Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Kreiger vs Bartlein

A #3 Bartlein is .670 @ 26", but with a 1" shank you will be .690 finished!

With that contour I wouldn't be hesitant to have a 3/4 inch shank, or even 1/2 inch.

Gunsmith recommended 3/4" shank.

I waited awhile for my Bartlein barrel last year, if that is an issue for you. About five months, IIRC.

It's great, though.

Edited to add: That's three times my autocorrect changed Bartlett to Bartlett. Oh, crap!

I have a Rem mountain rifle contour barrel and a 30 caliber in #1 contour both in stainless, both from Krieger.

I suspect they're in the 410 grade of stainless that Krieger used to use some. They'd make a skinny barrel with that steel but they quit doing that about 8-9 years ago. They use 416 steel now and won't make a skinny barrel in it because they claim it gets weak in cold weather. Many other barrel makers along with the factories use the same steel and produce skinny barrels, none of them are blowing up in cold weather so it's pretty obvious it's a solution in search of a problem. They've preached it so long though I think they feel like they can't back down from it now. Unfortunately Bartlein and Brux go along with that thinking so it makes it hard to get a good cut rifled barrel in stainless in a lightweight contour. Rock is pretty much the only choice for a cut rifled light contour, they're plenty good but hard to come by.

Crow Hunter, there were thin SS barrels that blew up in cold weather is why Krieger started not making them. The problem was sulphur content being incorrect in the material. If the sulphur content is correct there is no problem. At least that is my recollection of the chain of events.

Both of mine are 416. I talked John into when I told him that I live and hunt in Arizona and the barrels would never see real cold weather.

I have a #1 contour stainless Douglas. In this day and age you would think that it would not be released if was a concern. Would a cut barrel have different issues than a button in cold weather?

Just a blog of a limited amount of precision shooters.

That's good to know. I live in Mississippi and head to the house when it gets below 30 degrees for the most part. Being told that I had to buy a sewer pipe barrel if I wanted stainless steel because of some theoretical weakness at -50 always ticked me off. I'm not going to put a chrome moly custom barrel on a rifle, chrome moly rusts while you're looking at it in the deep south with our high humidity. I guess I want my cake and eat it too, I just want a man-portable stainless rifle, I don't want to have to tote a sendero contour just to get stainless steel.

I might feel differently if I though there was any validity to the reasoning, but plenty of other makers have made skinny stainless barrels for too many years without them exploding for me to buy the reasoning. No one is more lawsuit adverse than gun manufacturers and Remington will sell you a M7 in stainless with a barrel like a stick of uncooked spaghetti. That tells me right there that there's nothing to it. Pac-Nor, Hart, Douglas, Shaw, Shilen, Rock, etc. will all make skinny 416 stainless tubes. There are several good ones in there but recently my preference has been running to cut barrels and the only one in there is Rock. Rock's are great but have been pretty much unobtainable for the last few years, hopefully that's changing with the new owners.



I think those were factory Sako barrels if I remember correctly. I seem to remember some of them splitting at low temps but it was traced to bad steel as you said. I think the consensus among most manufacturers is that 416 does weaken a bit more than chrome moly at low temperatures but it's not nearly enough to be concerned with.

Crow Hunter,
If you are in North MS. I would not shoot any of your stainless barrels tonight. Record cold would clearly equal blown up barrel 😄

I'm holding true to my promise not to leave the house when it's below 30 degrees. I'm laid up in front of the fire and after that going to curl up under the electric blanket.

Danny Pederson will make you a skinny stainless barrel if you want it. Any twist and pretty much any contour.

Classic Barrel

I agree with DF.
I have Krieger, Hart, Pac Nor, Shilen, Lilja, Parker Hale, Lothar Walther, Benchmark..

I have been able to get Shilen Select match at a good price with the right taper, twist, rifling, and caliber... but delivery is ~~6 months long.

Shilen stainless "match" is not as good thier "select match", but Brownells stocks them at a good price. I can see the difference in the bore polish. I cannot see the difference on the target with a hunting rifle, nor can I see the difference on the deer.

Last week I was at the range and this old guy shows up that shoots a benchrest rifle. He was pontificating to another shooter about how Bertline Barrels (his pronunciation) are just kicking butt in all the matches. He said he swapped his Kreiger for a Bertline and it shoots groups almost too small to measure. Then he said Kreiger is junk, Hart isn't worth a (reference to fecal matter), and Shilen is garbage. Made me feel really bad, because I have a new Kreiger leaning against my gun room wall waiting to be installed as soon as my turn comes up with the smith. Not only that, I have a Brux on order that should arrive some time this year. Worse still, I have varmint rifles with Pac-Nor, Shilen, Schneider, Hart, Brux, and even lowly Criterion barrels. Heck, I even have some with their factory barrel. Now I gotta order a Bertline to keep up. I find a place online with a suitable Bertline in stock, but finally come to my senses and pass. Opinions are great, but in practice the varmints don't care much what barrel the bullet that atomized their anatomy came from, and neither do I. Sometimes we go off the deep end, I pledge to never look at that list of which barrels are winning little plaques because all I want is to see an expanding shock wave emanating from formerly furry little bucktoothed critters. So far that requirement has been met by all those manufacturers, so I'll just relax and have fun again.

Clarkm,
What is the basis for this?

Shilen stainless "match" is not as good thier "select match", but Brownells stocks them at a good price. I can see the difference in the bore polish. I cannot see the difference on the target with a hunting rifle, nor can I see the difference on the deer

Actually the only difference is the match barrels can vary in bore size from end to end .0002 and the select match varies from .0001 or less. No other difference. They come from the same lot of steel, machined together, lapped together, and then air gauged. That is when they are segregated.

That's good to know. I thought the difference was lapping or the amount of lapping that the Select Match got over the Match grade.

Butch,
You are closer to Shilen than I am, but I have a dozen Shilen barrels and the select match are like a mirror inside. I can see the difference.

Clarkm,
I have been associated with Shilen since 1990. When I was in the barrel business I sold 1000-1500 Shilen barrels a year. Yes, I have been acquainted with them for several years. Actually a true mirror finish is not good. A polished barrel has a tendency to foul more. A 240 grit works best for lapping.