Mickey, respectfully I do not think Douglas has a leg up on anyone in regards to the way they make barrels. Tooling marks and barrels that need frequant cleaning are not exceptable IMO on a custom rifle. As for your comment on Benchresters. The lemming thing maybe true to a degree but Lilja, Krieger, Shilen, Hart, and a few others have been building winning barrels for years. They are not some fad thats taken up and quickly dropped and there longetivitiy in the game bares this out.
I've not found that Douglas barrels have to be cleaned any more frequently than any other but I clean my barrels quite often anyway. The tooling marks you speak of (have you ever actually looked at them through a borescope?) are not larger than the longitudenal scratches left by lapping compound. The button leaves a 5-7 micron finish which is pretty slick. After you clean a Douglas barrel you can't see any marks at all.
