I was considering ordering one, what are your opinions? Thanks,
Steve

A high quality barrel. One of the best, although many other good choices exist. Hard to go wrong with a Lilja.

- mike

I have several and another on the way.
i like them and shilen.

Just had one put on my .300 build. It shoots sub .5 groups at 100 yds with factory ammo.

I don't have any personally but have installed three of them for others and have no complaints.

At least one here swears they are the best....

My model 70 custom 257 Roberts is with a Lilja 3 groove barrel and it is accurate beyond belief. Cleans beautifully also. I can't fault them in any way.

Good thrread here for a question about Lilja barrels. Do Lilja barrels have a tighter bore than other makers?
I have one rifle with a Lilja barrel, and suspect it might be tighter than others I have.
Seems to shoot well, but near max loads in the usual suspect loading manuals are HOT in the rifle??

TIA,

Don

THey are as good as it gets. The top barrel makers are all equal, and Lilja is in that top handful.

quote:

Originally posted by DMB:
Good thrread here for a question about Lilja barrels. Do Lilja barrels have a tighter bore than other makers?
I have one rifle with a Lilja barrel, and suspect it might be tighter than others I have.
Seems to shoot well, but near max loads in the usual suspect loading manuals are HOT in the rifle??

TIA,

Don

Don, pressure spikes vary from bore to bore for several reasons, but their barrels are not purposely any tighter than the others. All loading manuals advise caution when approaching max loads because they themselves don't know what will happen given a particular barrel, lot of powder, primers etc. Look at the powder you're saving in that one.

skb

I used Lilja barrels for years with no problems. About 2 years ago I got 2 bad ones within 2 months. I sent the one back for Dan to check. When it came back there was no explanation as to what he found. I put the rifle back together with no change. I called Dan and asked him about the two barrels and he said he did not know but he assured me that it was not the barrel as he did not make bad barrels.
I have not and will never use another Lilja barrel unless the customer requests it.

James

quote:

Originally posted by J Bennett:
skb

I used Lilja barrels for years with no problems. About 2 years ago I got 2 bad ones within 2 months. I sent the one back for Dan to check. When it came back there was no explanation as to what he found. I put the rifle back together with no change. I called Dan and asked him about the two barrels and he said he did not know but he assured me that it was not the barrel as he did not make bad barrels.
I have not and will never use another Lilja barrel unless the customer requests it.

James

maybe it was bent, one time I was at westpacs place and he showed me a brand new lilja that was bent, good thing he checked it first.

quote:

Originally posted by Westpac:

quote:

Originally posted by DMB:
Good thrread here for a question about Lilja barrels. Do Lilja barrels have a tighter bore than other makers?
I have one rifle with a Lilja barrel, and suspect it might be tighter than others I have.
Seems to shoot well, but near max loads in the usual suspect loading manuals are HOT in the rifle??

TIA,

Don

Don, pressure spikes vary from bore to bore for several reasons, but their barrels are not purposely any tighter than the others. All loading manuals advise caution when approaching max loads because they themselves don't know what will happen given a particular barrel, lot of powder, primers etc. Look at the powder you're saving in that one.

Malm,

Thanks, I appreciate the info.
Reason I asked is, I had one of Lilja's 10-22 barrels and I had the feeling it was a tight bore too.
You're right, the pressure could be a tight chamber too. I know one thing, it maxes out several grains below listed book maxes.
Just tryin' to sort things out on a slow Sunday...

Take care,

Don

quote:

Originally posted by cummins cowboy:

maybe it was bent, one time I was at westpacs place and he showed me a brand new lilja that was bent, good thing he checked it first.

Bent meaning what? Was it just "wompy" when turned between centers, or was the bore actually crooked? Well, they are all all crooked to a degree, but I mean relaly crooked in this case. I have never tried to straighten a barrel that was bent before.

I used to talk about "Shilen Bannana Barrels" because they always look wompy between centers. For me, on avaerage their bores were less concentric from the outer contour than other makers. But smiths on this board have a lot more experience with barreling rifles than I do. Some guys here i am sure have done over a thousand.

The Shilens always shot in spite of being wompy. The absolute worst off-center bore I ever fit was in a Kreiger. I wanted to send it back, but the guy I was doing the work for said don't bother. I was told it shot just fine after the rifle was stocked. But it still bothered me looking at the muzzle. plus it was turbo-wompy between centers.

This si way off topic from the original question, so sorry about that. i was just curious.

As for the Liljas being tighter, they do not take tighter bushings on chambering reamers than other brands, so at least the minor diameter is not tighter. Douglses are HUGE. They always swallowed the biggest bushings I had and they flopped around in there. Had to buy really big bushings to get a snug fit. Quit using Douglas because it always meant I had to buy huge bushings, plus Shilens are just as cheap from Brownells and I think they are a definite step up in quality. I put the hand lapped Shilen Select Match on par with Lija.

To further hi-jack the original question...when Lilja do a factory contour, is it a close match to the designated countour?

Seems if you tell Pac-Nor to duplicate a factory contour it always turnes out heavier than required. But if you send them a sample to dupe, it's pretty close.

quote:

Originally posted by McCray:
To further hi-jack the original question...when Lilja do a factory contour, is it a close match to the designated countour?

Sorry can't answer your question. But I thought I'd make sure you know Lilja charges extra to copy a non-standard (factory) contour. Not all barrel makers charge extra for this - I think Krieger copies contours at no extra charge.

- mike

quote:

Originally posted by Marc_Stokeld:

quote:

Originally posted by cummins cowboy:

maybe it was bent, one time I was at westpacs place and he showed me a brand new lilja that was bent, good thing he checked it first.

Bent meaning what? Was it just "wompy" when turned between centers, or was the bore actually crooked?

Bent as in needing to be straightened.

We build rifles with barrels from several of the better barrel makers.

Like Hart, Shilen, Douglas and Lilja.

The only barrels we have had trouble with were those made by Blackstar!

No wonder they went out business.

Barrels we have used from all the above named makers perform flowlessly.

I do have a preference to Lilja barrels in the larger calibers - 375 and above.

Every single one we have used would shoot 1/2 minute or better.

I have 3 rifles specifically built for my own hunting in Africa.

2 are 375/404, and one is a 30/404. One of the 375 has a Shilen barrel, and one has a Lilja barrel.

Both have been going to Africa for many years, several of us use them, and they still shoot sub-minute.

The 30/404 also has a Lilja barrel, and it shoots less than 1/3 with its preferred loads.

Saeed: Like your post! We can ALWAYS find some anecdotal problem with anyone and everything..smarter to look at the long haul, which you pointed out.

Sounds like I will be calling them in the morning. Thanks for the input gents.
Steve

First, my single experience with Lilja is a 6.5 barrel, that has been just superb. Cleans very easily, and 'shot in' with very little round count. Shoots 1/4 minute or better, and is holding that through 400 or so rounds thus far.

Saeed, is a 30/404 similar to a 300 Dakota?

I've got 3 Liljas plus an extra in the safe for a future build.

I have never ever had a problem with one and all are very accurate. In fact, I had a 270 built for a friend and of all the makes I could have chosen, I had a Lilja put on it, in 3 groove. Once the guy who loads for him saw how well it did, he also ordered a Lilja for his rifle and the last I heard, it was his most accurate hunting rifle.

My other friend who went on the wolf hunt converted one of his 30.06 Remmys to a 270 and used a Lilja. First 3 shots with factory Hornady 140 SSTs made one hole at 100 yrds that measured .000. Literally, one hole. Dave Bruno built that rifle.

Lex Webernick of rifles, inc., stopped using Shilen's because of concentricity issues and went with Liljas.

DMB, I have a 300 RUM with a Shilen bbl and I don't know if it is the chamber, bore, or a little of each, but it reaches max well before published loads as well.

Saeed:

I beleive you could add Broughton, Krieger, Bartlein, Rock Creek, to your list of premium barrels.

Longshot

Another good maker to come on-line with excellent barrels is BRUZ. I see they are winning some benchrest matches, and guys who own them speak highly of them.

Don

I have had a couple of Lilga barrels in which had bores which were curved enough to make set-up a bit of a challenge. One, a 6PPC light varmint rifle never did shoot well (mid threes), the other, a 6.5t was adequate but not exceptional as a hunting barrel. I dislike working with curved barrels since it takes more time to deal with the curved bore and that costs me money. In addition, a premium grade barrel should be reasonably straight IMO.
On the other hand, the internal finish was superb on every Lilga barrel I've seen. Regards, Bill

quote:

Originally posted by Fish30114:
First, my single experience with Lilja is a 6.5 barrel, that has been just superb. Cleans very easily, and 'shot in' with very little round count. Shoots 1/4 minute or better, and is holding that through 400 or so rounds thus far.

Saeed, is a 30/404 similar to a 300 Dakota?

Our 30/404 is closer to the 300 Remington Ultra.

We designed and built these long before Remington came up with them.

Dam Lilja barrels are no good ?. All of you remove them immediately and send them directly too ME !.

Why is mine shooting under 1/2 MOA so consistently must be junk I guess .

quote:

Originally posted by Marc_Stokeld:
THey are as good as it gets. The top barrel makers are all equal, and Lilja is in that top handful.

I will agree with that.
I have Lilja, Shilen Stainless select match, Hart, Krieger, and Lothar Walther barrels that are all better than they need be for my skills gunsmithing, handloading, and shooting.

And if there is a hint of wind, my skills gunsmithing, handloading, and shooting are not the main problem.

These days, I use Shilen, becuase I can get them cheaper. But a few months back we needed a 6.5 barrel and got it from Lilja, and it shot perfect as usual.

i have one of a 280ackly and it shoots half MOA to 600yards (havnt tested further yet) thats just sitting on a rem700 action with standard stock and trigger. #5contour so its not ultralight i guess. not a benchrest barrel either. only tried one bullet and one powder with it, didnt see the need to try anything else!


fired 20 rounds the other day, waste of time trying to clean it out.

quote:

Originally posted by Doc:
DMB, I have a 300 RUM with a Shilen bbl and I don't know if it is the chamber, bore, or a little of each, but it reaches max well before published loads as well.

Doc,

Thanks.
Mine is a custom 223AI that Mickey Coleman built. Reaching maxes well below book maxes may also be due to the same set of conditions. As an example, this rifle in the AI configuration reaches max below standard 223 (non-AI) maxes??
Maybe I should call the rifle a 223 Non-AI.
Don

We have a Remington 300 RUM Sendero, which develops higher velocity than we get from a factory 30/378 Weatherby Mk V.

The same goes for our own 30/404, the velocity we get from it is higher than we got from the 30/378 Weatherby.

Different make of bullets, all 180 grains, gave us between 3420-3480 fps in our 30/404.