Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats No cut stainless barrel under #3, huh?

How, where, why, when did this insanity start?

A cut stainless sporter replacement barrel from one of the "major Wisconsin" barrel makers, NO can do..........

The proverbial forbidden fruit, The unicorn,

Insanity..............

Sorry you’re upset about it, but Why is this a big problem?

I don’t know why Kreiger or Bartlein, whichever you’re referring to, doesn’t do super light contours but there’s plenty of button blanks from places like Lilja or Benchmark for your pencil barrel needs. If I’m not mistaken, the point of using a cut blank over button is for precision, and barrel life. These are concerns for guys building match rifles, or custom varmint guns. Of course I would want a custom hunting rifle to be as accurate as possible but a #2 contour ultra light isn’t going to be a bench or match rifle anyway, and how many rounds will you be shooting through a big game hunting rifle per year really?

I’ve got a cut rifled Rock Creek #2 6.5mm 8 twist in my safe,so I’m guessing it can be done.

Brux does a #2 as well as Rock Creek.

Chip, we were typing at the same time!

Stainless?

Where ya been?

Look up............

Again, Stainless?

The on-line order form for Brux does not give the option for Stainless contour under #3....

I have at least one, possibly two Brux #2 stainless & two Mountain rifle dupes from Rock Creek, along with a #2 from them as well

Call them up

Kenneth,
Call them. I am staring a a SS #2 blank from them as i type this, ordered it no problem.

Just havent been on here as much, how have you been?

A cut rifle barrel last longer? Did you glean that from the "Internet" or can you refer me to a scientific paper on it?

Kreiger started that stupid crap because they got it in their head that stainless would fail at low temperatures, despite there never having been a case of it happening. Bartlein was started by guys that used to work at Kreiger so they brought that idea over with them. I'm not sure why Brux followed suit, they haven't been around that long.

I've got a Bartlein #2 in 6.5mm, I had to call Frank and plead to get them to make it for me, the first guy I talked to said no. I live in Mississippi and once the temp drops below 30F I'm inside the house. Worrying about how much cold a rifle barrel can take is right up there with what kind of snowmobile to buy on my list of worries.

Rock Creek has been the place to go for a light contour stainless barrel because I think they'll make you any contour. Mullerworks is a cut maker and they probably would too since he works with Rock Creek. Hawk Hill is another cut rifling maker and their website shows they'll make a #2 for calibers up to 6.5mm and a #3 up to 30 cal. Most of the button rifling makers will make any contour in stainless.

I personally think the cold weather thing is an excuse because they don't want to sell light barrels. Heavier barrels are easier to get to shoot well and they want to keep their reputation for accuracy intact. If someone puts a #1 contour on their 300 ultramag and it shoots poorly then it's blasted all over the internet that Kreiger makes crappy barrels and they don't want that.

You replied to the OP, but since neither Kenneth or anyone else besides me mention barrel lifeI assume your pissy reply is aimed at me Butch.

I didn’t say I have extensive experience that cut rifles last longer, or scientific evidence they perform better than button rifled blanks. Those claims are what one could gather from reading rifle forums, it’s what “they say”. But that bit of internet “knowledge”, right or wrong wouldn’t influence me too much if I was selecting a blank for a build, I’d most likely go with what my riflesmith of choice recommended.

I only brought it up to suggest it seems there are lots of sources for light contour quality blanks other than said Wisconsin barrel maker that won’t do light SS contours...

Sorry to derail thread Kenneth, good luck finding what you want

No worries, open debate here, all in good clean fun....

Actually waiting for some insensitive meanie to call me a sissy girl that can't make simple decisions.

(eye roll)............

Understood, I had called Rock creek maybe a year ago, asked about a sporter weight and if they could copy factory contours, they actually seemed offended by the question,
Now Chris says he has Rock duplicates of factory.
Bartlein also said no.
Go figure.

I just got through reading your other thread & see you're trying to dupe a factory contour. That adds another dimension because not all makers can do that. Some have old school lathes so they stick to their standard contours, others have CNC lathes with the factory specs programmed in so they just hit a button and it spits out a winchester profile barrel. Then you add in the ones with the silly rules about small contour stainless and it gets hard to find one. I'll throw out that while I generally tend towards cut barrels the most accurate rifles I've owned have had buttoned barrels and there are more button makers that'll dupe factory contours. If it came down to choosing between stainless/chrome moly and cut/buttoned rifling I'd pick the stainless buttoned barrel every time, I don't want a chrome moly barrel on anything.

I also see you're building on a M70. You mentioned you're in or near Wisconsin so I'd call Randy Gregory at Accuracy Unlimited in Medford WI. He's a M70 guru and can steer you the right direction. I'd personally rather have a gunsmith fit the barrel than the barrel maker, especially one that knows M70's like Randy. With the barrel maker you don't really know who's doing the gunsmithing, he might or might not be good with the action you're barreling.

Crow Hunter, I see Accuracy International makes their own cut rifle barrels, or at least they give the impression they make their own.

Have you ever used one? Thoughts?

Have Mullerworks cut rifled barrels in Winchester Featherweight, #1 and #2 contours....none have tried to kill me yet.