Has anyone tried one of these?
http://www.montanarifleman.com/uncontoured_blanks.html
The price seems to be fairly reasonable.

Lars 45
We use these barrels all the time and can not say enough good about them. There unturned blanks are the nicest cutting material you have ever worked with. Threading them is a joy. I have three of them coming this week for jobs. Try them you won't be disappointed.

I tried them for awhile and I wasn't all that impressed with them...

I like Lothar Walther barrels and have never seen one that would pop the 1/2" mark...I have used about 15 of them, Jack Belk and Jim Brockmon talked me in to trying them...glad they did...

I'm having them put one of their stainless barrels in .358 Win on the stainless 1999 short action I have ordered from them. I'm not looking for this to be a benchrest gun, and this route is a lot easier than shipping things around to several different shops.

I'll post how it works out when it is finally done.

I'm having them install a 21" #2 in .308 on my short 1999 stainless. They are going to install the barrel and bead blast the action and barrel all for $321. I can't beat that with a 9 pound hammer for a hunting gun.

If anyone has used our barrels over the last few years I think you'll agree that our barrels now rank among the best now in the industry. Talk to Baity Custom in North Wilkesboro N.C. as he builds 1,000 yard bench rifles and one of the guns built for competition came 1 shot from "Crushing" the world record. He said and I quote "The shooter had 9 shots that were within 2.7" and 5 of those were within 2.5", one flyer brought the group out to 4.5" end quote. While I realize much of this is due to the work of Leonard Baity himself, I believe that for a gunsmith to make a very accurate rifle, he must start with a accurate barrel.
We instituted a "hand lapping" regime last year at this time and ever since customers swear by our barrels.

[ 08-01-2003, 22:39: Message edited by: Dan@Montana Rifle Co ]

Sounds good to me. I'll give you a try on my next project.

I'm still working on load development with different bullet weights and powder combinations with my 338-08 that I just got rebarrelled by MRC.

I have beed getting consistant 3-shot 100-yard groups that are running right around .5 to .75 of an inch. Several groups have put 2 shots into the same hole. I suspect it is I that is not able to keep all of them there as I am using a 4X scope and it isn't all that easy to hold the exact point of aim (within a half inch). I wobble that much!

I'm very happy with the job they did on the barrel and fitting it.

Maybe I'm too picky but how is the caliber put on the barrel? Pac Nor uses a middle school metal shop stamping set where as Krieger nicely engraves the caliber. For some reason I just find a crude stamp on a good barrel is like silver painted steel wheels on a 57 Chevy.

I'll defer to Dan for the technical answer but mine definitely is not stamped but looks more like it is engraved but I wouldn't know what procedure is used to do it.

I'm sure that if there was a question, that you could request no caliber marking and send it off to an engraver for what ever you want. My 338 win M-98 has "338 Win" in Script and looks very nice.

MRC has an electro etching machine to mark the caliber and serial numbers on the barrels and actions. I have seen this work in person and it's not only outstanding but it has me not wanting anything else. I don't know if they can do script however.

Savage99 is right, when we do rebarrel work the cartridge is electro-etched on the barrel. We used to use the stamps that you can buy from Brownells but it was not precise enough and left a lot to be desired.

I talked to Montana Rifles about barreling my new short action with a Douglas barrel. No problem, they'd do it just the way I requested.
After further investigation and some good recommendations I decided to try one of theirs instead.
They build a barrel the way I wanted it, drilled blank, button rifled, heat treated to relieve the stress, then hand lapped.
I had them put a 22" sporter weight barrel on my left hand short action. I'm having it chambered for a 358Winchester and put a 1/12 twist in it.
I'm real excited about trying this baby out.

[ 08-09-2003, 05:13: Message edited by: jbmi ]

One of the S/A SS actions I have on order will get a #3 25" SS barrel chambered in 25-284 from MRC.

It seems to be a reasonable price & if it works out I'll send them some more work. This custom rifle bug is reallllly contagious!! Bruce

Folks,
I have found that an email to Dan at Montana Rifle Co. usually gets a prompt response.
Here is a link to his email addy.
mtrifle@montanarifleman.com

I'm sure that will produce a much faster reply than post here.

I'd consider yourself lucky actually, I'll probably have to wait untill Jun of '04 for my PH series. That is what Dan told me in response to my email about projected delivery of the PH series.

Rusty
We band of brothers!