I've got a Winchester M70 Ranger 270 Win that I'm gonna have to swap the barrel out. What brand barrel do y'all recommend for me to put on this hunting rifle?
Thanks
That's a very open-ended question.
Are you going to do the installation yourself?
Or are you going to have it done?
If you will do it yourself, will you use a contoured barrel?
If not I assume you will turn the blank yourself. Is that true?
Do you want to do all the cambering yourself or will you use a short chambered barrel and hand chamber it, or will you use a long chambered barrel and set it back to headspace?
I have been doing gunsmithing since 1970. In that time I have used barrels from probably most of the makers in the USA and several from Germany, Spain, and Italy. I also have made them myself in small numbers and been quite happy with the accuracy I got from most of the ones I made.
What is thought of as "top drawer' barrels are the ones that you have the greatest chance of getting target grade accuracy from for the simple reason of them being held to very high standards at all times and having all the blanks inspected. They charge a lot for this attention. It's not a guarantee that every barrel will be super accurate, but for the top-money barrels if you got one that was a bit sub-standard many of those makers will take it back and replace it.
In the case of other barrel makers, if you got one that "only" shot 1.2 MOA they would probably tell you it's fine. So in many (but not all) cases if you spend $450 to $650 on a barrel you will get one that shoots sub-MOA and if you didn't the company probably would work with you to some extent.
if you spend $220 on a barrel and it shoot 2.25 MOA you are probably stuck with it.
The other side of that coin is something to look at however.
If you have put in as many barrels as I have over nearly 50 years, you will see that the care of installing and headspacing the barrel is more important than the maker of the barrel in most cases. About 1/3 of the barrels I have put into rifle over the last 47 years were provided by thew customers. So in some cases I was installing a barrel that he and I both didn't know the maker of. I would inspect each one to the best of my ability and advise against using the ones that were obviously not up to snuff. But I did put in many many that were "unknowns". In 47 years of installing new barrels I have had exactly 3 that were unsatisfactory. One was a Wilson, One was a Douglas and one was a Hart. In all cases the makers replaces the barrels. In all 3 cases the barrels were not "so-so" but actually inaccurate with groups running from 5" to 10" so there were very obvious problems with something and I expect it was probably inclusions in the steel itself because all looked just fine.
What I find a bit funny is the fact that I have used a number of "bargain basement" barrels from Santa Barbra, Adams and Bennett, Numrich imported mystery barrels from Belgium, and NONE have been bad with some of the Santa Barbras and A&Bs shooting like high grade target guns. I am talking about one hole groups about 2 calibers wide. I put on 3 A&Bs for a many about 15 years ago who bough them all from Midway as unturned blanks for $45 each, and the Santa Brabras I used cost me $19 a peace in the mid 1980s. One of those Santa Brabra barrels in on my hunting partners 30-06 to this day, and it shoot 1/2" at 100 with his best loads. not bad for a $19 barrel.
I have, and I have had many rifles of my own making over the last 47 years. Of all the rifles I own now, the ones that shoot the tightest groups ALL have mid priced or low priced barrels in them. My 375 H&H is freakishly accurate, and it has a $119 ER Shaw barrel in it. I have a 270 Winchester that shoots about 7/16" with a Shilen barrel. My 25-06 has one of those $45 Midway A&B sales barrels in it and it shoots between 3/8" and 7?16". And I have an 8MM Mauser that shoots about 7/16" with the best load that has a slimmed down, cut off military barrel in it.
My point is simply this:
Spending a lot means you probably will get a super good barrel, and if you don't it may be the maker will replace it.
But spending a little doesn't mean you won't get one just as good. If you don't....you don't. BUT if you are getting "cheap barrels" for 1/3 of the price of an expensive barrel you have an outstanding probability that of the 3 you'd get for the same money, at least one will shoot as well as the high priced barrel.
Labor needs to be considered. If you do your own, the possibilities open up a LOT
If you are hiring it done you need to remember, that the man doing the work is likely to charge the same to work on a $120 barrel as he will a $650 barrel if his time is the same. If the $650 barrel didn't shoot well the maker will probably send you a new one, but that won't help with the cost of the labor on the 1st barrel and probably not on the 2nd one either.
That's a very open-ended question.
Are you going to do the installation yourself?
Or are you going to have it done?
If you will do it yourself, will you use a contoured barrel?
If not I assume you will turn the blank yourself. Is that true?
Do you want to do all the cambering yourself or will you use a short chambered barrel and hand chamber it, or will you use a long chambered barrel and set it back to headspace?
I have been doing gunsmithing since 1970. In that time I have used barrels from probably most of the makers in the USA and several from Germany, Spain, and Italy. I also have made them myself in small numbers and been quite happy with the accuracy I got from most of the ones I made.
What is thought of as "top drawer' barrels are the ones that you have the greatest chance of getting target grade accuracy from for the simple reason of them being held to very high standards at all times and having all the blanks inspected. They charge a lot for this attention. It's not a guarantee that every barrel will be super accurate, but for the top-money barrels if you got one that was a bit sub-standard many of those makers will take it back and replace it.
In the case of other barrel makers, if you got one that "only" shot 1.2 MOA they would probably tell you it's fine. So in many (but not all) cases if you spend $450 to $650 on a barrel you will get one that shoots sub-MOA and if you didn't the company probably would work with you to some extent.
if you spend $220 on a barrel and it shoot 2.25 MOA you are probably stuck with it.
The other side of that coin is something to look at however.
If you have put in as many barrels as I have over nearly 50 years, you will see that the care of installing and headspacing the barrel is more important than the maker of the barrel in most cases. About 1/3 of the barrels I have put into rifle over the last 47 years were provided by thew customers. So in some cases I was installing a barrel that he and I both didn't know the maker of. I would inspect each one to the best of my ability and advise against using the ones that were obviously not up to snuff. But I did put in many many that were "unknowns". In 47 years of installing new barrels I have had exactly 3 that were unsatisfactory. One was a Wilson, One was a Douglas and one was a Hart. In all cases the makers replaces the barrels. In all 3 cases the barrels were not "so-so" but actually inaccurate with groups running from 5" to 10" so there were very obvious problems with something and I expect it was probably inclusions in the steel itself because all looked just fine.
What I find a bit funny is the fact that I have used a number of "bargain basement" barrels from Santa Barbra, Adams and Bennett, Numrich imported mystery barrels from Belgium, and NONE have been bad with some of the Santa Barbras and A&Bs shooting like high grade target guns. I am talking about one hole groups about 2 calibers wide. I put on 3 A&Bs for a many about 15 years ago who bough them all from Midway as unturned blanks for $45 each, and the Santa Brabras I used cost me $19 a peace in the mid 1980s. One of those Santa Brabra barrels in on my hunting partners 30-06 to this day, and it shoot 1/2" at 100 with his best loads. not bad for a $19 barrel.
I have, and I have had many rifles of my own making over the last 47 years. Of all the rifles I own now, the ones that shoot the tightest groups ALL have mid priced or low priced barrels in them. My 375 H&H is freakishly accurate, and it has a $119 ER Shaw barrel in it. I have a 270 Winchester that shoots about 7/16" with a Shilen barrel. My 25-06 has one of those $45 Midway A&B sales barrels in it and it shoots between 3/8" and 7?16". And I have an 8MM Mauser that shoots about 7/16" with the best load that has a slimmed down, cut off military barrel in it.
My point is simply this:
Spending a lot means you probably will get a super good barrel, and if you don't it may be the maker will replace it.
But spending a little doesn't mean you won't get one just as good. If you don't....you don't. BUT if you are getting "cheap barrels" for 1/3 of the price of an expensive barrel you have an outstanding probability that of the 3 you'd get for the same money, at least one will shoot as well as the high priced barrel.
Labor needs to be considered. If you do your own, the possibilities open up a LOT
If you are hiring it done you need to remember, that the man doing the work is likely to charge the same to work on a $120 barrel as he will a $650 barrel if his time is the same. If the $650 barrel didn't shoot well the maker will probably send you a new one, but that won't help with the cost of the labor on the 1st barrel and probably not on the 2nd one either.
I won't be doing any of the work myself. I just want a barrel that'll fit in my current stock and will shoot 130/140 grain AB/NP accurately.
szihn,
Great response and very enlightening. Thank you.
I'll just ad my very limited experience. I put an A&B barrel on a milsurp Mauser. Actually bought it from Green Mountain who is the manufacturer since Midway no longer carries A&B Mauser barrels. It shoots well under MOA in 257R.
Put a Douglas pre-theaded barrel on a M700 in 223. Could not get it to shoot so after about a year and 300 rounds I sent it back. They replaced it no questions asked and now it shoots sub MOA.
szihn, great response and quite enlightening. Funny thing is, a couple of my most accurate rifles are no-name barrels- including my .338 WM and one of the barrels I've never been able to get consistent (yet) is a Hart barrel. Kind of parallels your experiences...
I think one of the small advantages of the high end barrel makes is you can get a contour that will be pretty consistent from barrel to barrel and many of them will turn a factory contour barrel if you ask for it. In any case, I'm thinking the OP is going to be in for some small amount of work to fit the barrel to the barrel channel regardless of who he gets the barrel from...
Bob
I'm on my 5th Pacnor and will probably stick with them from now on. They have all been stellar. I have also have a Hart, a Brux and a Bartlein. All of them are excellent as well. There are so many good barrel makers these days.
They all cost about the same...get a Krieger.
Update
I took my rifle to John Gallagher yesterday. He said that he could set my barrel back and polish my chamber and that would fix my problem. Keeping it close to its original form means a lot to me for sentimental reasons.
Thanks for the replies.