I was at the range early this spring and a guy was shooting next to me and we got to talking about rifles and so on and when he asked what I was shooting I told him a 6br shortentalldog hart barrel well this guy goes off the wall on how lousy etc hart barrels are, finally I got a chance to ask what happened to him with hart barrels well his gunsmith told him this so this guy had no first hand knowledge only hearsay. You just wonder some times. I've had nothing but good luck with hart barrels.

Tom , unfortunately there are too many people like that and with the internet they can spread their BS very quickly.

Sometimes even here at AR, the ridiculous is brought up and tossed around. To think that a major maker, for quite some time is suddenly inferior is so absurd as to be right up their with me wanting to hunt with Kerry and Clinton! I have been the proud owner of 5 Hart rifle barrels for more than a decade and plan to add another one soon. The service and quality is world class and the accuracy is amazing at times. Not that there aren't others who do a fine job as well, but this post seems more like a Ford vs Chevy, or is it Mazerati vs Ferrari question...

I didn't know Hart hate existed either. My first custom gun was sort of a fluke. My mother in law put my rifle (which was in a soft case) on the basement floor of our brand new house. Needless to say we had a water leak, the gun case got wet, and a couple of months later when I found it, the barrel was rusted big time. (Ruger MKII M77 in 270). She got an earful from me. I wasn't sure what to do til a local gunstore owner suggested I rebarrel it with a quality stainless barrel like Shilen or Hart. I went for the Hart. I have this gun completely blueprinted with a #1 contour, 25.5" long Hart. As of 4 hours ago it has had 250 rounds through it. Bullets were Hornady, Sierra, Barnes, Nosler, Speer, Swift, and corelokts.

After barrel break in (12 shots), I loaded up various bullets/powders, primers, etc. I never ever had a group over 1" at 100 yards. Not ONE. All were 4-5 shots strings. I couldn't believe it.

To date, in addition to the Hart, I have 2 Shilens, 2 PacNor, 1 Kostyshyn, 1 Broughton-Richards, 1 Lilja, 1 Krieger.

All are very very good barrels. But that damn Hart barrel is my first experience with a cusom barrel and made it's 'FIRST' impression on me.

I will have 2 more rifles rebarreled by next spring. Both will have Hart barrels. A third will get the Lilja tube, by next fall.

I spoke with Jim Borden from PA. He is a well respected retired engineer and current rifle maker. He stated to me that when he puts a rifle together and cannot get it to shoot, he changes out the action. He stated that "it's never the barrel, and I use Shilen, Hart, Lilja, and Spencer barrels."

He told me a story of another custom gun maker from the south that was not happy with a barrel maker because about 6-10 out of every 100 wouldn't shoot and they wouldn't replace them. So this -smith began making his own barrels. There was no mention of who the barrel maker was at that time. However, Mr. Borden restated that in his experience, it was NEVER the barrel that was inaccurate. It was the marriage between it and the particular action.

Hart barrels are a first choice for A LOT of shooters. I personally believe that the Broughton barrel was the all around best in the world when he was around. Lothar W. maybe now.