Third Installment: Barrels

[Dave Waits]

Right off of the bat, you can almost forget about using a regular Military barrel as most, while decent shooters, don't have the quality or consistancy for a Match-Rifle. Springfield Armory for example, before they had the special runs of 77-series NM barrels made, would average one acceptable barrel out of one-hundred for the earlier NM rifles.

What qualities does a NM-grade barrel have? First, it must be straight. for military barrels, garand barrels are fairly soft and easily bent. A full 90% of all Military barrels out there have a slight amount of bend. While it doesn't show at 1 or 2 hundred yards it rears it's head very well at 5 or 6 hundred.

Second, it must be Concentric. This means it has to be centered completely all the way down the bore. Not an easy thing when a company is making five or six hundred barrels or more a day.

Third, uniform depth of grooves and height of lands and consistancy of diameter. 30-06 military barrels have a groove diameter of .3008. Bores that either exceed or go under that diameter can effect consistancy of grouping by slowing the bullet slightly through constriction(Increased friction) or by letting gas escape around the bullet, slowing it down.

Springfield Armory used to test barrels for this by running a transducer down the center of the barrel then pressurizing it with compressed air at a specified level. Any tight or enlarged areas would show up as a different pressure-level on the transducer.

The only military barrels ever to regularly pass these tests were called VAR Barrels, made in Denmark and barrels made by LMR( Line Materials Company) For IHC Garands. Neither of these two barrels are around in any real quantity anymore in the required condition for a Match-Rifle(READ:UNISSUED). A TE over 1.5 or a ME over 1 isn't good enough. Further, the 77-Series NM barrels are collector-items in unissued condition, nobody will turn loose of one for under about $600.00 or so.

So, that leaves one thing for our Match-Rifle, a Commercial Barrel. Now, before you run out and buy a $450.00 Kreiger Cryogenically-Treated Heavy Match-Barrel, save your money. It takes a 'Distinguished-Master' in Service-Rifle or High-Power to realize and utilize what little extra advantage this barrel gives. So, what's that leave? Well, Criterion(Made by Kreiger) and Wilson Garand barrels are military-replacement barrels. These are Standard-contour barrels and are better than military but, they're not really a Match-Grade barrel. What I would recommend as the best Match-barrel for a person who is not a Distinguished-Master is a las heavy-contour Garand barrel in 30-06 with a 1 in 10,six-groove, righthand twist. The only modification to the stockset for this barrel is hollowing out the rear handguard. The 1 in 10 twist is a better twist for the 168 and 175 grain Sierra Matchking Bullet. Cost of these Barrels is $285.00 direct from las Barrels.

[Thedragonslayer]

Dave i obviously dont get out much (i.e. away from the table - chatbox)... I just found this, but dont have time to read it all now, so that will have to be later.

Thanks for the hard work on this!

[Thedragonslayer]

Dave it looks like your laying a great foundation to build a really nice long distance shooter! Thanks for the detailed information. Very Cool!