What are you alls favorite Barrel Brands?

champ198

champ198

Active member
Looking to possibly upgrade my 16" 300BO PSA barrel with something a little better.
Put this together for my daughter a deer rifle and it shoots ok but nothing steller. about 1-1/2 MOA at 100 yards with 125 gr Sierra 125 rounds.
The round and gr weight I want to stick with just because she is pretty petite and a small 11 yo girl.

What are some brands that you all have used and have found that shoot good.
 
For 300blk, I'd say KAK, Ballistic Advantage, and Rosco Mfg would be my go to... Satern and Black Hole Weaponry are still good barrels for that round, you just might have the gas settings that are mainstreamed.
 
I'm a big fan of Aero but Ballistic Advantage would be my last choice.

Let me clarify, They took care of the issues many times, very good warranty like Vortex, however, just frustrating to keep having to return over and over before it's right
 
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I have a KAK 10" that shoots good but my carbine is McGowen 1:10 18" SS. Was about 300$ when I got it, now bit higher. Carbine now has my Rattler on it for nite hogs/yotes. Lowest holes are Vmax, 3 horiz were probably me or maybe 125 SST, don't remember. Hornady SP were close to max loads(~2200 fps). Shooting off front caldwell stand and rear bag - but I'm OLD. When I was tinkering with alloy I got 6 of 8 in 10 ring with PB 145gr cast @ 2150 fps.
Edit: I looked at X-caliber for the pistol barrel, decided on the KAK. For a deer rifle in BO, look for the 1:10 twist. You don't need the fast twist for supers. At the time, McGowan was the only 1:10 I could find. Pic below was a slow mag dump. I got the barrel about the time McGowan had a heart attack, don't know if he's stil around.

TgtGfx41.jpg
 
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TXCOONDOG said:
I'm a big fan of Aero but Ballistic Advantage would be my last choice.

Let me clarify, They took care of the issues many times, very good warranty like Vortex, however, just frustrating to keep having to return over and over before it's right
Click to expand...
For what it's worth, Ballistic Advantage makes Aero barrels (the parent company of Ballistic Advantage is Aero Precision). Aero now also owns Stag, but I'm not sure they've begun spinning barrels for Stag since they generally did that in house.

There was a go of barrels that they did before (BA) that were bad buttons and chamber designs, and they were getting killed on customers complaining, and they ended up shutting down production of those barrels until they had found the source and started remaking them again.
 
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Anyone know where I can find a 20" pencil barrel in 5.56 x 45mm? At the time of this posting, they seem to be out of stock everywhere I look.
 
For a mass-produced barrel, 1 to 1 1/2 MOA isn't something to turn your nose up at... that's actually pretty decent considering and I'm not too sure you're going to really do much better considering the .300 BO as it is. Not saying the .300 BO CAN'T shoot any better, just that what you have, considering the distance limitations of the cartridge, you're in a good place IMO.

As for Ballistic Advantage, I can personally vouch for them turning out crap barrels in .223/5.56 as I've returned three myself, one almost ruined my AEM5 suppressor, thankfully Ron Allen of Allen Engineering was able to clean up the damage. BA never would tell me what they found out during their "testing" of the returned barrel despite me asking several times. Other BA barrels in .308, 6.5G, and 6mmARC, I've been pleased with.
 
The reasoning behind some of my question is I plan to make a couple other rifles 6 Arc is pretty high on my list as well as possibly a 6.5G.
What I have now are factory style barrels. One from PSA being the 300 BO and just acquired another from a friend that is a 350 L
My wife has shown some interest in shooting the 350L this year and I want to give the 6Arc a go this year for deer season for myself.
 
champ198 said:
The reasoning behind some of my question is I plan to make a couple other rifles 6 Arc is pretty high on my list as well as possibly a 6.5G.
What I have now are factory style barrels. One from PSA being the 300 BO and just acquired another from a friend that is a 350 L
My wife has shown some interest in shooting the 350L this year and I want to give the 6Arc a go this year for deer season for myself.
Click to expand...

I have a 6mm ARC build (18") using a Ballistic Advantage barrel and it shoots very well, I also have their 6.5G barrel in 18" and it too is MOA and better with hand loaded Hornady 123gr SST's. For the price point, that's hard to beat.

While I realize these are just 3-round shot groups, it does show potential. This is the 6mm ARC, suppressed group and unsuppressed...



Here are a couple groups of the 6.5 G barrel...



 
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My 6.5x06 has a Shilen on it and really like it. Then my 260 is a Lilja and not one complaint. Beyond those two I have factory barrels on every thing. I got the Shilen because of Shilens reputation. Got the Lilja because the smith recommended it. The number one best group I ever shot was with my 25-06 with a factory barrel. I suspect how well a rifle shoot's depends a great deal on how the shooter actually likes the thing. Probably, more good barrels than there are good enleted stocks. Got that part fixed in my head and I get a new rifle, the action gets bedded and barrel floated! So other than Shilen and Lilja and factory stocks I haven't really a lot of experience to fall back on. Only barrels I ever heard anything bad about were old Douglas but that's hearsay as I've never even seen one and somehow they keep on going all these years. Worst barrel I ever had was a factory Winchester stock on a mod 7 when they first came out. couldn't o anything to get that rifle to shoot well and then got a mod 70 featherweight years ago, still have it, and it shoots fine! In the end I'd guess every barrel maker has put out good and now and then, bad barrels!
 
TXCOONDOG said:
I'm a big fan of Aero but Ballistic Advantage would be my last choice.

Let me clarify, They took care of the issues many times, very good warranty like Vortex, however, just frustrating to keep having to return over and over before it's right
Click to expand...
I was just looking at my 6 arc BA barrel. Tool marks all the way down the barrel. One of worst I've seen.
 
What ever barrels we like best is not really a clue to how good they are. I have used two Shilen's and now one Lilja. Which one might be better? Depends on the day of the week! I don't think there's many people that will try enough different brand of barrels so all we really know is of what they had which they liked best. I remember back in the 1960's guys talking about Douglas barrels. Some guys loved them and other guys called them junk. truth be known I suspect a lot of those guys never tried either one. I got my Shilen based on his reputation. The Lilja was recommended by the gunsmith I used. Happy as a clam with both!
 
I put my new thermal scope on my recent BCA upper purchase. 223 wyde 18" SS. Shooting suppressor off an arca ballhead death grip spread out on bench, rear bag. The Burris scope set 1.4x base mag
IMG_20240720_205605643.jpg
(3.2) shooting at 100 yards shows each graduation is 1.05 inches. After zeroing I shoot 2 rds Sierra 55 gr BK and 1 rd 40 gr Nosler Bt. I think I have a good shooter. Yes I held slightly low and left for the 40 gr Rd after the first two 55 gr BK went thru the same hole.
 
I've had fun playing with my Black Hole Weaponry barrels. They can be picky with ammo, I've seen some of the worse groups of any gun ever out of my black hole barrels but when I find what they like, they do great.

They really change the reloading game a bit, my best black hole reloads are HBN lubed and way WAY over the charts on published powder loads. My HBN 223 53gr Barnes TSX shoot 3330fps from a 16inch barrel and hardly flattens primers with a compressed load of 26.9gr H322, NOT SAFE at all according to the books.

HBN is said to work better with the less overbore cartridges, so 300BO should really shine when lubed up.
 
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