I saw a video a little bit ago comparing a Lilja barrel to a standard factory Remington 700 Barrel, I was horrified at the difference in quality, the Lilja barrel was very neat and even, and the Remington barrel was very, well, not what I expected, I had no idea that rifle companies factory barrels were that bad.
First thing I noticed with my first Krieger barrel was the smoothness and evenness as I pushed a patch thru. I myself feel Lilja is about the best barrel you can put on a gun.
But, I have several old remingtons ~70's and 80's, and let me tell ya, you look at them thru a bore scope, rifling is nice and sharp, smooth.
I owned a few 700P's, about 2001, and I couldnt' believe the tooling marks they left in the throat, and the roughness of the barrels. It took me over an hour to clean out the copper in a 300RUM.
I had Hill Country Rifles install a Lilja on one of my Sakos earlier this year. So far I've been able to shoot consistentsub 1/2 MOAgroups with it (at 100 yds) with my handloads. It's a very nice barrel, one that I'd certainly buy again,but Hill Country deserves credit too for the excellent chambering and installation job they did.
Lilja barrels are a joy toown and shoot. So are Hart, Krieger, and a number of others. Some of the less expensive barrels, like Douglas or even a factory Remington, can produce some excellent groups; despite the tool marks and other visual imperfections in the rifling. I personally have a slight preference for Krieger - the cryo freezing adds an element of consistency to the gun's ability to hold zero over a wide range of conditions.
The thing to remember about custom barrels (or any rifle barrel for that matter) is that each one is its own little world. Just because Sam has a Lilja and it doesn't shootSierra bullets very well, doesn't mean yours isn't going to like them - or that Sam's won't shoot Berger bullets into the same hole just because yours won't. And any premium barrel manufacturer occasionally turns out a lemon. Doesn't mean the next one off the line won't be a ringer. Good gunsmithing obviously plays a part in all this; but the individual barrel is the wild card here.
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A man has got to know his limitations . . . . .
First thing I noticed with my first Krieger barrel was the smoothness and evenness as I pushed a patch thru. I myself feel Lilja is about the best barrel you can put on a gun.
But, I have several old remingtons ~70's and 80's, and let me tell ya, you look at them thru a bore scope, rifling is nice and sharp, smooth.
I owned a few 700P's, about 2001, and I couldnt' believe the tooling marks they left in the throat, and the roughness of the barrels. It took me over an hour to clean out the copper in a 300RUM.
Hey, big, I had been having bad copper problems with a .300 Win Mag, I just got the copper streaks out a couple of days ago.
Lilja Barrels
