Douglas barrel question

pyscodog

Active member
My smith is out of pocket for awhile and not working on rifles at the time. I have a couple of Douglas barrels and have friends who use them also. Question is- Have any of you had Douglas install a barrel? If so, what quality would you rate the workmanship?
 
I had Douglas install one on a 98 Mauser action for me, probably nearly 30 years ago. (OMG time flies) I still have that gun it's a 308 Win.

I have been very pleased with it and had it out just last week to play around with.

One thing I remember is that they said that they would need to test the action for hardness before they would put a barrel on it. Because all Mausers are not built from good metal. They etched those hardness numbers on the bottom of the reciever. Made me feel like they were pretty thorough.

Gotta think they're still doing a good job if they're still around
 
I had Compass Lake Eng put a Douglas XX on my AR. 18" 10tw SPR contour,it is a solid .5 MOA gun to about 400yrds. It cleans fairly easily also. I also had a pencil barreled 25-06 on a Mark X. It shot like crazy with every bullet wieght. It how ever was rough as a file and took for ever to clean. I guess that is why you should shoot it more than clean it. I believe the differance is that Douglas doesn't hand lap there barrels, thus they cost less.

Edit I miss read your question. I have not had them install a barrel.
 
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I never had a gun with a Douglas barrel but when I went to have a custom gun made several years ago I asked the gunsmith (George Vais) what he thought about Douglas barrels and he stated that he had seen a few with enough flaws that he could not advise getting one. Not knowing much about barrels then (still don't) I got the barrel that he suggested which was a Krieger.

I bet there are many more excellent Douglas barrels than there are bad ones, but the few bad ones that my gunsmith had run across had soured him enough not to recommend them.
 
Pyscodog:

Posters are giving you two different responses to your one central question : How well do Douglas' gunsmithing services rate?

Sorry, I can't answer that question as I have not had them install a barrel.

I do have 4 Douglas XX Premium barrels on 4 different hunting rifles as installed by other gunsmiths and they all shoot super!

So, I would guess Douglas knows their way around a lathe and rifle action...

A fellow that installs a lot of Douglas barrels is IT&D Custom Firearms in Minerva , OH. he is on the web....
 
Originally Posted By: RustydustI never had a gun with a Douglas barrel but when I went to have a custom gun made several years ago I asked the gunsmith (George Vais) what he thought about Douglas barrels and he stated that he had seen a few with enough flaws that he could not advise getting one. Not knowing much about barrels then (still don't) I got the barrel that he suggested which was a Krieger.

I bet there are many more excellent Douglas barrels than there are bad ones, but the few bad ones that my gunsmith had run across had soured him enough not to recommend them.

Douglas makes several grades pf barrels - from a bread & butter, to their premium XX - their top of the line are hand inspected and are very good barrels.
 
Originally Posted By: pyscodogMy smith is out of pocket for awhile and not working on rifles at the time. I have a couple of Douglas barrels and have friends who use them also. Question is- Have any of you had Douglas install a barrel? If so, what quality would you rate the workmanship?



If you go Douglas installed, go with stainless, because I don't think they do blueing. Having said that the XX, or double X barrels shoot real well.
 
My 7mm08AI is a XX air guage barrel. Its their top of the line barrel and it shoots great. Really great!! I was more interested in their gunsmith work than the quality of their barrels, but thanks just the same. I also looked at E.R.Shaw's web page. Their prices are better, but know very little to nothing about their quality.
 
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