Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing 1)Douglas rifle barrels.. Do we like them ? 2 Cut vs. Button

"I do hope the esteemed Mr. Coleman is not as thin-skinned as it appears that others so obviously are."

Grasshopper, I've been in the insurance business for 45 years. I can promise you my skin is not thin.

In benchrest shooting there are, usually, only about 20-30 people who are considered serious contenders for first place at a major match. Granted, sometimes another shooter comes from out of nowhere to win but seldom are they near the top the next year. They are like Bart Sauter referred to me once, 'comets' that flash across the sky once in a great while.

I was never a serious threat to win major shoots even though I have placed well a few times. I just don't have the drive and mindset to pay the price you must pay to stay at the top.

Smiley Hensley set a world record aggregate shooting Douglas barrels once but doesn't shoot them now. Two years ago Tony Boyer told me that he bought four Douglas barrels and two of them were great barrels. His comment was, "that's a lot better percentage than I ever got with Shilens". Why Tony is not still trying Douglas I can't tell you other than he goes from maker to maker always searching for that 'hummer' barrel. I do know that 4 years ago he had Dwight Scott chamber up 22 Shilen barrels and he only kept 2 or 3 of them. That ain't too high a percentage of 'keepers'.

For the rest of the shooters who are really the reasons benchrest continues to thrive, they really do behave as lemmings. Whatever the winners shoot or use, that's what they're going to use. They (and I did the same) depend on the winners to try different things and kinda sift through for them. To paraphrase Sen. Hollings, 'there ain't a whole lot of innovatin' goin' on out dere!'

Barrels are about as good as they can get. Scopes are the weak link in accuracy now.

From time to time barrel makers will make the comment through one of their guys that 'Boy! We've got a great heat of steel in and it's doing fantastic!' If this statement is made at the Nationals or Super Shoot I can guarantee you they will take orders for a bunch of barrels at that shoot. I've seen it happen many times. It's a good sales technique.

One word from Tony Boyer, Dwight Scott, Mike Ratigan, Wayne Campbell or a dozen or so other good shooters about any product will produce sales. That is the 'lemming mentality'. It was not meant as a slur and, properly interpreted, would not have been read thusly. It helps for readers to know the meanings of words if we're to communicate properly.