Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Wilson Barrel blanks?

Stumbled across Wilson blanks from Ragged Hole Barrels. Anyone used them? Looking at either a #4 or light varmint for a 22 creedmoor build. Reports seem good for the price($170ish)

I have one on my AR 204 upper. It's crazy accurate.

Cooper Rifles was bought by the Wilson barrel folks. Cooper rifles use Wilson barrels.

I assume you are speaking of Wilson Arms, not Wilson Combat. If so, I have a Wilson Arms SS heavy match barrel on one of my AR uppers that is very accurate. Easy 1/2 moa when I'm tuned in.

Wilson is a volume manufacturer of barrels and they are the OEM for many arms companies who lack the capacity to produce their own barrels. They will produce barrels to the customer's spec, so the quality and finish will vary depending on who is doing the ordering. I recall back when, Holliger was ordering 7 twist wilson's as a budget option for his White Oak match AR Service Rifles. Rock River was also sourcing Wilson's with an 8 twist and apparently with a lesser degree of interior finish. Borescopes were new back then and I recall competitors commenting that the Rock Rivers interiors looked rough through the Hawkeye and didn't clean up as easily. They both still shot fine though.

Thanks for the feedback. Think I’ll order up a #4 8 twist, really wish they offered the 5.5 contour in small bore stuff though.

My pal who builds winning 1000 yard BR rifles says the latest Wilson barrels are as good or better than Bartlien Kreiger etc.

Ordered a 1-7 #4 blank on Wednesday around noon, had it on my porch Thursday when I got home from work. Never had anything shop that fast, I’m definitely impressed with Ragged Hole’s service. Contour is a little lighter than what I was hoping for but the varmint was far to heavy. Should work out alright.

I have had a Wilson barrel on a 223ai and it was a phenomenal shooter with good velocity. I wouldnt hesitate to use one again.

Ditto the above reviews of Wilson H-Bars on AR's. My 20" is way more accurate than I deserve.

I have a RHB short action with a Wilson #4 26" 6.5 mm 8 twist bbl. The rifle is chambered in 260 Ackley Improved. The barreled action was assembled by John Bedderman. He did a good job.
My only advice is to break the barrel just as you would a factory rifle. Overall I am very happy with the build.
My hunting load will put 4 shots into a 3/8" ragid hole group. It prefers the Berger 140gr VLD Hunting bullet. I use Lapua brass and Federal 210 Match Primers. COL is 2.82".

Anybody know weights on the Wilson barrels? When I called the guy had estimates that seemed too low to be true.
He told me the a fluted Light Varmint was 4.5# and the fluted #4 sporter was just over 3#. Looking at different manufacturers charts, I find both figures hard to believe.

I would equate them,to being even "softer" than Douglas. Have had too many of both,through the years. Hint.

In Speedmire,I wouldn't take the bait. You'll not regret doing it right,from inception. Hint..............

A little extra money spent on a great barrel will be forgotten pretty quick. A less expensive barrel doesn't save much money when you talk about gunsmith costs.

Yes...what people don't savvy is that for a production barrel maker, machinability and long tooling life is paramount. For other mfgs, accuracy is everything and tool life is part of cost of doing business. The pricing reflects that in both scenarios.

Stay warm up there! -Al

Just had 8 spun up at .366 x 51 (93Jimbo).

I expect accuracy, but the tooling was odd... i.e odd metal.

I'll post a pic later...

Has anyone Rockwell tested different barrels to see if harder barrel last longer.

Hal

Their blanks look cheap enough, but, not having the know how or equipment to cut my own threads, I couldn’t see enough price difference in those and a finished Bartlein from Bugholes to make me want one.

Being within very easy driving distance of Greg don’t hurt.

Like I said... odd metal to work.

From my Smith "Metal is soft and gummy. Makes for easier rifling but cuts funky."

My fluted #4 7mm Remage barrel finished at 18" and muzzle threaded 5/8-24 weighs 2 lbs 9oz. So, if you are looking at a 22-24" barrel, I think it will be quite a bit over 3 lbs.

Anyone who has chambered barrels for a number of years can tell you barrel steel varies a great deal. There was a time barrel makers scrambled to find decent steel, and there was a bunch of different stuff. I just did a Wilson for myself a few months ago, got it from Ragged Hole. Time will tell how it shoots and holds up, but it cut fine.

Makers list weights in various ways; some list the weight as an average of a contours blank weight - it may be based on the whole unfinished weight, it may be on the net unfinished weight, which is the blank length minus the 1/2 to 1-inch of 'unusable' barrel on each end, some makers have much longer straight shank lengths than others, some round the weights up the next 1/2-lb . . . the point is that comparing listed weights is comparing apples and oranges. The best way to compare is to look at the barrel contour dimensions.

Yes. I’ve used blanks from John Bredderman at Ragged Hole for 5 builds, from .35 cal to .264 cal. One of those is exceptional, the rest are on the high end of acceptable. I don’t find them soft at all, in fact they machine “tough” like X-Caliber and McGowan. Soft to me is Hart. Like butter.

His service is great. If it’s in stock it gets shipped immediately. No problem using them again.

Urbanrifleman out of Tulsa is selling the crap out of Wilson barrels. His reviews of the barrels are very good. He does mainly prefits for several different actions. His prices are very good as well He hangs out on Accurate Shooter site.

I wanted to test the waters on the Wilson.

I have had only three of the Wilsons. Two-barrel blanks were uniform from front to back in bore dia, with the third tight on each end and loose in the middle. The two that were uniform from front to back were chambered in a 22/243 AI and they shoot tiny groups, 60g Sierra at 4000 fps. The third I consider scrap. The barrels were extremely smooth Bores, as good as the best of the Button rifle barrels, I have scoped.

Everyone has their favorite barrels.

Every rra barrel I have seen shoots pretty much about as good as an ar platform can.