Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Which rifle manufacturer has the best barrels?

Which rifle manufacturer puts the best barrels on their rifles? I'm not talking custom. I hear that the hammer-forged Tikka/Sako barrels are some of the best out there as far as factory rifles go. The thing I read most often about Savage barrels is that they can look bad but shoot very well, which is interesting to me and I don't quite understand. For all the hate that Remington gets, I still read reports of people getting excellent accuracy out of the box from 700's. One rifle maker that is especially interesting is Bergara. It's hard to tell if their barrels are really a step above the others or if it's just marketing. I'd appreciate any insight you guys have!

Tikka

I have a 1980 Remington 700, early 80s Win70 featherweight push-feed, a late 80s Remington 700 Classic, a 2016 Winchester M70 Featherweight Super Grade CFR, and an early 60s Savage 340. All shoot under 2" at 200 yards. What's best? Take your pick.

I know people get good accuracy from a lot of barrels. I suppose I don't know enough about barrels to understand what factors make one "good" or not. My Tikka is accurate but the point of impact shifts when the barrel heats up - I don't know if that's a sign of a less-than-excellent barrel or just par for the course.

I, do not know about the best, but I purchased a Rem 700 sps 20" 1:9 .223, thinking it would be a donor to build off of. This is only the second brand new in the box rifle I have purchased in the past 20 years. I am amazed that a off the shelf, out the box rifle shoots this well. I, usually purchase used rifle to get the action and have a rifle built, but this thing shoots so well I plan on just shooting the barrel out before I do much else.

Been doing load development for the past 3 months and have shot several .5 or less 5&10 shot groups with this rifle. The 10 shot .5 groups were after I put a Trigger Tech Primary trigger on it. The stock trigger while not bad would not adjust low enough to suit me, Best groups to date are with 52 SMK and Hornday 68 match and N133 powder.

I don't know what they're doing at Ruger - but dang! More recent Rugers that I've shot are shooting very well indeed.

Have read on this forum that Ruger tremendously improved the quality of their barrels some years ago. I don't know what they did... But I'm impressed. Excellent accuracy and easy cleanup.

Regards, Guy

Wouldn’t Savage be close.

IIRC, Ruger in the early days of the Model 77 purchases their barrels from an outside source and quality was lacking. Sometime in the 90’s they started hammer forging their own, and since then they’ve had some of the more accurate barrels available. Maybe Mule Deer will chime in on this.

lastround.

Yep, Ruger started hammer-forging their own barrels in the early 90s, and while they were immediately more consistent, they've gotten even better as the Ruger workers have gotten more practice with the process. They not only shoot very well, but look through a bore-scope almost as if they're lapped--even though they aren't.

The Tikka barrels are also extremely good, and the heavy-contour models are lapped for more consistent interior dimensions. Exactly the same barrels are used on Sakos, since all the barrels for both brands are made, lapped and stress-relieved at the same factory in Finland.

There are also quite a few other European hammer-forged barrels that are very good. Steyr makes them not only for their own rifles, but sells barrels to other manufacturers.

That said, overall factory rifle barrels are far more consistent and good than many were a generation ago.

Probably Tikka, but seems like most of the manufacturers are stepping their game up these days. The Savages I've owned have all been somewhere between tack-driver and very accurate. Rugers have varied way more, but I always can find a load they like. The Tikka's I've owned have all been tack-drivers, though one or two needed serious bedding work. I do think that overall, the 700's I've owned from the 1980's were more accurate, as a group, than the newer 700s I've owned.

But who the hell knows? A lot of whether a barrel shoots well is not just whether the barrel itself was made well, but how concentrically the chamber is cut into the barrel. And if your bedding isn't dialed in, it don't matter if your barrel is perfect.

I guess if I had to buy a factory rifle and wanted the least chance of having to do load development etc, I'd buy a Tikka.

I have a Montana Rifle Company 280 Ackley X3 Extreme - it's a laser out to 1000 yards. When I first received it and bored scope the tube I was very impressed - smooth as glass, well defined lands not one tool mark or blemish of any kind.. This rifle is my primary hunting rifle and is the best rifle I have ever owned, the action is smooth and it's a shooter right out of the box with hand loads or factory loads of any kind..

My Remington 700 .308 Light Tactical has a 20" tube and will clover leaf 175 Match kings at 100 and I shoot steel too a 1000 yards weekly in matches... It's barrel and chamber is outstanding also - the hand load for my target work has an ES of 3 and a SD of 9 - no I do not use match primers...

My Winchester Model 70 .308 super grade (which I purchased on an Elk hunt in Helena Montana at Capital Sports- because I'm a rifle Loony ) is fitted to a bell and Carlson stock and will shoot the same as the Remington with the right hand load...

Timney triggers on the Remington and Winchester of course - stock triggers are the short fall now , not barrels.. The MRC X3 has the best trigger - the old Model 70 style- which is improved by MRC, it's a CNC'ed component and you can see that the shear has been stoned during final assembly and it breaks like glass...

So the question should be: What Rifle manufacturer produces the best trigger?

Savage? No they fail to early in life..

Remington? Not if you really no how to pull a trigger...

Winchester Modern? No - see Remington

My vote is for the Original Model 70 Trigger's- the best ever produced- simplistic design which will not fail due to the elements or the trail...

Not yet mentioned is CZ. I have several 527’s that the factory hammer forged barrels are flat out awesome.
After buying a Borescope a few years ago I found that some manufacturers are very inconsistent. For example me and one of my friends years ago bought identical Browning A-Bolt rifles chambered in 270 Win. Looking at both barrels with my Borescope they are far from identical, my friends barrel is not hammer forged it is button rifled and smooth as any custom barrel, mine on the other hand is the roughest hammer forged barrel I have ever seen. Remington can be a crapshoot also some good some not so good. My Sako’s are consistently good

Nothing wrong with Remington barrels.

SAKO & Tikka are very good, I can't say the best as I haven't tried them all. One thing is they may be the toughest barrels. Different steel and heat treat but I have heard of several gun smiths who refuse to re-chamber them because of the hardness and difficulty of machining.

Was Steyr the first to hammer forge barrels commercially? I always like the ones they left the exterior spiral on.

When I buy a premium custom barrel and look inside, they have a mirror finish:
Shilen select match, PacNor select match, Krieger, Hart, Lilja, Lothar Walther, Parker Hale, Benchmark, and Bartlein.
They all shoot better than I can.

When I look into factory barrels, they do not look so good:
Remington, Winchester, Ruger, Savage, Colt, Springfield, Bushmaster, Browning, Mossberg, Kimber, and military barrels.
Some of these can shoot better than I can. The accurate ones are sprinkled among most of the brands.

The late gunsmith and gun store owner [Lynnwood Guns and ammo] Randy Ketchum told me there are three easy paths to accuracy:
1) Buy Tikka as the most accurate place to start.
2) Buy Rem 700 and rebarrel as the cheapest sure path.
3) Buy factory rifles, test fire, sell them, until you find an accurate one.

I chose door #2 and bought an old 1971 Rem 700BDL in shot out 22-250 for $180 at the Monroe gun show April 1, 2001 and have rebarreled it a few times. It is now a 6mmBR single shot with PacNor light barrel and light stock. It has been a 6mmBR with heavy Krieger and heavy stock.

Best ones that I have owned are Sako, Tikka, CZ, Steyr, and J.P. Sauer. Have had some Winchester's and two Remington's that were good, but have also have had some of them that are not good..

As already mentioned Tikka and Sako. My Mauser M12 shoots most bullets inside an inch so the barrel must be pretty good too. I think Mauser, Blaser and Sauer all share the same barrels as well like the Tikka/Sako alliance.

The new Ruger bolt actions I've bought over the last few years have all shot really well, but only after they have been bedded, floated and the triggers worked. Once that has been done, groups have shrunk done under the inch. I think Rugers straight from the factory are let down by the bedding and barrel/fore end contact. But obviously the barrels must be pretty good to shoot well with the above alterations.

Best factory barrels regardless of cost in order (at least imho after looking through my borescopes) 1) CZ 2) Seiko/Tikka 3)Steyr

Nothing else comes close until you get to semi custom guns like NULA etc.

Savage barrels are extremely rough in my experience. So were USRAC model 70s.

Quak,

I believe Seiko makes watches, not rifles.

The Savage rifles that I have seen shot were rather accurate not matter if the barrel looked rough or not through a bore scope