Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Lothar-Walther finished Mauser barrels

Does anyone have experience with the long chambered M-98 L-W barrels? Thinking about a 9.2x62 on a nice Mark X. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

I've had experience with Lothar-Walther barrels. Don't care for them.

I have used them on a grand total of two rifles so far. Jim Brockman did the work, and he seems to like them. I would say the L-W barrels are the "school solution" on the AR Gunsmithing forum.

With that said, I frequently go with the barrel choice favored by the gunsmith who is going to do the work. You get more benefit of experience that way, and I usually dislike being a pioneer (until the I need something no one else has gene kicks in).

Mickey, what barrels do you usually use?

thanks...

jim

Mr.Mickey is kinda secretive on that.... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Douglas

Let me clarify things a bit. I tried a Lothar Walther barrel on my benchrest rifle once and it didn't shoot well at all. No doubt there are some that do shoot well. My main dislike is the alloy they use is different and it means I have to change my routine (rut) when I'm chambering/threading. That's all I meant.

My personal choice of barrels is premium stainless by Douglas. There are those who don't like Douglas at all. Don't know why but I suspect they are reacting to something somebody else has said/written. My experience with Douglas, and I've used hundreds, has been excellent and they stand behind their barrels no questions asked. Now, if an unknown calls with a complaint no doubt they will ask questions trying to find out what the problem is but the one time I thought I had a bad barrel Tim Gardner simply said, "I'll send you a new barrel. What caliber and contour?" As it turned out it was the scope and not the barrel.

Having said all that I use what ever barrel the customer likes. I ain't running this circus to please this elephant, I'm taking care of the paying customers.

Mickey,
Oh God....Douglas barrels again?! I'm ready for you this time....I bought a book on lemmings. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Justin

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Jaywalker

10at6,

I've swapped e-mails with Woody Woodall and even managed to spend some time talking face-to-face with him at ShotShow on two or three occasions.

Since those first introductions, I've used a couple of dozen of the standard L-W barrels, two of which went on 22PPC bench rifles and all performed just fine. I have used 3 of the pre-fit Mauser barrels for my own pleasure and they worked fine also. I used them because I didn't want to buy a reamer for a cartridge that might not pan out so all three were merely experiments for my own evaluation.

Woody made sure to state that the pre-fits were not meant to be benchrest accurate but that they were to fill a niche in the market for barrels that were affordable and easily finished. I'm not going to claim that these were 1/4 MOA rifles but they were easily sub-MOA as an average. In the real world, all three were very suitable for the hunting rifles that they were meant to be.

The only barrels that I haven't gotten to yet are the target program barrels and that's just because I don't have a need for one right now.

The L-W barrels that require complete fitting and chambering do machine different from other barrel manufacturers. The speeds and feeds need to be adjusted from the standard CM or Stainless machining. I do get a good finish on threads and chambers when I pay attention to what the material needs.

For the average hunter and shooter, the pre-fit barrels are a great answer to not having to wait for a barrel from a custom maker.

Regards.

Mickey,

I have a rifle with a Douglass XX air-gauged barrel (CrMo), and it definitely shoots. This particular example is a .280 Rem.

thanks for the reply...jim

I've a .308 Win LW Match SS bbl. installed on my Ruger Mk II VT (originally in .22-250) and am more than pleased with the accuracy (BTW, this is my 3rd. LW bbl. yet).


These are consecutive 5-shot groups at 100 m.