I have a spare Oberndorf made 98k action. I am kicking around making a 9.3 x 62. This will be a solid, not fancy, blue and walnut gun for North America; Africa may happen sometime way down the road.

What would be a good barrel length?
I am thinking of a 4 wt Douglas with 1:12 twist.

quote:

Originally posted by airgun1:
I have a spare Oberndorf made 98k action. I am kicking around making a 9.3 x 62. This will be a solid, not fancy, blue and walnut gun for North America; Africa may happen sometime way down the road.

What would be a good barrel length?
I am thinking of a 4 wt Douglas with 1:12 twist.

Something along the lines of a 24" #3, with a 12" or 14" twist will serve you well.

23" to 24" is about ideal.

quote:

Originally posted by airgun1:
I have a spare Oberndorf made 98k action. I am kicking around making a 9.3 x 62. This will be a solid, not fancy, blue and walnut gun for North America; Africa may happen sometime way down the road.

What would be a good barrel length?
I am thinking of a 4 wt Douglas with 1:12 twist.

airgun1,

I picked a 24" Shilen barrel with a 1:12 twist when I had this built:





Can and would recommend 24" at 1:12

My Sauer 200 is 23.6 inches just about right...could even go down to 20 but on a 98 longer looks a little better! Here is my 9.3x62

I had my custom made with a 25in barrel (I'm happy with that choice); and I have a Heym carbine with a 20.5in barrel - like it, too!

quote:

Originally posted by Antlers:
I had my custom made with a 25in barrel (I'm happy with that choice); and I have a Heym carbine with a 20.5in barrel - like it, too!

It's hard not to like a 9,3x62, no matter what the barrel length. I've had them from 20" to 26" and the way I build them, my 24" feels no different than my 20" did.

My Merkel is 18", my Savage is 20", my Sedgley is 24". They all work just fine.

I had a Sako model 75 rebarreled with a 23 inch Shilen #3. It worked out really well.

23 inches is about right to me..

M

You might check out Lothar Walther. I bought one of their threaded, contoured, and crowned barrels in 9.3X62. It was $235. #720 contour- 23.62" long and .650" at the muzzle. The lands, grooves, and twist are European spec. 4-groove, Bore- .354" Groove- .365" Twist- 14.2". I asked Woodleigh if this would stabilize their 320gr bullet... They said it works just fine.

I know and use lothar walther barrels on smallbore, air rifle, and air pistols; I know they are very accurate.

The bigger calibers are not high on my list in their barrels as they tend to be harder to fit than US made barrels, chippy hard. You have to use the right gunsmith.

There are plenty of great barrels out there, but for a solid hunting rifle, I will stick with Douglas.

Yes, they(LW barrels) are a pain in the machinability department. As far as barrel length(the question I failed to answer, sorry), I always tend to stay at 23"(although for the 9.3 I'm building, I'm going with a 20" barrel in a Mannlicher stock). I have a 98 Mauser in 35 Whelen improved with a Douglas #3 finished out at 23" and I cannot think of a more perfect combination. Easy to carry, but not so light as to be brutal in recoil. I think a #4 contour in 9.3 would be fine at 23", but maybe just a CH on the heavy side(if your going to be doing a lot of hiking). Whatever you choose, I would like to see the finished product.

quote:

Originally posted by airgun1:
I have a spare Oberndorf made 98k action

What a shit problem to have!

I don't actually have that problem anymore as I traded the gun to a friend for a nice VZ-24 action. I just could not take the barrel off of the donor action. I did steal the stock, but that was really why I bought that gun.

I have two custom 9.3's, a Dave Norin and a Dane Burns/Mike Kizler rifle. They both have 24" barrels. I am 6'4" and the longer barrels balance better for me...

I can highly recommend the Lothar Walther barrel. I have been useing their barrels ever since they set up shop in the U.S. I have NEVER had any problem with machinability. The key is in useing the correct coolant. I like Tap Magic. Yes they are tougher barrels than others therefore they last the CUSTOMER a hell of a lot longer than others. I could care less that I might need to have a reamer sharpened a tad more often. Reamers are CONSUMABLE tooling as far as I am concerned. I want my customers barrel to serve them for many many years. Any gunsmith who is MORE concerned about his reamer than YOUR barrel quality is in the wrong mindset. Just keep in mind that not all gunsmith are also machinest that's probably why they are not more knowledgeable about machining more exotic high quality metals.