I'll second the Savage. Any time one of the gun rags does somekind of shoot out between factory rifles the Savages are always in the top, usualy 1st or 2nd. Sometimes against pretty expensive semi-customs also. The sad thing is I can't bring my self to buy one.
Shawn
Posts: 773 | Location: Louisiana | Registered: 31 May 2002
I'm going to go left field here and say Kimber, but that's only because Shilen used to make their barrels. Don't know if that's true anymore but it used to be.
Posts: 852 | Location: Austin | Registered: 24 October 2003
I would also agree that Savage likely makes the very best factory barrel.
The outfit that OBTAINS the best barrels for installation on production-grade rifles is Weatherby. The button-rifled Kreiger Criterian (SP?) barrels they provide on the some of the varmint rifles, etc. that they offer are simply fantastic.
A gunsmith friend of mine videotaped borescoping a bunch of rifles. I will not list the inferior looking barrels, but all major brands were included. Of the ones looked at, the best were Browning and Tikka. We are not talking a little bit better, they were far better than the rest. The inferior ones looked like the Remington barrel on the Lilja website. Kimber does make their own barrels now and as I have not seen one borescoped, I cannot make any comments about the quality of their barrel.
Aaron
Posts: 174 | Location: Utah | Registered: 15 August 2003
allen, the Krieger Criterion is no longer made (at least not by Krieger). Krieger now manufactures only single-point, cut riflings barrels. I think they did this to avoid confusion when it might come up that "a Krieger don't shoot no better then a Remington factory barrel, so why pay the difference?"
Posts: 2758 | Location: Fernley, NV-- the center of the shootin', four-wheelin', ATVin' and dirt-bikin' universe | Registered: 28 May 2003
