I need 3 barrels to build 3 rifles in gunsmithing school Jan 8 2007

I need feedback on which barrels yall like best for custom reloaded ammo

I am looking in MidWayUsa.com for prices
With Adams & Bennet being the least expensive.

1. Shilen

2. Adams & Bennet

3. Hart

4. Douglas

Because of price and not having much money to buy them with
I am leaning towards Adams & Bennet.

So to all the reloaders out there which barrel shoots best
With custom loads ?
Or factory ammo ?

Thank You

Out of those, I have experience with Shilen and douglas, and liked the shilen the best. Very smooth. But now I am a lilja guy.

Check out www.grafs.com for prices they have free shipping.

Any of these barrels have the potential to be a great shooter. Stay away from the Shilen barrels sold by Brownell's. They used to be pretty good. Last four years I don't know what happened. The A & B barrels sold in Midway are a little variable in quality - some are real good. They look almost identical to Douglas through the bore scope. Maybe seconds? Probably as good as most factory barrels, and half the price of a Douglas.

Douglas barrels seem to have gotten a little better in the past five years. Very good value for the dollar. Rare to get a lemon.

Hart is always good. So is Lilja and Krieger. About the same price range. I still use more Kriegers than all others combined. They machine like butter. Quality is very consistent. And I like dealing with German boys from Wisconsin .

Hart for the 22 cenerfires and Krieger on up from there.

Krieger

You know guys, I was a hardcore krieger fan until my last one which fouled like nobodies business. I know everybody puts out a bad one here and there, but too bad for me, it was me who got it.

Mark - did you ever call Krieger and see if they would agree to take it back and ar least look it over? I deal with them quite a bit, and they seem to be honorable folks who stand behind their products. They also might be able to shed some light on whether the barrel was an oddlemon, or if there was something else amiss.

A couple of years back, I had been waiting the usual three months for .264 barrel blank. They called one day and said they had finally run the batch of barrels, but in the final testing and air gauging the batch was not quite up to their standards. I did a little inquiring about just what these standards consisted of and was fairly impressed. Sounds like the batch of barrels they just junked would have been more than adequate for anyone except a national level competitive shooter.

Two more months later I finally got the barrel.

No I didn't Roskoe. I already had it chambered. My gunsmith suggested I might send it back too. But I would have had to send the whole barreled action to em. So I sold that one, and got soemthing else.

Both Hart and Shilen make good barrels. You will nevr go wrong with a Douglas Premiem grade barrel- see below 5 shots from a Douglas @ 100 yards. 6mm/284, 100-grain Sierra flatbase, 53 grains H4831, MV 3350 FPS....