jbzeus wrote: ↑Wed Jun 28, 2017 7:04 am
Dodaddy, what was your conclusion regarding contour, barrel maker and length?
Opinions on barrel makers will vary wildly from shooter to shooter. Kind of like the Ford/Chevy & Ping/Callaway debates. Everyone has the one brand they think is always the best. Different disciplines have their favorite brands, machining styles, rifling patterns, groove count, and lapping styles etc etc etc. It's a rabbit hole. Silhouette shooters seem to favor Lilja. Lilja hasn't been present in rimfire benchrest shooting in probably over a decade. Shilen has been running that show with Muller taking a lot of the spotlight in recent big wins, but finding Muller barrels is no small feat. Those two I'm not even sure I've seen on a silhouette line before. Centerfire brings in an entirely different group of producers.
Here's what I'll say. Most, if not all, of your
quality barrel producers make a fine barrel and it's hard to make the wrong choice in reality. Where most go wrong, assuming they do go wrong, is they base their purchase off of the exception instead of the rule. Cheaper brand producers can make a lights out barrel, but what percentage of their production meet that standard? Are you willing to gamble? It's more hassle than it's worth in my opinion. It's like trying to force cheap ammo or a Chinese scope to work out. It can happen, but won't most of the time.
The thing is that someone could produce a stellar barrel and a stellar gunsmith fit it perfectly to a perfect action paired with perfect ammo that is shot by some chump coming in last place. The equipment isn't everything. Shooters have a tendency to go straight to an equipment list and then it's monkey see, monkey do. The good producers are
all capable of making a bad barrel just as they are a good barrel. Don't let the exceptions drive you from their standard. Silhouette isn't as finicky as a group as the benchrest world, but the point remains.
Barrel contour really doesn't matter that much accuracy wise in silhouette in my opinion. Straight contours are often favored in rimfire benchrest, but that doesn't mean you won't see heavy tapers. Tapers can introduce potential problems in bore uniformity (hardly ever to a degree that matters, but we'll get to that), but are mostly somewhat harder to "tune" assuming you're using a Harrel's muzzle device or the like. That's unrelated here since we shoot our barrel's naked. I say pick a contour that will leave you with the most rigid barrel you can afford weight wise.
Barrel length I don't see as important in regards to accuracy on a macro level. I'm very into the aesthetics of a rifle and I prefer the look of a longer barrel. Like I mentioned before, the location of the crown plays a huge role in accuracy. Lead is a dead material meaning that once you squeeze it down, it's not expanding back out. So if your barrel's bore isn't a perfectly straight and uniform cylinder (unlikely, but possible) or a consistent taper from chamber to muzzle (this is more common and easier to control), you're going to run into issues.
Here's what I mean. Let's say for simplicity's sake that the diameter of our bullets is .224". Great. You chamber your bullet and fire. The bullet is traveling down the barrel now. The bore from just after the chamber to 12" down the barrel measures .217". The bullet is going to conform to that as it travels down the barrel. Maybe it gets denser, maybe it increases length to compensate, it doesn't matter. The diameter of the bullet isn't going to be larger than the bore it's traveling down. The bullet is now at .217". Ok. At the 13" the bore opens up some to .222" from the .217" earlier. This could be from the barrel being turned down, variation in steel density, or any multitude of reasons. The problem you have now is a .217" lead bullet bouncing around a .222" bore because the bullet isn't going to expand to fit the now larger bore. This is will significantly impact your rifle's potential accuracy for many reasons.
I've exaggerated for emphasis. I said all of that to say this. Many gunsmiths will slug the barrel carefully to measure for the tightest point in the barrel's bore and that's what will determine the barrel's length and crown location. To avoid having the tight spot in the barrel before the crown example I gave earlier, taper lapping is often used so that the bore gets smaller in diameter over the length of the barrel. This is also a reason some barrels have a reverse taper as turning down a barrel's outside diameter does influence the internal diameter of the bore, usually as the OD of the barrel decreases (assuming it's being turned down after it's been bored), the ID of the barrel increases. If you turn the barrel down in a reverse taper contour, it should have the bore also decrease as you travel towards the crown.
To be short, pick a good gunsmith and ask them what they prefer. If they're more familiar with brand X's steel or groove count and such, the better the odds are of an excellent chamber. We as shooters often forget that the gunsmith is a wealth of experience and that we shouldn't come to tell them what to do for us. We should tell them what we want and let them take care of the rest. It's no different than when you see a doctor. Let them do their job. If you're fitting your own barrel, then buy a barrel from a good manufacturer (Shilen, Lilja, Benchmark, Broughton, Muller, Walther, I'm sure there are others). In either event, know your options. You have a weight limit to stay under. Know what everything else weighs and let that guide you in your barrel choice, but keep in mind it's easier to add weight than lose it.
My conclusion was I went with a barrel manufacturer that would let me do a custom taper because I was being very particular about my contour because of weight (my action is super heavy and that somewhat put me behind so to speak). That gave me two options: Lilja and Benchmark. My gunsmith was more familiar with Benchmark and my barrel supplier preferred 3 grooves over 2. I ordered a Benchmark 3 groove barrel. I calculated my weight and told the gunsmith to cut on the breech end so that the barrel was 22-24" long while we still crowned at the optimum location. It came back to me at 23" and it shoots outstanding.
I know I rambled. My blood sugar is low lol. If you want to know exactly what I did, my barrel's specs are listed on row 24 and every component is listed in the center up top. The why is above.
