Has anyone used Wilson rifle bbl? What were your experiences? My understanding is they are used on Cooper rifles, so I would think they should be decent quality. Thanks.

I have used them; really, most any barrel made today works as a hunting rifle. I put Wilsons at or near the bottom of the barrel, , but realize that the barrel has a lot of good barrel makers in it these days. If they were truly bad, they would not be in business at all.

Wilson on a 300 Blackout AR, very nice.

The Wilson barrel company and Coopper rifles are owned by the same person . I was at Wilson barrels soon after he purchased it . The building and inventory was greatly increased .
I prefer the early Wilson barrels . Current Wilson barrels are ok for hunting rifles and are button rifled but not hand lapped .

In no particular order but barrels I would use before using a Wilson are:

Bartlein
Hawk Hill
Mullerworks
Rock Creek
Brux
Kreiger

quote:

Originally posted by boliep:
In no particular order but barrels I would use before using a Wilson are:

Bartlein
Hawk Hill
Mullerworks
Rock Creek
Brux
Kreiger

Not really a fair comparison. Wilson is a large volume production button rifled barrel maker. The others you have mentioned are small custom primarily cut rifled barrel makers. I'd take a Rolls Royce over my Chevy to if someone else was paying for it. But the Chevy will still get the groceries home.

Along with the several thousand Kriegers and other premium barrels I have contoured and installed over the last 15 years or so, I have turned and chambered about 20,000 Wilsons. While maybe not a benchrest quality barrel, they are a damn fine barrel overall and I have seen them win at the highest levels in HP competition including winning national championships. Maybe some of the reason people have trouble with them is that when someone buys a low cost barrel, they give it to a low cost gunsmith to install. But when they have a problem, the barrel maker gets the blame, not bubba.

While Krieger is one of the best at what they do, I believe Wilson is one of the best at what they do. That is make a LOT of very good barrels for an extremely fair price, and have excellent customer service on top of that which is dang hard to find in this industry.

John

Using your comparison between a Chevy and a Rolls Royce is not a good one.

The quality barrel makers I mentioned only retail in the middle $300 dollar range. Your comparison should make a Wilson sell for about $35.00.

I do agree that a cheap gunsmith will cause problems that could affect accuracy. But the cost difference of the barrel is negligible.

good barrels, not heard anything great about them RECENTLY, though .. if it turns your crank, go for it

quote:

Originally posted by boliep:
Using your comparison between a Chevy and a Rolls Royce is not a good one.

The quality barrel makers I mentioned only retail in the middle $300 dollar range. Your comparison should make a Wilson sell for about $35.00.

I do agree that a cheap gunsmith will cause problems that could affect accuracy. But the cost difference of the barrel is negligible.

I believe you should listen to John. His company produces the top shooting uppers for the SR people as well as others. He knows what barrels cost as he has purchased and chambered many thousands of them.

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
good barrels, not heard anything great about them RECENTLY, though .. if it turns your crank, go for it

How recent would you like?

http://www.illinoishighpower.o...woolard_results.html

Competitor HP SS HP PR HP PS Aggregate
1 Elsenboss/Barnhart 197 - 3 199 - 10 200 - 11 596 - 24
2 Holliger/Utley 195 - 3 200 - 7 199 - 6 594 - 16

Team Member HP SS HP PR HP PS Aggregate
Utley, Justin (5046) * 99 - 2 100 - 1 99 - 3 298 - 6
Holliger, John (6131) * 96 - 1 100 - 6 100 - 3 296 - 10


Come on out to a match sometime, I'll loan you a rifle.

John

Ive always felt the barrel was the very heart of the rifle and like most anything else going cheap can sure cost you a bundle..I won't use a Wilson or a Shaw..and I lean towards Lothar Walther barrels, Krieger and such. but then I use cheap cameras and take lousy pictures, thus the human mind works..

This is ancient history but I will throw in my 2 cents.

I am a Douglas fan. They are a great barrel for my purposes (accurate hunting rifle).

But.....

The Shaw barrel of today is not the Shaw barrel of 1965. They shoot. My friend builds a lot of guns with Shaw barrels.

I have used Wilson barrels from way back before they got into the AR barrel making business. They were all very good barrels. I built quite a few 257 Roberts guns out of them. I acquired a stainless 7mm from Brian Perrazone (on clearance for $60.00) in the Adirondacks before he got so busy fighting the wars on terrorism. My friend bore scoped it and said it was a finely finished inside as any Hart he had ever scoped. That became a 280 AI and is a phenomenal shooter.

Many Highpower competitors will use Wilson barrels for competiton their justification being that that they can have 3 or 4 Wilsons for the price of one Krieger and it is more cost effective to change out the Wilsons as the one rap they have is not lasting as long as a Krieger.

I do not know if the Wilson of today is the same as I didn't know they were bought out. Rock River uses or used to use Wilsons and I know from talking to the folks at Wilson back in the day that they reserved their very best stainless AR-15 barrels in 1:8 twist for Rock River NM guns and uppers.

Bottomline I don't need a benchrest accurate barrel in the field. When I was in Africa the PH was thrilled that I shot off of my hands and not the bags during sight-in. He told me that he can tell right off if a guy spends a longtime getting the bags perfect for the shot he will be trouble in the field. He told me that it is never perfect out there! (in the field)

quote:

Not really a fair comparison. Wilson is a large volume production button rifled barrel maker. The others you have mentioned are small custom primarily cut rifled barrel makers. I'd take a Rolls Royce over my Chevy to if someone else was paying for it. But the Chevy will still get the groceries home.

Along with the several thousand Kriegers and other premium barrels I have contoured and installed over the last 15 years or so, I have turned and chambered about 20,000 Wilsons. While maybe not a benchrest quality barrel, they are a damn fine barrel overall and I have seen them win at the highest levels in HP competition including winning national championships. Maybe some of the reason people have trouble with them is that when someone buys a low cost barrel, they give it to a low cost gunsmith to install. But when they have a problem, the barrel maker gets the blame, not bubba.

While Krieger is one of the best at what they do, I believe Wilson is one of the best at what they do. That is make a LOT of very good barrels for an extremely fair price, and have excellent customer service on top of that which is dang hard to find in this industry.

This is an excellent post, well reasoned.

I won, placed, in many an across the course match with Wilson barrels. I have met, pulled targets with, a number of National Champions who won at Camp Perry with Wilson barrels. This primarily in the service rifle category. I met guys who won the events with stock box NM Armalite AR16's and Bushmasters, the rifles had Wilson match barrels on them.

Shoot groups like this, prone with a sling, with iron sights, with a Wilson barrel, you will figure out Wilson barrels are fine.








In fact, I am going to state that even plain jane cheap barrels, such as Green Mountain, will shoot inside the hold of 99% percent of the shooters out there. Based on what I have seen on web forums, where most of the posters spend seven days a week on the internet, plain jane cheap barrels will shoot inside the hold of 99.99999% of that group. I do have Krieger barrels on some rifles, and they are excellent barrels. If you think that you can buy better groups, that is trade off practice, and buy expensive equipment that will compensate for your poor shooting skills, you are wrong, but, you can buy excellent equipment that will out shoot you. Unless you are at the range shooting, improving on your shooting skills, you won't notice the difference between great barrels and average.

Right. As I have said, there are no sub moa rifles (barrels) under field/hunting conditions.
I know, all AR members can shoot sub MOA groups from standing, at any distance with any rifle. Please do not PM me with more hate mail.
But from the guys I see at the range, preparing for their next Colorado Elk hunt, let's just say, that they shoot barely well enough (from a bench no less) to hit an elk, but they do kill them.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Right. As I have said, there are no sub moa rifles (barrels) under field/hunting conditions.

If I can shoot sitting with a sling, I can really place them. This was fired from an M1a in an XTC match. I was lucky that it was the second stage of the sitting rapid fire match, and that my relay went into the pitts. I have shot lots of cleans at 200 and 300 yards, but usually, the targets are pasted over before I get down there. You think eight shots within three inches, fired in 60 seconds, from standing, with a mandatory reload, that I might be able to take advantage of the accuracy afforded by an accurate rifle?

quote:

I know, all AR members can shoot sub MOA groups from standing, at any distance with any rifle.

I did win my class standing at Camp Perry one day, got a nice little Gold Medal, but I am not really a good off hand shooter. I was proud of this, standing, 100 yards, in a 100 yard XTC match, with an M1a.



When I go down to CMP Talladega, I enjoy shooting a little offhand. Generally with my sporter rifles, I can hold the nine, sometime I get a leaker in the eight ring at 200 yards. At 300 yards, if I can hold the black, I am very happy. You see, the thing is, you have to shoot your rifle enough to know how it responds, and you have to understand your limitations. I would not shoot at anything at 200 yards or 300 yards unless I had a good rest, because I know, that I have an ethical obligation to kill an animal as quickly and cleanly as possible.