Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Belm, Bullberry or JDJ?

I found his web site poor, and in this day and age that is an important first impression.

MGM

Siskiyous6, Thank you. I mentioned David Smith and knew it didn't sound right. You are correct, it's White. He did a Encore trigger job for me and did an excellent job.

I have only a VERY little experience with J.D. Jones: I must have caught him on one of his GROUCHY days. He flat out refused to build me a 6.5 Jap. He kept telling me I'd be better off with the 6.5 JDJ. I'll not dispute that the 6.5 JDJ may be a better platform, but I don't WANT one. I WANT a 6.5 Jap. He basically told me to do it his way of forget it. FWIW: My desire for a Jap is because I have numerous boxes of ammo, brass and dies. I use my .225 Win brass in my .225 Win.

GH

Dave White does nice work.

I think Bellm uses some MGM tubes as well. I'm sure he recommends them. He does use Bergara barrels, mostly, and chambers them and cuts and crowns them himself, which alleviates 99.9% of the common accuracy issues with TC tubes...per Bellm. I have a 356/358 from him that I love. Everyone that does good work, does good work. Pick your poison.

J.D Jones, by far the best. Have used the others but JDs work is stellar. Your fault if
he was grouchy. Knowledge and honesty is his trade mark in my mind.

Bob B

MGM made a 30/40 k contender barrel that just plain shoots well.
No need to AI with a 30/40 k.

Of those three, I'd use Bullberry or JDJ. Mike has lots of good ideas for the Contender and Encore platforms, but sometime he's answering questions that aren't asked until he starts messing with stuff. A quality barrel from Bullberry, JDJ, or MGM would fit the bill nicely.

Bellm is arogant but does good work.

MGM

I've got tubes from MGM, TC, SSK, and a Bellm/Bergara...

What stood out to me was MGM's really friendly service, AND

my least favorite thing about the Encore is, most scope bases
that I've seen or tried don't really please me - except SSK's
T'SOB. It is a work of art in my eyes!

JD was reasonably agreeable the one time I talked to him, ordering my barrel, but I understood that it was his way or forget it. Luckily, he likes the 9.3x74R and was happy to build me a barrel, even asked me if I needed dies or brass.
My SSK barrel is blued too - amazing job. I've often thought
"this is what blueing USED to be like on quality guns"
not like the dull crud on most of my other rifles.

I have had custom Contender barrels from SSK, Bullberry, On Target Technologies and Virgin Valley Custom Guns (now MGM). All met my expectations in terms of quality and accuracy.

I have had SSK Rechamber a Factory .30 Herrett Contender Barrel to .30-30 Ackley Improved. It too met my expectations for accuracy.

Larry

Another recommendation for MGM. I have 2 and both are excellent.

Whose web site?

In the time it would take you to order and actually receive a custom barrel, you could most likely find an original T/C barrel. Then all you need is a reamer. I've been watching T/C barrels come and go on various sites for the last several months. I do believe I've seen 2 or 3 30-30 barrels during this time frame. Don't forget to check in with Ed's either. He very well could have one in stock.

Here's one on GunBroker:
T/C 30-30 Carbine on GunBroker


DMc

Couple years back, ordered a frame complete with trigger job from Hendershot...he was excellent to deal with.

I then ordered a SS 243 barrel from MGM. They were very good to deal with and have a very good reputation in quality and accuracy. The MGM scope bases are very good too. They accidentally sent me a SS base instead of the blue that I had ordered. They sent the right one out immediately and told me to just keep the SS one. That's pretty good service I thought. The barrel didn't care for any of the cheap stuff, but shoots tsx bullets very well. Bullberry was my second choice, but their lead times were pretty long though. A buddy of mine has had pretty good luck with them.

Bellm has done some amazing work for me and a friend, he knows his stuff. Has his Phd in how to do stuff the right way if you want extreme accuracy.

Another's knowledge did not get me very far in putting together a custom 221FB on a TC contender. I sent him the very best barrel and received a barrel with a chamber extremely sloppy. I had not a monsterous bulge on the case but HUGE bulge on the case that made it look like it was going to rupture. Also, the leade was so long that I could not touch the lands with a 69g Sierra.

Lots of gunsmith's can talk the talk, but the follow through with their own investment with their tooling is where the integrity will show it's self.

On another note, if you had to deal with a lot of ignorant dumb [bleep], you would have a bad attitude also.

Have not worked with Mike, but if he's a perfectionist and maybe somewhat eccentric, that may be enterpreted by some as arrogance. Just saying. Those can often be the characteristics of a master craftsman.

I've had excellent barrels from Bullberry and found JDJ to be helpful and friendly. Maybe it was on a good day...

DF

Mike Bellm is the master in his field. Ego aside, his contribution to the shooting sports in regard to break-action single shots can be slighted by none. Jones is great, as is Reeder. But Bellm and his cohort David White in Oklahoma can match work by all of them at a much more reasonable rate!