Green Mountain barrels

[MIBULLETS]

Wow, thanks for all the responses! It sounds that generally they are pretty good. Which is kind of what I thought I had heard. Seems like for the money it may be just what I want.

[260Ackley]

What are you guys doing to contour them? Is your gunsmith willing to turn them down? I've contemplated them a lot but all my builds are sporter weight. I'm not a fan of truck axles on my rifles.

[trotterlg]

I usually just do two tapers on them, one steep in front of the chamber to get down to about .75 and then a shallow one to about .600 at the muzzle. I just offset the tailstock and cut it straight. Then I just make it look nice with a file, takes me about an hour. Larry

[L.Sherm]

I have 3 GM barrels and they all shoot as good as my lilja,shilen,douglas barrels I also have a pac-nor that i would give the nod to cleaning up better. For hunting or sage rat hunting I will not buy another 300$ barrel again. There is another barrel company in Kalispell,Mt. that i would try there barrels are close to the same money as GM barrels but there handlapped and they are just about to offer a 1-11 twist 3 groove 20 cal. For I believe around 150$. I do know for sure there equipment is some of the best out there would be worth a look and a phone call.

[Chuck Miller]

Every time I talk to a gunsmith about contouring a barrel it's usually 70 to 125.00, depending on how proud of his work he is. The next thing out of his mouth is the disclaimer for accuracy because of the lack of heat treatment.

[trotterlg]

BS, he just doesn't like to do the work. Larry

[sicero]

I'd rather have Mountdoug do a root canal for me. lol Kenny

[Nor Cal Mikie]

FWIW, GM barrels arn't lapped!
I wanted to build another wildcat (before I got on to GM) and didn't want to spend more $$ on a BIG $$ barrel and not like the chambering. I went with a Wilson barrel that I picked up for "next to nothing". I was told that it was junk because it "wasn't lapped"? Turned out to be one of my better shooting barrels.
Funny how, as we get older, we get something stuck in our heads and it's hard to think in a different way.
If you think you need to lap your barrel, go for it. My GM barrels are as smooth as silk when it comes to cleaning and shoot bug hole accuracy.
I leave mine like they come. No tapering needed for bench shooting. I prefer a heavy "straight pipe".
Mike

[rick w.]

If you have ever tapered or contoured a straight blank, it is very laborious and time consuming. Always the chance for chatter with the smaller diameters, just not my idea of a good time really. That said, I have done it, but came away with the idea of having it done for 20-30 bucks is a good deal if you can stand the potential results. I taper with the offset tailstock method, actually have a separate tailstock just for tapering, and my lathe is long enough to have both tailstocks in place with the specific use. RPM, speed of feed, depth of cut, and cutter design all come into play I think in tapering a barrel. Most smiths will not consider tapering a barrel anymore, due to the labor, hassle, and low pay for such.

If a barrel maker has not made a bad barrel, he has not been in the business very long. Just depends on what he does about it. We are blessed with many good barrel makers in this country, most will stand behind their product. My labor/time to put on a barrel is pretty insignificant compared to the labor making that barrel.

I have never seen any writeups on how GM performs their barrel manufacture with specifics, only have internet hearsay on my part. My 17AH shoots ok and cleans easily, so what else is there. Will the next barrel procurement be the same?...............who knows, I don't.

I do wish that GM would consider doing some type of sporter tapers on their 17 and 22 lines, but not so far I reckon.

We all expect the world for 20 bucks anymore, sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't.

[Chuck Miller]

I think Larry nailed it, they don't want to do the work. If you look at this list of gunsmiths we use they all have one thing in common. Nowhere on their price list do they even mention a labor cost to contour your barrel blank. I've talked to most of them over time and the best any of them would do is to slightly modify an existing contour at the breech end, usually to line up with receiver diameter(usually on small Sako's) and you paid for that lathe time in the chambering cost. As for 20-30 bucks to contour a barrel, not sure where that number came from as the last quote I got was a labor charge of 35.00hr and a estimate of 2-4hrs and the clock started ticking the moment he took my blank out of the box. Curious, how long does it take to turn a straight 1" tube down to a #3 contour sporter from setup to taking the finished product off the lathe, anyone?

Gretan
Mike Bryant
Kevin Weaver
Bob Green
Kevin Rayhill