A friend asked if I could help him rebarrel a '98 large ring Mauser cheap and I suggested we could install an A&B barrel at the least cost.

I went to midway and finally found A&B barrels short chambered for mauser but there's no data to tell me what is a series 2 or series 3 nor what the barrel contour dimensions are.

I couldn't find A&Bs website and maybe someone here can tell me about them.

I've used a few as the local gunshop has several in stock but the selection he has now are all too heavy for a 7X57 light sporter.

Well the series 2 is the small ring. The series 3 is the large ring 98.

The 1 contour is very light the 3 is the sporter and the 5 is the varmint. The 4 is only in the larger bore.


I built a light 257 on the 1 contour. It is only 21"



A&B is now on battenfeldtechnologies.

Vapo

based on my experience with one in particular, they are too damn heavy for what they are, which is why I started that recontouring thread awhile back.

quote:

Originally posted by 22WRF:
Vapo

based on my experience with one in particular, they are too damn heavy for what they are, which is why I started that recontouring thread awhile back.

Boy!...Yes, I remember it!!! Another AR whizzer!!!

They do make lighter contours however. Reports are mixed on performance as well but this guy wants to spend very little on it and he's paying the tab!

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
Well the series 2 is the small ring. The series 3 is the large ring 98.

The 1 contour is very light the 3 is the sporter and the 5 is the varmint. The 4 is only in the larger bore.

Try this
http://www.midwayusa.com/midwayusa/StaticPages/charts/Barrel%20Dimensions.pdf

I built a light 257 on the 1 contour. It is only 21" Here it is in 7x57.
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=413837

If not choose the barrel open specs and there will be a link to contours.

A&B is now on battenfeldtechnologies.
http://www.battenfeldtechnologies.com/adamsandbennett/

Ramrod340,
Thanks for the links but they was of no help to me as they don't tell me dimensions or I was unable to open one of them.

I do appreciate knowing that series 2 is small ring and series 3 is large ring. That helps.

Well I had trouble with the link as well and deleted it.When I clicked on the one in your followup it opened but the numbers don't look right.

Measuring my 257. #1 it is 21" long. .550" and the tip. At about 6" in front of the action it is 1.14". I'd call it between a Douglas #1&2.

Here's a scan from their catalog:

South40,
Thanks.....that's just what I was looking for.

Vapo

Hey Vapo,
I used one of their's for my Browning FN and converted to a 6.5-06 from a 264 mag. The rifle is probably the most accurate I have.#54 taper
Dan

I've used the F14 and F34 in the large ring. IMO, the F34 is way too heavy to be considered a "medium sporter". It's more like a "heavy". The F14 works very well for a "light" sporter.

quote:

Originally posted by craigster:
I've used the F14 and F34 in the large ring. IMO, the F34 is way too heavy to be considered a "medium sporter". It's more like a "heavy".

Agreed, I have seen the F34 barrels and they are heavy for sure.

I think this is what 22WRF was talking about.

Seems A&B could do a bit of improving on their contours as 21" is a bit short for a lot of folks!

Yea, I bought an F34 from Midway a year ago becasue they had a sale on the thing. I think I paid something like 60 bucks for it. I bought it to make a .300 Winnie and when I ordered it I thought it would be okay for that caliber. turns out it was pretty darn heavy but I couldn't find a soul to recontour it for less than twice what I paid for the damn thing. turns out the guy that installed it for me did a good job becasue it shoots pretty well.
Nevertheless, If I had it to do all over again I would have coughed up the extra bucks and bought either a Douglas or a Wilson.

VD , I own 3 rifles with AB barrels . 2 are satisfactory and one is a dog. Mixed bag for sure. roger

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:
VD , I own 3 rifles with AB barrels . 2 are satisfactory and one is a dog. Mixed bag for sure. roger

Roger,
seems that we just are not finding a cheap barrel for this guy so I called him and talked him into an upgrade to E R Shaw.

With any luck they won't be able to deliver and I'll be able to talk him into a Douglas ultrarifled where he should be in the first place.

What fun this is!!!!

Have you considered a take off barrel?

Ebay might offer you something real cheap.

quote:

Have you considered a take off barrel?

I agree. People post take off MKX and Daly barrels. I have and had many. I have never had one that wouldn't shoot subMoa. The new Daly is a nice light contour. My wife had a 7X57 built on a 22 Daly. It shoots .75MOA with her shooting handloads.

I picked hers up from Davis May (yamyor38@pld.com). He sells (or at least did) sell a lot of Daly and MKX parts.

if you click on teh techincal info on midway, it also lists the contours. the f34 is heavy and the f44 is heavier STILL.. and if you buy a 26" un threaded, the "extra" 2 inches is in the shank... so if you cut off 1" from either end, it comes thicker.

but, they generally shoot pretty good

jeffe

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
.......so I called him and talked him into an upgrade to E R Shaw.

With any luck they won't be able to deliver and I'll be able to talk him into a Douglas ultrarifled where he should be in the first place.

I wouldn't consider Shaw an upgrade. I had the opportunity to recontour a Shaw barrel. It was to be thinned a mere 0.010" and the first pass of .002" bowed the barrel. I've recontoured dozens of mauser milsurp barrels with nary a problem.

Hopefully you'll be able to talk him into the better barrel.

I'd agree with the comments of reasonably accurate, and heavy. I have had one of their 35 cal barrels for years. First a 35 whelen ackley, now a 350 Rigby. I can't complain about the consistant 3/4" 3 shot 100 yd groups. I can complain about the barrel taking an inordinate amount of effort to clean, and the weight. It's heavy enough that I got a 350 rem mag ruger rifle as a replacement.

If one isn't going to shoot the gun alot, doesn't want the smallest possible groups, and doesn't mind some effort cleaning, they are fairly priced. If however one wants a nice barrel, you have to pay for quality.

E R Shaw quoted 14-16 week delivery.....which means they don't have them!!! I did find a 7 mm bore from a take off in Arizona that I bought.

Cheap is worthless if they aren't available or don't come close to meeting the requirements.

Paul H,

I just noticed your tag line ... and had a huge chuckle. My .458 AR is in progress. Is based on a Parker-Hale action that I bought on the forum. It had a 7mm Rem Mag barrel mounted when I got it

Sure gave me a chuckle.

I'd use a Lothar Walther Article 700 series barrel.

They're lapped, exceptionally well finished, and long chambered so you don't need a reamer to fit them.

flaco

N.B Did I say you can get one for just about $200?

Without a doubt the Lothar Walther barrels are exceptional but, they are not any lighter than the A&B F34.

quote:

Originally posted by flaco:
I'd use a Lothar Walther Article 700 series barrel.

They're lapped, exceptionally well finished, and long chambered so you don't need a reamer to fit them.

flaco

N.B Did I say you can get one for just about $200?

The LW is 10 times the barrel for 2 times the money.

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

Cheap is worthless if they aren't available or don't come close to meeting the requirements.

Just curious, what are the expectations of a cheap barrel?

quote:

Originally posted by malm:

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

Cheap is worthless if they aren't available or don't come close to meeting the requirements.

Just curious, what are the expectations of a cheap barrel?

Ain't that a can of worms

Some folks expect them to shoot say 1 1/2" groups @ 100yds, others expect them to be every bit as good as a top notch barrel, but at a fraction of the cost.

quote:

Originally posted by Paul H:

quote:

Originally posted by malm:

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

Cheap is worthless if they aren't available or don't come close to meeting the requirements.

Just curious, what are the expectations of a cheap barrel?

Ain't that a can of worms

Some folks expect them to shoot say 1 1/2" groups @ 100yds, others expect them to be every bit as good as a top notch barrel, but at a fraction of the cost.

Exactly!

quote:

Some folks expect them to shoot say 1 1/2" groups @ 100yds, others expect them to be every bit as good as a top notch barrel, but at a fraction of the cost.

As I read the thread It seems to me that the expectation is for a light sporter. Accuracy isn't mentioned but weight is discussed a lot.

Malm,

And that's the tough bit about these questions, everyone has different expectations. My personal thoughts are, if I'm going to the trouble and expense of building a custom rifle, it better perform better than a factory rifle. In that vain, an A&B tube won't cut it.

Other folks just want something to go bang, generally direct barrels down range, and maybe they'll put a box or two of ammo down range a year. Under that criteria, A&B and ER Shaw fit the bill to a tee, and keep some bills in one's wallet.

quote:

Originally posted by duikerman:

quote:

Some folks expect them to shoot say 1 1/2" groups @ 100yds, others expect them to be every bit as good as a top notch barrel, but at a fraction of the cost.

As I read the thread It seems to me that the expectation is for a light sporter. Accuracy isn't mentioned but weight is discussed a lot.

You can build a light sporter that shoots but you need a good barrel. The expectation here is to get a light barrel cheap. I think barrels are one area where quality and cheap are not synonymous.

To me, they're perfect for the home gunsmith who wants to see if he can rebarrel an old Mauser and who doesn't have a lathe. You need a pre-threaded, short-chambered barrel.

Steve

quote:

Originally posted by duikerman:
As I read the thread It seems to me that the expectation is for a light sporter. Accuracy isn't mentioned but weight is discussed a lot.

Yea that's probably what he meant.

I do not know where I heard this and could be wrong, but I thought/heard E.R made A&B and Butler creek and a few others.They crank out big volume so the price is a bit lower than the smaller companies. Same time more volume more chance of turds getting past Q/C.

quote:

Originally posted by Blueprinted:
I do not know where I heard this and could be wrong, but I thought/heard E.R made A&B and Butler creek and a few others.They crank out big volume so the price is a bit lower than the smaller companies. Same time more volume more chance of turds getting past Q/C.

Maybe but it's extremely unlikely that any company would be quoting lead times of 14-16 weeks to sell a $105 barrel because they was busy making barrels for Midway so they can sell them at $69. Further E R Shaw will quote you an installed price with a 24 week lead time. (six months)

Don't add up to me sir!

Midwayusa owns the company that makes the AB barrels, as well as the machinery... there WAS an "adams and bennett" barrel maker, as well as a "frankford armory"... Midway bought them both quite a long time ago.

If shaw could make and meet the demand for a $70 rifle barrel, they would.

http://www.battenfeldtechnologies.com/adandbe.html

jeffe

That is why I threw it out there. Like I said I do not know where I heard that from. Most times I can get an item from a supplier cheaper than I can a manufacture. If you are a company who are you going to make an order for first. Mid-Way getting say 500 barrel at a 50dollar profit or Mr Gunsmith buying one or two for a 80 dollar profit? Whos order is going to take longer? So it did make sense, just did not know if what true.

quote:

If you are a company who are you going to make an order for first. Mid-Way getting say 500 barrel at a 50dollar profit or Mr Gunsmith buying one or two for a 80 dollar profit?

If I'm four months behind on my orders for product that has a premium profit I sure as hell ain't making anything for Midway until I fill my premium market first.

Where did you go to school?

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

quote:

Originally posted by Blueprinted:
I do not know where I heard this and could be wrong, but I thought/heard E.R made A&B and Butler creek and a few others.They crank out big volume so the price is a bit lower than the smaller companies. Same time more volume more chance of turds getting past Q/C.

Maybe but it's extremely unlikely that any company would be quoting lead times of 14-16 weeks to sell a $105 barrel because they was busy making barrels for Midway so they can sell them at $69. Further E R Shaw will quote you an installed price with a 24 week lead time. (six months)

Don't add up to me sir!

Had a long, nice discussion with the owner or chief honcho of ER Shaw when I was buying some barrels. He said that indeed ER Shaw had made the AB barrels for Midway some time in the past but they had split the sheets.

Their deliveries were all late at the time as there was an unseasonable influx of orders. Deliveries since than have been stretched out. roger

quote:

Originally posted by duikerman:

quote:

If you are a company who are you going to make an order for first. Mid-Way getting say 500 barrel at a 50dollar profit or Mr Gunsmith buying one or two for a 80 dollar profit?

If I'm four months behind on my orders for product that has a premium profit I sure as hell ain't making anything for Midway until I fill my premium market first.

Where did you go to school?

It seems like this would be true, but sometimes this stuff is counter-intuitive.

Our company can sell our products for 300% of average selling price to a number of small players, yet they attempt to keep from selling to those guys, partly because support for lots of small customers is difficult and fragmented, but mostly because the top 10 customers make up 90% of the business. The other 10% could be more profitable, but the company needs the volume to survive. So I bet that the company who sells Midway $5M worth of barrels a year would rather keep that repeat customer happy than sell Bob Jones one of his three lifetime barrels for an extra $20 on that one unit.

By the way, I'd heard Green Mountain was making the A&B barrels on this board. I really like that rumour, and I like my A&B barrels so far. Is that not true?

Steve