Here is the reply from Larry Potterfield to my question.

Under the terms of our contract, I am not allowed to reveal which major American barrel maker makes these for us. The Adams and Bennett brand was created a number of years ago to help us sell more Fajen stocks. With a reasonable price upgrade, we were looking to get more people involved in my passion, hobby gunsmithing. The line has been a great seller for us ever since. I am confident you will be happy with the performance of the barrels, and urge you to read some of the customer reviews on the website. We only edit them for foul language and the like, so if a review is bad it still gets posted. I think you will like what you see.



Thanks For Your Business,



Larry Potterfield

CEO

MidwayUSA
NRA Benefactor Member



From: Bob Anderson
Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 3:45 PM
To: Presidential Customer Comments
Subject: Adams & Bennett Rifle Barrels



I have question . Who makes the Adams & Bennett barrel for your company?



Thanks,

Bob

It's hard for me to believe that the identity of the makers of A&B can/has been kept secret for all the time they have been in business. Must be a black op funded by the CIA.

Probably E.R. Shaw.

Larry Potterfield never said ER Shaw didn't.

I'll bet a nickle on Green Mountain...

Don't think so. GM actually has rifling in em

If i had to guess i would also say Green Mountain

I've only had one A&B barrel, accuracy was fine, the bore was rough and I just gave up on trying to clean it to bare metal. The gun was not only accurate, but accurate clean or after many rounds down the tube.

I haven't heard of any accuracy problems with A&B barrels when installed by someone who knows what he is doing.

I have had good luck with the A&B Savage barrels, but only so/so luck with the A&B Mauser barrels.

Jeff

I quite agree! I can't believe that after all this time, the maker has been kept as closely guarded as the Natioal Trueasure.

One would think that some employee of either company, either the manufacurer or maker, would tell his buddy or B-I-L, and word would eventually get out. (I mean; after all, they are not delivered by a nondescript, black truck in the dead of night...)

If, indeed, they are NOT 2nds, then I can see why the manufacturer doesn't want the word out... He would likely lose a large part of his higher priced sales... But for Pete's sakes! All Larry Potterfield has to say is: "We buy our barrels from XYZ that are manufactured to our specifications". Personally, I'd rather Know just who's product I'm buying....

Edw

I built a .458 Win Mag awhile back and used a A&B barrel. It built on a FN modelo 1935 peruvian Mauser. It was pretty much a budget build, decent walnut stock, peep sight, stock bolt handle and safety. I couldn't see spending a ton of money on a barrel for a rifle that I was only building to mess around with. I did pretty much all the work myself with the exception of opening the bolt face. That said it has been a pretty good barrel. When it was new it fouled pretty badly, but it has seen probably 300 rounds now and is much better. Its fairly finicky about bullets, it wont shoot barnes well at all solids or x varieties. Accuracy is fair, I don't expect a tack driver out of a .458 Win Mag either though. Its usually groups 3 shots into 2 1/2" or so at 100. I consider that pretty good for a peep sighted big bore.



Are A&B the tops or equal to that? No, certainly not.

Could they be seconds from E.R. or others? I would wager that very likely based on what I have heard.

They are simply okay. They shoot alright. They give a guy looking to build something options when they might not have the scratch for a top flight barrel. They also give an opportunity to avoid a good deal of 'smithing $$ by providing short chambered pre-threaded barrels.
If I spending money to build a once in a lifetime custom, or a real accurate rifle I would certainly choose something higher up the food chain. In my case I wanted something to mess around with on a budget and thats what A&B helped do.

You get what you pay for.

I think they are Wilson's as Wilson stopped offering barrels to the public about the time A&B came out. I'm guessing Wilson got so overloaded with orders from Midway that they stopped offering them to the public.

I've got one on a Mauser in 25-06, it's accurate and cleans up alright. Very stout contour though, it's their "medium" F-34 and is very close to a Shilen #4 or even a Krieger #5.

I just want to offer one in 338-08/338 Federal with a good twist for 200 grain cast projectile!

If I am going to the expense of building a rifle thats going to be expensive to start with I will not skimp on the most important part of that rifle...I only use Lother Walther barrels on my sporting guns..but Krieger, Lilja and Douglas are good..I don't want anything to do with Shaw or A&B barrels..Some shoot and some don't, if you get lucky then your good to go, if your unlucky then you have to buy another or whatever...