Lets talk about Shilen Barrels

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Michael J. McCasland

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I have started a project to build a varmint rifle out of a Ruger No. 3. I like the ruger single shots a lot and have found my No. 1 22-250 to be effective for my type of calling. However the 22-250 is rough on Arizona sized fox and bobcats. The rifle that I'm building is going to be a 223 rem. In the search for a barrel I've cruised the various web sites, douglas, shilen, Pac-nor, lija ...... etc. All had LONG turn arounds for barrels, 6-8 weeks. Eventually I ventured onto the Midway website and found that they carry more barrels than they advertise in the catalog and at a signifigantly reduced price from that charged from the manufacturers themselves (not really a suprise) and they have them in stock. I settled on a Shilen chrome moly (I need to blue the action anyway so stainless offered little in the way of cost savings) No.5 light varmint contour that will finish to 26 inches. The barrel is alittle bigger than I wanted, However it was in stock and is not that much heavier than the one I was looking at.

Question - Have you got any experience with the Shilen barrel - good - bad - its another tube with rifling, anything. Have you any experience with this contour?

Michael
 
Michael,
Shilen makes good barrels. The #5 contour is pretty heavy but should make for good varmint rifle when you are done. You gonna drive tacks with it?
smile.gif
 
I've had no experience with any barrels other than Shilen and have always been happy with them. So far there is a .284 stainless select match (280 Ackley Imp), a .224 #7 stainless SM (22-250), and a .172 #2 CM (17 Ackley Bee). I haven't yet shot the 17, but the other two are top notch and shoot better than I had hoped for. This is really amazing as I have been getting into a little gunsmithing and did all the work myself on those guns(including rebarreling. I did attend a 5-day gunsmithing course at Murray State College in SE OK (Tishimingo) last month and Shilen gave all students a 40% discount. I have the greatest respect for that company in supporting the gunsmithing trade. I do realize that it is just good buisiness, but it was nice nonetheless.

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Shoot straight, shoot often

Matt
 
I think most of us can't shoot well enough
to tell the difference between the top custom
barrel makers. I own Kriegers,Snake River and Shilens so far I've had very good luck with Shilens. Try Bruno's for in stock select match barrels. Also 6-8 weeks is the standard
answer from all barrel makers. I just ordered
a .20 cal Shilen the first phone person told me 6-8 weeks I asked to talk to someone elses about twist rates and he told me they weren't to busy and it should only be 4 weeks. I got it just short of four weeks. Call them.
 
I had my 7mm re-barreled with a Shilen #3 26" a few years ago. After being glass bedded and free floated, it shoots hunting ammo into .75" @ 100 yards. Go with Shilen, you won't be dissappointed.
 
MikeW - Okay I give up. The search engines are no help, how do I get in touch with Bruno's? I have aready purchased the rifle barrel for the No. 3 from Midway but I've got another 223 and this old friend needs a barrel as well.

Michael
 
MikeW - Okay never mind I found it by going threw Benchrest.com. I take it that the barrel prices are for stainless steel select match grade barrels. Not bad as far as prices are concerned.

Michael
 
Michael, I have only had a couple experiences with Shilen Barrels. One was on a Custom Remington XP-100 Handgun. This one was a 1 in 12" twist, and was chambered for the 6mm-223 cartridge. What a shooter. This barrel would put all bullet weights into the same group at 100 yards. In fact I shot several 15 shot groups (5 with 60gr. Sierra HP's, 5 with 70gr. Hornady SX's, and 5 with 80gr. Speer Spitzers into the same group) that measured slightly under an inch.

The other experience with Shilen was in the form of a Custom SSK Industries .250 Savage Contender Barrel. This too was a shooter, and would print right close to the 1/2 mark with the right loads. In fact even Remington .250 Savage 100gr. Pointed Soft Point Core-Lokt Factory Ammo printed right at 1".

Larry
 
Michael--I had a 700 Rem rebarreled to .223 in a Shilen barrel (med. sporter) in 26" about 20-25 years ago. The gun would shoot 1 hole groups at 100 yards when new and does about the same now, if I do my part.

This is going to hurt you, but with the barrel installed and ready to shoot, 2 boxes of 53 gr. Hornady HP, and 200 small rifle primers cost me $65. Work was done by an old time gunsmith that was more concerned with quality than how much he made on the project.

Another possibility is McGowan barrels (St. Anne, Illinois; I think). A couple of friends of mine have had McGowan barrels installed on rifles, and every one of them has performed superbly.
 
I have had luck with Krieger barrels. They are not a whole lot more expensive than Shilen, and they are cut rifled. They clean up like a snap.

Regards,


------------------
Regards,

Sharps Shooter.

'74 Sharps... when you care enough to use the very best.
 
Sharp shooter - For the barrel that I ordered it would cost an extra $100.00 for the Kreiger.

Steve Allen - The fellas that will install this barrel will do it for $60.00, thats thread, chamber, cut, crown and final polish. He is a locally rather famous Gunsmith that used to put together national 1000 yard high powered rifle winners. Its now a side for him and he does this work only for a select few (not sure why I'm in that select few, good referances I guess). This is a Chrome Moly barrel so it will need to be blue but, the action needs blueing anyway so this will not cost me any more. The whole job should be less than $250.00 including barrel and drilling for scope mounts (remember this a ruger No.3, bases are on the barrel). Now a scope is another story.

Michael



[This message has been edited by Michael J. McCasland (edited 07-13-2001).]
 
Michael--That sounds like a good deal to me. My barrel is a chrome moly also, and 20 years or so later it performs flawlessly if I do my part.

For scopes there are lots of good ones; mine are all Leopolds, and from what I've seen you won't go wrong with one. My predator scopes are all 4x12 vari-x 2, but North Dakota is generally fairly open country. Sometimes I can see coyotes/fox coming for over a mile in good snow conditions. This, however, would surely be too much magnification in close cover.
 
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