Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Douglas Barrels?

Never used one, anybody have any experience good, bad or otherwise?

Got two, one is a 7-08 AI other is a 270 win 1/2 moa for both seem like all the other barrels I have work just fine have one blank for my 6.5 284 waiting for a ptg bolt confident it will be great once all finished

With all else equal a barrel manufacture is the least of your worries when piecing together a rifle.

Love 'em.

Agree with heavywalker. Least of your worries.




Travis

Just one. Shoots fine.

What contour

Thanks gents. Heavywalker, Flave, rattle off the the big three or four things I should be lookin at as opposed to whos making the barrell, have had some issues with the last few customs I've had put together, maybe you can shed some light as to where I've gone wrong.

I have several sporter weight Douglas barrels. 6MM Wasp, 7MMX223 Improved,30-338. All of them have shot very well.

I did have one that was put on a High Wall in 225 Winchester that would not shoot better than about 1.5". Douglas asked that I send it back and they sent a new one back matching the contour. Great customer support, at least at that time, about 7-8 years ago.

Handle, optics, smith, bedding, reamer, ect... in no particular order.

I have used between 15-20. Never had a negative issue.

Number one priority is to ensure your smith knows what he is doing.

Number two priority is to ensure your smith knows what he is doing.

Number three priority is to ensure your smith knows what he is doing.



Travis

McMillan, Leupold, PN barreled the actions, used their reamers, did the bedding myself, which is where I'm guessing the issues are coming from.

Sound like you got all the parts, the only thing left is to make sure whoever is working on your rifle knows what they are doing.

Mystery solved

I'm starting to see a theme here........

I have 1 Douglas, a #1 contour on a lightweight 257 Roberts. Very accurate. I would not hesitate to use Douglas again.

I've got them on 4 .223AI's, a .358 Win, a .308, a 30-06, a .243, a .50 muzzleloader...probably more I can't think of. They are all shooters with multiple loads. I've got no complaints with Douglas.

Building a 6.5 x284 on a 721 my smith recommended a new bolt (it's on order) my action bore was about .030 over the OD of the bolt and this causes the sear to push the bolt up loading the bottom bolt lug causing it to not square the case in the chamber solution( PTG bolt .602") that will only have min space in the action. At that point he will square the action to the bolt face ,chamber ,crown, and pass it to me for stock trigger tune ECT. The point is he knows the sloppy bolt would or could cause an issue. So a good smith is very important as well as taking his advice and using quality part.

I had Douglas barrel two actions for me. A .375H&H and a .30-06. Both were sub MOA in one range session. Minimal fouling. Easy cleaning. Turn around time was well under two months in both instances. Would not hesitate to use them again.

+2 on HeavyWalker's comment...

Ask Melvin Forbes how Douglas Barrels perform. He has built over 7,000 rifles with these barrels and counting! Nail drivers. However, Hart makes a mighty fine specimen.

I have Douglas barreled rifles including one on my 40X match rifle with which I won an important to me match of 120 shots plus sighters.