What Barrel Co.

[Herb]

I built with a Colerain once, and pulled the fitted breech plug. It lacked about .050" from bottoming, so I had to refit it. I have heard this from others, there has been discussion, I think on this forum, of fitting breech plugs. These are good barrels, but that is one thing to check. I just bore-scoped all of my ML barrels, including a new .54 English Sporter by Colerain, 1 1/8" tapered to 1", 32 inches long, with fitted plug. The bore is very good, but I'm going to pull that plug (English square hooked breech and tang) to see how it is fitted. Can't remember where I got it, must have been a trade.

Rice barrels have perfectly fitted plugs, if you buy them with the plug installed, .50 inches long, perfect for building. Beautiful bores, even under 25X magnification. I have never had a Getz barrel, and my one Long Hammock I traded off. Think I built with a Rayl, but can't remember (I'm in the 40's now (number built) and can't always find my notes). Green Mountain barrels are very good now, better than they used to be. They do not have plugs installed and they are tapped for a .625" long plug. I have cut a lot of them to .50 long, even for Hawken patent breeches, but that makes a much better fit for a flint rifle. The Hawkeye bore scope revealed that several of my Green Mtn barrels are premium, along with the Rice barrels and a couple of Green River barrels I have.

Go to the Gun Builders Bench, my post of 12/25/11 ".50 Flint Lancasters- a Left and a Right". See how that swamped 42" B weight Rice barrel shot at 100 yards. The left-handed Green Mountain barreled rifle would likely have shot that well, too, given the same sights. It had a beautiful bore. I believe a Green Mountain barrel would be a good choice for you, very good and least costly.

 

[rabjr]

The guns I have wear Rice, Colerain, Charles Burton barrels and all shoot better than I can hold them. Also had an Ed Rayl barrel that was a tack driver as well. :thumbsup:

 

[Shine]

Charles Burton all the way :thumbsup:

 

[Herb]

I just pulled that Colerain breech plug, with the hooked tang soldered onto the plug. Clamped it in my big bench vise with tin padded jaws, fit the 12" crescent wrench tight next to the joint and gave it a good bap with a hammer. Broke free and then I was able to unscrew it with my fingers. The plug was greased, which I do not do. (Grease can bleed out and not allow the joint to brown). The plug was beautifully bottomed, but the end of the bore looked odd- there was a steel spacer there with a .395" hole, seemed to be about .050" thick. Either I did this 6 or 8 years ago and don't remember it, or someone I got it from. Colerain didn't do this.

When I come to use this barrel, I'll remove that steel shim and file the back of the barrel off to fully seat the plug. How much? The plug is 3/4" by 16, meaning it takes 16 turns to move an inch. Dividing one inch by 16, the plug moves .0625" per turn. But I need move it only .050" (will measure exactly when shim is removed). So .050 divided by .0625 means I have to turn it .8 of a full turn. Eight flats times .8 means 6.4 flats. I measure everything and smoke up the interior threads and plug when it is close to fitting. The interior nose of the plug should bottom at the same time the end of the barrel hits the plug base.

The powder cavity is .375" wide and .275" deep and not polished. I drill that cavity to 7/16" wide and polish it. But back to your barrel choice- Rice is my first choice, but Green Mountains are good, too.

 

Had several chances to talk to nationally known gunbuilders over the last few years at both Friendship and the CLA show. All of them use Rice barrels as their standard unless the client insist on another barrel.

 

[RBrooks]

Don't forget to check out Mark DeHass as a
great barrel maker. He built my 50 cal and
right out of the box it placed 3 rounds in the
same hole on first test shoot.

He is a small builder from Missouri but super
quality

 

[LRB]

As Col. Charles Askins once said. The only rifles worth discussing are accurate rifles.

Dang, all this time I thought Townsend Whelen said that.

Old Charly Askins was of a dying breed.

Bob

The first time I read the quote, it was attributed to Askins. Who said it first is of no concern to me, it pretty much sums it all up. Just for the record, I prefer RICE barrels over the other non custom tubes for all the pre-mentioned reasons.

 

[flaming canvas]

I have one Colerain barrel on an Issac Haines and it shoots better than I do.

Two more that I haven't wrung out yet are a Sharon and a Resley. I'm going to have to make it a point to give them a good run out this spring.

 

[Capt. Jas.]

For a rifle barrel, I would choose Rice, Rayl or Charles Burton. Your builder may also have a preference. There are some who refuse to use certain barrels, locks, etc. If you go with any of the cheaper semi-production types the above barrels will probably be only available as additionally priced options and not their standard. I would go with a builder who uses quality parts as a matter of practice and not exception.

 

[paulvallandigham]

My brother has a barrel from Mark Dehaas, and its the best of quality. Mark's father was a gun and barrel maker, and Mark was a sniper in Vietnam. He knows rifles, and rifle barrels. If you can get one of his barrels, you won't be disappointed.

 

[LRB]

Last I heard, Dehaas makes only straight barrels, no swamped. That eliminates 18th c. type guns.

 

[DEWB]

DeHaas also makes tapered barrels. I Have one on my Stith Hawken that I built. Shoots real gooood!

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Any of the makers listed can provide a barrel well fit for offhand or light bench shooting.

There are dozens of specialty barrel makers who make special purpose barrels. I recently met two brothers from Robesonia PA that make false muzzle cross patch muzzleloader barrels capable of one hole five shot groups at 100 yds.

In my experience H&H made the absolute most accurate muzzleloader barrels. I don't even know if those guys are still alive. Bob Hoyt in Fairfield PA is probably next.

There are some types of rifling that are better for one type of bullet or another, or are made to minimize the effects of fouling in the bore.

Accuracy is all relative. The shooter is only so good. Even if a perfect shooter existed, the configuration of the rifling between barrels may only amount to a millimeter of group size in a thirty shot group. Such differences are minor to most folks, but major to competitive match shooters for whom a millimeter better in 30 or 40 shots may mean a single point more in a match. Such matches are won or lost based on such differences.

 

[ODG34]

I have a Green Mountain. It is a great barrel. It loads great and shoots very accurate all day long. The rifling has narrow lands and wide groves so you can load it tight. I never swab between shots by the way.

 

[Darrell Maxwell]

:hatsoff: :hatsoff: CHARLIE BURTON has my vote great guy to deal with ! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[texcl]

I've used rice, long hammock and colerain and I prefer rice by a good margin.

 

[Dphar]

Had several chances to talk to nationally known gunbuilders over the last few years at both Friendship and the CLA show. All of them use Rice barrels as their standard unless the client insist on another barrel.

Please read this letter to John Baird then editor of the Buckskin Report magazine. It was sent in response to a series of articles that had been published. I can furnish the issue if you want but I cropped the scan to take off a cartoon at the bottom of the page to reduce the size and removed the attribution. The discussion, pro-con continued from Sept 1981 through most of 1982.

Green Mountain barrels are harder to get in many cases but are excellent quality and are made of certified 1137.

Tip Curtis usually has a good supply of GM barrels, straight and swamped.

Dan