I am considering the purchase of a new rifle in the very near future.My quest from all the learned nimrods in our respective forum is which <B>factory</B>barrel is the most accurate,in your opinion?RemingtonRugerSavageBrowningTikka

Looking to purchase a rifle based on it's barrel...hmmm. Barrels wear out and are easily replaced with much better barrels. Why not look for one with the features you desire. Maybe one with a proven track record for accuracy, with a wide variety of available accessories, easily obtainable parts? That's what I would look for in a rifle if I wasn't able to build my own. Anything on your list you see that meets this criteria?

Of those 5, Tikka has by far the best factory barrel. At least they did before the Italians bought them, but I believe they still make their own barrels.

I bought a Tika T3/Tactical some one year ago and round count is very near 800 now and can report the barrel has always been very easy to clean and no copper wash visible even after some 30 round strings in less than 30 minutes. Accuracy is very good, caliber 308, and w/ good loads is solid 1/2 moa rifle at about any range you might try. Will say that in the past have shot some Remington Varmint models in 308 that did as well, but after a fair amount of breaking in and vigorous cleaning exercises. Don't think you would go wrong with a Tika.

I once went to the range with two new,unfired barrels in 300wm and fired the same loads in both rifles at 200yds.One was a new factory Winchester rifle and the other a Sako with a Krieger CM barrel with a muzzle break.To my surprise ,the groups from the Winchester rifle were much smaller than the other.Both groups got smaller,but the Winchester shot 5 shot one hole groups.

quote:

Originally posted by shootaway:
I once went to the range with two new,unfired barrels in 300wm and fired the same loads in both rifles at 200yds.One was a new factory Winchester rifle and the other a Sako with a Krieger CM barrel with a muzzle break.To my surprise ,the groups from the Winchester rifle were much smaller than the other.Both groups got smaller,but the Winchester shot 5 shot one hole groups.

Doesn't mean a thing except perhaps that the Winchester liked that particular load on that day.

quote:

Originally posted by Westpac:

quote:

Originally posted by shootaway:
I once went to the range with two new,unfired barrels in 300wm and fired the same loads in both rifles at 200yds.One was a new factory Winchester rifle and the other a Sako with a Krieger CM barrel with a muzzle break.To my surprise ,the groups from the Winchester rifle were much smaller than the other.Both groups got smaller,but the Winchester shot 5 shot one hole groups.

Doesn't mean a thing except perhaps that the Winchester liked that particular load on that day.

and every other day,and every other load? Also had a Reminton factory 308 that couldn't be beat.

Nothing is set in stone when it comes to accuracy and factory guns. You can't pick which manufacturer produces the most accurate gun these day's because someone will have experienced something entirely different. But you can pick a manufacturer who has a proven track record for out of the box accuracy. If one bases his choice on this more than "who has the best barrel", the odds that he will have something capable will then be in his favor.

here is a pic of some groups I fired from my tikka t3 lite 30-06 this is a 6.25# rifle, loads are mearly what I thought looked good in the manual, no laddar testing, 4 different bullets 3 different powders, agg of all groups is in the .5's be careful with tikkas though you will get pissed off at the guns you have spent tons more money on. I have shot some .25 ragged holes with this gun, if I ladder tested the loads I don't have much doubt I could find a load that ragged holed. the only problem with the gun is I don't care for clips, or I would be an even bigger fan.

Savage.

The 2 most accurate riflebrands of the mentioned, is Tikka and Savage, but not because of their barrelquality.
The Tikka because of its werry RIDGID reciever
The Savage because of its "FLOATING" boltfront

In the case of the savage it does have a lot to do with the barrel. Their barrels are button rifled while the virtually everyone else hammer forges their barrels. Everything else being equal, a button rifled barrel will generally shoot better than hammer forged. Savage does have some other things going for it like the self centering bolt head and easy headspacing due to the action nut, but generally their barrels are better than any other mass produced rifles out there.

Browning barrels are button rifled as well.