Wilson Rifle Barrels

S

shelton573

Active member
I am starting to shop around for a barrel for my 270. It is a savage 110. I have been shooting it since I was 12 or 13. It was bought used and shot very well all of these years. Over the past couple years the groups have started to open up no matter what ammo or reloads I use. I have been reading about Barrel Brothers Wilson pre-fits and they seem to be pretty good. When I put a new barrel on a savage, I usually go criterion, Shilen and recently X-caliber on the last 3. I wanted to get some opinions on these Wilson bolt action barrels and if anyone has done business with Barrel Brothers (raggedholebarrles.com). I know cooper rifles use Wilson barrels so they can’t be too bad. Any input is much appreciated.
 
Your going to hear a ton of Pro's and Con's about the Wilson barrels. There's a post running on Accurate shooter right now about Wilson barrels. Most are Pro. Many have had good luck with them. They aren't completion quality barrels but should work just fine on a hunting rifle.
 
Thanks for the reply! It’s hard to branch out when X-caliber puts on several sales a year and a criterion can be picked up for about $315 at any time from Northland, but that $260 price point kind of peaked my interest for just a hunting rifle.
 
With today's modern technologies in building a good rifle barrel, no one owns the keys to the realm any longer that other "lesser" custom builders hope to some day copy. Those days passed for good probably 20 years ago. Today, any good custom barrel maker, Wilson included, makes great barrels that are kept to very tight tolerances for accuracy.

Wilson barrels that you will find anywhere that they are sold are Select Match Grade, button rifled barrels that are lapped and air gauged to .0002". Some other barrel maker might use a different manufacturing process such as hammer forging or cut rifle barrels, but if the process is good the barrel will be too.

I own several Cooper rifles with Wilson barrels that will hold their own in any competition setting that are chambered in normal cartridges not specifically designed and used for purely competition purposes, and I own several others that are definitely designed to be hunting rifles such as Model 52 repeaters that are extremely accurate. I truly doubt that if Wilson barrels were "hit and miss" for quality and accuracy, Dan Cooper would not have used them for years before he committed his own personal coup de grace by getting involved in politics.

In today's world, far more than just the barrel brand on a rifle makes it a "competition grade" rifle. If money is a concern, if you can buy an equally great barrel for less dollars, many people will go that route and not look back wonderng if they gave up any accuracy potential simply because the rifle that gets built will probably shoot far better than they are capable of holding it.

I wouldn't back away from a Wilson barrel for any purpose you might want to put it to. Whether its a well built custom rifle designed specifically for bench work only or whether its a hunting only grade of rifle.

EDIT: One thing that makes Wilson different as a barrel maker is the fact that you can't call them and order a single or just a couple of barrels like you can from other barrel makers. They have a very large and diverse private market for their barrels and as a result they only sell barrels to the general public through a couple of distributors who buy their barrels in quantities of 100 barrels or more. If you called Lilja you can get a single or a few barrels and in most situations they will most likely be made after the order is placed. That is not how Wilson markets their barrels, and that fact alone limits who buys and uses their barrels.

Ragged Hole Barrels is one of the two distributors that Wilson uses to market their barrels to the general public. The other one is an AR vendor in Missouri but I don't recall the name of the company offhand.

 
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I wish they made a 1-9 twist 17 caliber barrel. I would buy one. All I have seen is 1-10.

I have a couple 20 cals and they are shooters
 
Originally Posted By: Winny FanWith today's modern technologies in building a good rifle barrel, no one owns the keys to the realm any longer that other "lesser" custom builders hope to some day copy. Those days passed for good probably 20 years ago. Today, any good custom barrel maker, Wilson included, makes great barrels that are kept to very tight tolerances for accuracy.

Wilson barrels that you will find anywhere that they are sold are Select Match Grade, button rifled barrels that are lapped and air gauged to .0002". Some other barrel maker might use a different manufacturing process such as hammer forging or cut rifle barrels, but if the process is good the barrel will be too.

I own several Cooper rifles with Wilson barrels that will hold their own in any competition setting that are chambered in normal cartridges not specifically designed and used for purely competition purposes, and I own several others that are definitely designed to be hunting rifles such as Model 52 repeaters that are extremely accurate. I truly doubt that if Wilson barrels were "hit and miss" for quality and accuracy, Dan Cooper would not have used them for years before he committed his own personal coup de grace by getting involved in politics.

In today's world, far more than just the barrel brand on a rifle makes it a "competition grade" rifle. If money is a concern, if you can buy an equally great barrel for less dollars, many people will go that route and not look back wonderng if they gave up any accuracy potential simply because the rifle that gets built will probably shoot far better than they are capable of holding it.

I wouldn't back away from a Wilson barrel for any purpose you might want to put it to. Whether its a well built custom rifle designed specifically for bench work only or whether its a hunting only grade of rifle.

EDIT: One thing that makes Wilson different as a barrel maker is the fact that you can't call them and order a single or just a couple of barrels like you can from other barrel makers. They have a very large and diverse private market for their barrels and as a result they only sell barrels to the general public through a couple of distributors who buy their barrels in quantities of 100 barrels or more. If you called Lilja you can get a single or a few barrels and in most situations they will most likely be made after the order is placed. That is not how Wilson markets their barrels, and that fact alone limits who buys and uses their barrels.

Ragged Hole Barrels is one of the two distributors that Wilson uses to market their barrels to the general public. The other one is an AR vendor in Missouri but I don't recall the name of the company offhand.



I do believe their other distributor is JSE here in Dutchtown, MO. They are about 8 miles up the road from me. Good people to deal with. Thanks for the reply and info!
 
Originally Posted By: CoyotejunkiI wish they made a 1-9 twist 17 caliber barrel. I would buy one. All I have seen is 1-10.

I have a couple 20 cals and they are shooters

Thanks for the info! What kind of accuracy do you see out of them and do they clean up easy?
 
I believe my 20 Vartarg is a true .5" shooter or better at 100 yds.

My 20 Practical may also be 1/2" or better. I need to shoot it some more and really tune a load.

They both clean up easy.
 
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