Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters E R Shaw's tubes

My father really wants to cut about 4 inches off of his 7RM's 26' barrel(plus add a muzzle brake for his 72 year old shoulder). Velocity loss isn't much of a concern, ease of handling trumps it by a large margin. It's a savage 110, so an at home barrel swap is easily doable for me ( I've played around with take offs on my short action , so I am familiar) . It is an inch and a half rifle.
My question is, is there anything I should be aware of before ordering one of their factory contoured barrels? Is their quality ok? I remember reading somewhere that quality went up recently. As mentioned before it Shoots into about a 1 1/2 with the factory tube ( bedded and floated properly, crown is pristine... etc.), which is very acceptable. but would I would love to see it shrink a little. Although I have the machinery, I really don't want to take on turning down the factory barrel, and then cutting threads for a muzzle break. I'm afraid of always chasing down gremlins with the crown. Also if I send it out to a gunsmith, it would probably be in the ballpark of two hundred dollars. A better barrel already cut to size with brake installed would make a little more sense, I think. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Live a little and buy a 7-08. Much better than a brake on a 22 inch 7RM..........

I already have one. My dad wants to keep using his 7mm and I'm going to help him do what ever he wants, because he did the same for me from 0-18 years of age.

E.R. Shaw makes really good barrels and if you aren't satisfied they will replace it at no cost .

I"ve heard ok about them lately, used to be all you heard was they were junk.

I think Mule Deer has made some comments about them, maybe check with him also.

Oh yeah, if he wanted to keep the 7 mag, other than the weight issue, I'd just work down a reduced load. Way easier IMHO.

Way cheaper. WAY less noisy than a brake.

^^^^^This.

If it shoots well now, why not just have the current barrel cut & recrowned before adding the brake? I don't see the need to rebarrel.

I'm not a fan of brakes but in situations like this they can make sense. No matter how you try, a 7mm-08 will not equal a 22" braked 7mm mag. Neither will a reduced load 26" mag.

He's dead set on taking some inches off the barrel and adding a muzzle break. He wants four inches off it, but I think I can talk him into a 23" inch tube. He has a bad back, and a bum shoulder, and I think bending certain ways to keep the barrel from getting caught up in the thick stuff really tweaks the back. The reduced load idea is of course the way to go, but he would never use them, he would just shoot full throttle loads less often. The rifle in question has some sentimental value, so it will always go out with him a high percentage of the time. Even though the little Remington 600 6mm he has solves all these problems, with the only exception of being a little light for bear.

I've never had a brake put on but I'm guessing cost to be around $200.00. Running some numbers, Shaw's looks to be right at $400.00. I've thrown two hundred dollars away on much less ( much more on redheads). I'd love to get his groups to shrink a little, it would bring a grin. But not enough to justify a kreiger screwed onto a savage. I don't know, just mulling it over in my head.

E.R. Shaw completely retooled about 10-12 years ago. Their barrels used to be very rough but shot OK, but now they're much smoother and shoot pretty darn well. I've used 7-8 since the retooling (had some before too!) and I'd rate them pretty close to Douglas these days. The newer barrels I've tried have run from .22 Long Rifle (drop-in for 10/22) to .30-06, and all except one shot very well. A .223 sporter-weight I had them fit on a Remington 788 would shoot 1/2" or less with a variety of loads for 5 shots at 100, and my 6.5-06 Shaw custom rifle (#4 26") groups 3 140-grain Berger VLD's into 3" or less at 600 yards. My bet is that your dad's rifle would shoot better with one of their barrels.

I have 3 barrels from Shaw, a 25-06, a 260rem and a 416 Taylor. The 260 will do 1-1/4" at 100, the 416 was shooting 3-1/2" at 200 and went hunting this year, no elk for me,Waaa. The 25-06 will shoot 1-1/2" at 200 so I've been happy so far with their barrels.

IIRC, Shaw does not install brakes so you're looking at a barrel and also brake installation from a local smith.
20" barrel plus a 2" brake?
Were i doing it for my dad I'd have the factory barrel trimmed 4" and reduce loads a bit.
If he really wants a new barrel, let me know what you'd need for that one.

Then if he is stubborn like I can be too, grins, I'd just put on a known good barrel and have it all done and be done with it.

As noted above, there also, in the end, isn't much difference in cost between a great barrel and a good barrel.

So far I've put on a good barrel 2 times and not been happy either time. I may be talked into trying it one more time, just simply due to turn around time this time, for once I'm in somewhat of a hurry to do a gun, but often the cost of the difference in barrel cost is under 200 bucks.

If Rock was taking orders for barrels, hands down thats been my best barrel and not that expensive.

Good luck regardless. And with a Shaw, I suspect you could always hand lap or fire lap if it wasn't so accurate.

I have had a 22" 7 RM. Just great only about 60 fps loss. Much handier. Was good for Warren Page.

No disrespect MD but Shaw is the last barrel maker I would ever use. One of their crappy barrels cost me a write up once. Due to the time constraints of the article I elected to try Shaw since they could provide a barrel quickly. The barrel they supplied was a little too fat in the chamber area. So, like I have done on hundreds of other barrels, I set it up on my lathe between spring loaded centers and proceeded to make a small cut to reduce the diameter of the chamber area. Before long it was wobbling like a pretzel. I thought the tailstock had come loose. But a check revealed all was right as rain. So, I got to looking at the barrel and the darn thing had bowed. First and only one I will ever use.

Never had a similar problem with any other makers.

Have they improved since? I don't know but I won't ever find out either.

In this case however I'd cut and crown the barrel and thread it for a brake. The new crown and brake may be all that are needed to improve groups. After all, if the shoulder is bothering the shooter a brake would reduce any tendency to flinch.

My 2 cents anyway.

If he doesn't like the old barrel cut & with a brake, it wouldn't be that much extra effort to move the brake to a new barrel.

The ol' guy is right, you're going to have to take off 4" to get any length savings w/the addition of a brake.

zlr,

No offense taken. Sorry you had a bad experience with your one Shaw barrel.

As I noted, I've used a number of Shaw barrels since they retooled, and except for one had very good luck with them. The other wasn't in accurate, since it shot better than the 7mm magnum that started this thread, it just didn't shoot like the rest. Have seen that with other aftermarket barrels as well now and then, including some names that are often spoken of in reverent tones on the Campfire.

However, a larger sample than my personal experience might be the Forbes rifles. They went with Shaw because Douglas couldn't provide enough barrels, and from the results so far the Shaw barrels are doing very well. I haven't heard any negative reports yet.

MD, appreciate the feedback. Will keep an eye on those results and an open mind.

Thanks for your thoughts, everybody! I will call Shaw when time permits and have a talk with them. I'll keep you updated.

Why not just cut the existing barrel and have a break installed?

Google ADCO firearms. Should be $150 ish all up.