Turned down a Shilen barrel blank.

[elkman1310]

My first build was with a Douglas barrel on a center fire Rem build. I am very happy with this barrel. I finally put the barreled action into a lighter 40x bench rest type stock and changed scopes around. Removed the big Sightron 8x32x56 and went with one of my 4.5x14 Bushnell Legend Ultra Hd scopes I really likes these scopes. The Sightron is a great scope but a 1/8 min dot doesn't work is low light conditions. And its heavy.

Shooting this gun with a muzzle break really spoiled me. When I went back to my Savage with 300gr BO it nearly killed me to shoot it. So I bought a Shilen 1-20 twist barrel blank from Midway USA and turned it down to about a #7 taper making it 26" plus a muzzle brake. This Shilen is only .0001 smaller in bore diameter than the Douglas I can size for the Douglas on the loose side and the bullets will fit tight in the Shilen. Got lucking on that deal.

The Shilen barrel went on my Savage. I am using the standard Savage plug. This gun is strictly for hunting .I have yet to shoot it. I need to open the barrel channel up just slightly so it fits the stock.

I have heard several people say they were getting Pac and Mac barrels that were tight and loose in different places in the barrel. Both the Douglas and Shilen's are dead on. From the naked eye the Shilen looks smoother than the Douglas on the inside and on the outside the Shilen looked like a barrel with some surface scales. The Douglas looked like and old rusted axle off a dump truck. When Douglas says unturned they really mean it.

Shilen barrel blanks at Midway are only $158.00 but if you don't have a big enough lathe to turn it down it wouldn't save you any money. But since I do my own work it really didn't matter that much but if I do another one it will be turned already to the contour I want.

[Dave W]

Extremely happy with the Shilen on my Ruger #1 conversion. Wish my McGowen was as consistent from end to end as it is.
Look forward to seeing some groups out of yours.

[Deleted]

Contouring sucks with a manual lathe!! The barrels I turn from a straight blank are only in my possession because I couldn't pass on the deal, having the manufacturer profile is the best $35 ever spent!

[linebaugh]

You said a mouthful there Myers129. I also contoured my first blank down and I really don't care to do that again. I would also happily pay the $35 contour fee in a heartbeat. I am happy with how the contour (straight for 5, taper for about 3, straight to muzzle) turned out. You mentioned this once in an email and I was skeptical but I'm kind of fond of it now.

Hope everyone keeps up the good work as your ideas are helpful.

[Deleted]

Yeah I use my follow rest and a welding glove on my left hand to try to keep vibrations minimal but then there is a lot of hand filing and sanding to get it looking truly good. It takes me a LONG time and I can't wait to start using my profiled blanks soon, just indicate and fit, that sounds like a good dream to me.

[elkman1310]

I have a heavy duty 14x40 lathe but that said it is a pain in the butt to turn a blank down. You can't beat the price of a Shilen blank at $158.00. I got to test fire the gun with two shots. 73grs IMR 4198 and a sized 270 Parker. Every thing looks good. The barrel nut makes it easy to head space the 209 primer into the breech plug.

I turn my blanks only about 6" at a time. This barrel I turned down from 1.250 to 1.060 for 4" for the shank than started a taper down from the 4" mark out to 6" mark or so. Then I turn it straight the rest of the way. I only advance the barrel out of the head stock 6" to 8" at a time to avoid chatter. You can usually take about .020 off per pass. This barrel ended up at .875 at the muzzle and only has a slight taper back towards the taper on the shank of the barrel.

I use full form threading inserts for all my threading operation and I found that a #12 insert has just the right radius to turn these barrels down and give a very good finish without spending a ton of time trying to polish out tool marks.

My daughter in-law is coming for Thanks giving she said she will get me up to speed on posting pictures.

I would say that the muzzle brake on this gun cut the recoil probably in half. the gun weighs almost 10 lbs. so its not real light. Time will tell when I get to sight it in. It will probably be like shooting a 30-06 which will be easier to take then a 50 cal. The heaviest load I plan on shooting would be 73 grs of IMR4198 with a 275 BE.

[rossman40]

Unless you have a taper or duplicator set-up it can be rough. You have to remember that most barrel makers use CNC lathes with a penumatic self centering steady rest attached to the carriage ($6-10k just for the rest) to do contouring nowadays.

You have to watch contouring a button rifled blank. You actual push the barrel past yield strength to button rifle so you have a huge amount of induced stress. If not properly stress releived the bore can open up .0004 in spots and the barrel can even bend. That's why Savage checks barrel straightness before and after contouring. If it comes out looking good it can still be sensitive to thermal stress but a SML doesn't have a high rate of fire.