use reloading equipment, reloading techniques, and load development techniques that would make a seasoned BR shooter re-think what they are doing.