Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Rebarrel

I am getting a new barrel installed. I am looking fo suggestions on what barrel to go with. 24" barrel in 6.5 creedmoor on a MRC action. Kreiger is what I was leaning toward using.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

I've been very happy with krieger barrels, I used a pac-nor fwt on my model 70 6.5CM build and went with 23", been happy with the results.

You will get a ton of suggestions. There aren’t a lot of bad choices and will all likely shoot better than you can. The person screwing it on is a bigger concern. That is also who I would ask for their opinion. It is their reputation and they are going to steer you to what will most likely shoot well.

That said I have Brux, Bartlein, Lilja and PAC Nor. They are all shooters and I would do any of them again. Anymore I usually go with what I can get the quickest. Krieger has a top notch reputation and wouldn’t be a bad choice.

Depends on what contour you want and if you want stainless. Most cut rifled makers won’t do a small contour stainless. Knocks your choices down to having a smith turn it down to your preferred contour or using a brux or rock creek for small stainless contours.

Brux and rock creek make excellent barrels, as well as Krieger, Bartlein, Mullerworks, hawk hill, and the list goes on and on. No bad choices among those.

You just got the best advice from jdunham; from my personal experience, I consider Brux, Bartlein, Rock Creek, Krieger all as top-tier cut-riffled barrel makers and Lilja, PAC Nor, Wilson, Shilen, Hart, and yes, Douglas as all great button-rifled barrel makers.

While I can't speak from experience, I will say from all that I've read on forums such as this that Hawk Hill and Boots Obermeyer all have stellar reputation as cut-rifled barrel makers; the same goes for button-rifled barrel makers Benchmark and Broughton, I have not heard anything negative about the new "re-born" McGowen company, nor X-Caliber but they may be worth your research and consideration.

Even the best barrels will only shoot as well as the gunsmith doing the install

Hawk Hill makes great barrels!

The only thing I would add would be some barrel makers won’t do some things so that may whittle down the choices. For instance Krieger won’t make a sporter-contour stainless barrel, if that’s important to you.

I would check some of the suppliers like Bug Holes, Grizzly, Southern Precision, etc. to see what is available in stock now. The better makers are running a 4 month or more back log and some have shut down operations entirely. Shilen also usually has a good inventory and if not their turnaround time is reasonable, but not sure if they are in operation currently. Only really bad custom barrel I have received was one of the big names. My gun smith was able to finally get it chambered but the company would not even respond to my Emails. This is why you want to go with who ever your gunsmith has a good relationship with.

Douglas is 3 hours from me if I decide to drive the action to them. Their prices to fit and chamber a barrel are reasonable. Their turnaround time has always been very reasonable to me (typically 6 to 8 weeks.). Their barrels are smooth. Clean easy. And as a hunter, I have never been able to "out shoot" their barrels. No flies on the others.

Who's installing it?

EM precision will be doing the work. He recommended cut rifling, truing the action, whether I want a match chamber. Primary use will be hunting rifle for my wife. The rifle is an X2 chambered in 243 currently.

23-24”. Krieger with a fast twist, that ends in a .63” profile (sporter)...

That’s what I put on my 260... it’s great.

Another Indiana gunsmith (Mark Penrod) prefers Krieger for his CM barrels and Lilja for his stainless barrels. I've been happy with both as well as Shilen and McGowen.

Exactly. I have or have had all but Lilja and Bartlien. Add 2-3 Harts, McGowan, Douglas and Broughton.

Ask your smith. Some big names back their products better than others. And, there’s the turn around time.

Your smiths reputation is also on the line. Go with the one he gets best deals and service from.

DF

Edited to add I have several Shilens.

I have a CM Krieger #2 in 7mm and it shoots well. I wouldn’t have any worries with Krieger.

I also still have or have had
Bartlein
Brux
Rock
Lilja
Pac Nor

They have all been good to me.

I’ve quickly became a huge fan of Bartlien. A 2b profile finished at 23” sets on my sons 6.5 creed.

I have a Hart on one and a Shilen on the other. They both work just fine.

I’m not a thousand yard target shooter. I have a number of premium barreled hunting rifles. I can’t say my Kriegers out shoot my Brux , Hart, Shilen, Broughton, etc. It seems to depend more on the individual load combo.

To me, in my application, they’re all premium and perform as such. I love how a premium barrel with Dyna Bore Coat cleans up. A few Patch Out passes, maybe a soak and it’s Hawkeye clean.

DF

I have owned half a dozen custom barrels, all of which were very good to excellent. I wouldn't rule out E.R. Shaw. I have two of their barrels on Savage Axis actions - both 25 caliber - and both shoot absolutely great.

Krieger and Bartlein have always treated me well!!