Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Stainless featherweight barrel

Planning on rebarreling a model 70 but I don't know who will contour a stainless barrel in the featherweight contour. krieger won't do anything smaller than a #3. I prefer a cut rifled barrel but open to a reputable buttoned rifled manufacturer that will contour to the featherweight. Some friends suggested I flute a number 3 but I hate flutes.

I wouldn't try to get a featherweight contour in a cut rifled barrel, unless you have a 'smith who will contour a pre-made barrel. Rock and Obermeyer will reportedly make thin stainless tubes (I have a thin Rock), but those are both hard to come by at times/long wait.

However, several excellent barrel makers will make your barrel. I would talk to Lilja, Pac Nor, Hart, Shilen, or Douglas, as they will all turn your contour. I've likely forgotten other top quality choices unintentionally. Others, such as Schneider, I don't know much about.

If I were you and I didn't have a reliable 'smith to do the install I would probably go with either Pac Nor or Hart and let them do the install. If I had a 'smith lined up (Redneck and JKob on here arevery good choices), I would pick the barrel maker that had an acceptable delivery schedule. You could probably get a Lilja in a couple of weeks if you're willing to pay some extra for a recontour and drop ship.

I just got my pac-nor .277 1-8 featherweight stainless barrel for my ultralight 270 build the other day. Its a great looking barrel and looks like I can finish it out at over 24�.

The weight wasn�t too long. These barrels have shot well for us in the past so I have high hopes for this one also.

Hart would be my choice!

I would not put a featherweight button barrel on one of my rifles. I have found them to be to finicky. The cut barrels are much better bet in light contours.

I have no problem with button barrels in #4 and up. You guys throw barrel maker names around like it makes a difference in these light hunting rifles...

For the what it is worth category --- I had a factory stainless Win M-70 375 H&H barrel turned down to ftw contour years ago and love it. Maybe it was luck but it shoots as well, maybe a bit better, than it did before the weight reduction program.

Just curious, do you have lightweight SS cut rifled barrels?

Bartlein, Krieger, and Brux won't make a featherweight barrel in SS.

Will Rock? Maybe. The last Rock barrel I got I waited more than a year for, cancelled the order, and then the barrel arrived about 5 months later. Sure, it shoots well, but I'm not sure I would recommend the same adventure to the OP. Since about that same time their webpage says they aren't taking orders, but that might mean you just have to call and sweet talk them into it.

Will Obermeyer? I donno. A reputation for great barrels, and they do list a featherweight contour on their webpage, so a possibility. I've never ordered an Obermeyer, so I don't know if he has reliable delivery estimates.

If you have a source I would be interested to hear where you get SS lightweight cut rifled barrels.

I talked to frank from bartlien. He said they offer it in their featherweight #2 barrel for non-magnum cartridges and only chromoly for the factory featherweight contour. So I guess bartlien will be getting my money. The featherweight #2 is a little heavier but it won't kill me.

You'll be very happy with your Bartlein.

Yes, several. I have a Krieger (duplicated a mountain rifle contour), another Krieger in 300 Wby in #1 contour and a Pederson. I have had a Olympic that was cut with a broach in a ultra light contour (.520" at muzzle) and it shot lights out. Warmed up fast but easy to find loads and many bullet weights shot to same or similar POI.

I have had a couple of Shilen, PacNor, Schneider and a local maker's barrel, all button in light contours and they were very heat sensitive and very dependent on specific bullets. I had a Shilen that wouldn't shoot Ballistic tips for crap and printed them 5" left of all the other bullets I shot in it! Never had that with a cut rifled barrel.

Had a Hart on my 260 in Mtn rifle contour. It was a finicky piece of junk. I replaced that one with a Krieger. Don't ask me how but I have talked him into doing them for me as he knows I hunt in AZ and not in the Arctic.

I have a couple of #4 and #5 Shilens that shoot extremely well. I just have had really bad luck with lightweight button barrels and NEVER good luck with them.

Ironically, I haven't seen the same problem in the hammer forged lighter barrels (she Phil's comments above) I have a couple of factory Mtn rifle barrels that shoot pretty darn good. I have a Schneider on my 340 Wby that is a #3 that is pretty good. I wish it were a little heavier though.

Two barrel makers I would never cut another chamber in are Lilja and Hart. I have no issues with any other barrel makers Cut, button or hammer forged.

I haven't done a SS barrel lighter than #4 in 10 years. If I were going to do one now, I would just have Danny Pederson make it for me because I know he would. Obermeyer is like an 18 month wait. If Mark Chanlynn is still making barrels he might make you a skinny one too.

I was going to recommend that option.

The FW #2 costs a half pound over the Win profile, but the shank is still relatively short.

It's handy to have a little shank available when it's time to set the barrel back. My ideal profile would be a custom 1 1/4" shank tapering to .580 at 24", but that's a lot of hair splitting.

I'd be happy if all my rifles wore a Bartlein FW #2.

A much, much faster option is to buy a sporter barrel off the shelf from a Bartlein dealer who stocks them and have your smith re-profile it when he barrels your action. That's like a 2 week option rather than waiting 6-8 months.

That's more along the lines I would be thinking.

Thanks. Have you used Pederson for install work?

If I were looking for a featherweight stainless tube I'd use Hart or Lilja and not think twice about it. Somewhere along the way the cool kids on the internet have decided that cut rifled tubes are a must have, but truth be told a good button rifled barrel will likely shoot just as well. I've got cut rifled barrels on some rifles and buttoned on others, my best shooting ones are the buttoned tubes.

Stop worrying about the cut/buttoned argument and find a top maker that'll make what you need in the profile you need. Krieger really screwed the shooting world years ago with this silly "no skinny tubes in stainless" crap they came up with then Bartlein and Brux followed them, now guys are hanging light poles on hunting rifles because of it. Far too many skinny stainless barrels have hunted in extreme cold weather for me to believe it's anything other than a theoretical problem. As far as I know there's never been a stainless barrel fail due to cold weather but they keep insisting on it.

No, I do all my own barrel installs but I have worked in his shop and spent some time there and shot several rifles he has smithed.

He is a craftsman and teaches at the Yavapai gunsmith school. His turn-around isn't always so fast though.