New barrel .... Thoughts

stone

Well-Known Member
I'm looking at getting a rifle rebarrelled in the not so distant future
Been checking out the different barrels available and found these

Bergara Barrels

Any thoughts

Cheers
 
Give micky finn on here a pm I believe he has one on a tikka t3. And get very impressive groups with it.
Brian fox is the main dealer for them over here im sure.

The prices do look very good indeed. As long as the quality is there.
 
their not on par with a match barrel from the top makers ,but much better than a factory barrel
 
A friend of mine has one chambered in 6.5x47 and it shoots very well. One odd thing that did happen was a small piece of the the Rifling broke away about an inch into the muzzle. He cut the barrel down and re crowned and all has been ok.
Also one thing i noticed is that unlike many Button Rifled Barrel Manufacturers they offer no dimensional guarantees. Many Manufacturers measure and sort their Barrels into grades such as `Match` or `Super Match` so you know just what you are buying. They also charge for this privilege though. With Bergara you take what you get but pay less as a consequence.
A lot depends on what you expect of a Custom Barrel. If you absolutely demand the very finest quality or are intending to participate in Competition where there is no room for compromise then a Bergara may not be for you. On a Stalking or Vermin Rifle it may well suit perfectly and i intend to try one in .22BR.
The other positive is that they keep them in stock i believe. No long wait.
Anyway,just my thoughts on it havng considered the same question you posed :).

Yorkie
 
What price are these barrels coming in at in sterling?

You may find that after fitting they are not really working out much cheaper than say an Archer Barrel from Border Barrels.

And on that topic, I wonder if it is worth paying the extra price for a cut rifled barrel over a button rifled barrel for stalking applications. A mate of mine who does very well in F class in this country, builds his own rifles and was going to fit a button rifled barrel to one of his guns and shoot the season at competitions with it but say nothing until the end results came out. He reckons the difference in accuracy is debatable.

I had an Archer fitted to a custom rifle in 243AI and cannot see how on a stalking rifle it would have been possible to get much more accuracy out of any other make out there. It gets to the point IMO that any gain that may be had is so slight unless on paper targets money is being thrown away.

I'll drop you a PM Stone so I don't fall foul of any advertising rules re a couple of guys I know who are now building rifles at competative prices.
 
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Bergara Barrels are £180, Border Archers are £244 so there's £64 in it, i'm sure either one correctly installed would shoot well. However Bergaras are not lead lapped after rifling, they only come in 2 contours with or without fluting, and they only come in 22, 6mm, 6.5mm, 7mm, and 30 cal with only one twist available per caliber. I f a Bergara is available in the contour you want with the twist and caliber you want then its fine, but most of the time i think people would rather spend £65 and have a choice of contours, twists and calibers, and a hand lapped finish.
 
Bergara Barrels are £180, Border Archers are £244 so there's £64 in it, i'm sure either one correctly installed would shoot well. However Bergaras are not lead lapped after rifling, they only come in 2 contours with or without fluting, and they only come in 22, 6mm, 6.5mm, 7mm, and 30 cal with only one twist available per caliber. I f a Bergara is available in the contour you want with the twist and caliber you want then its fine, but most of the time i think people would rather spend £65 and have a choice of contours, twists and calibers, and a hand lapped finish.

£304 for a profiled Archer Barrel Blank.

Yorkie.
 
Bergara Barrels are £180, Border Archers are £244 so there's £64 in it, i'm sure either one correctly installed would shoot well. However Bergaras are not lead lapped after rifling, they only come in 2 contours with or without fluting, and they only come in 22, 6mm, 6.5mm, 7mm, and 30 cal with only one twist available per caliber. I f a Bergara is available in the contour you want with the twist and caliber you want then its fine, but most of the time i think people would rather spend £65 and have a choice of contours, twists and calibers, and a hand lapped finish.

I spoke at length to Bergara a few years ago at the IWA when they were first trying to get a foot hold in the market; my mate was going to be the importer before Brian took it on. On the back of the pending distribution deal they sent me a barrel profiled to my own drawings, with flutes, ect. Although they had only one twist rate available at that time. In the end a change of plan meant I never used it.

One of the reason Bergara are cheaper is that they are computerised lapped, we were shown the machine in action. 4 barrels are gauged for inside diameter with a probe running down the bore, the computer notes the high spots then laps/polishes the high spots they are then gauged again and then lapped again if necessary. Once it is in tolerance the process is completed. This I would guess would be why there are not differences in grade of barrels, they are all the same.

Last time I spoke to Brian he was doing a barrel fitted in any calibre he had a chamber in stock for, for £450. If that is still the case it seems a fair price to me.

ATB

Tahr
 
I spoke at length to Bergara a few years ago at the IWA when they were first trying to get a foot hold in the market; my mate was going to be the importer before Brian took it on. On the back of the pending distribution deal they sent me a barrel profiled to my own drawings, with flutes, ect. Although they had only one twist rate available at that time. In the end a change of plan meant I never used it.

One of the reason Bergara are cheaper is that they are computerised lapped, we were shown the machine in action. 4 barrels are gauged for inside diameter with a probe running down the bore, the computer notes the high spots then laps/polishes the high spots they are then gauged again and then lapped again if necessary. Once it is in tolerance the process is completed. This I would guess would be why there are not differences in grade of barrels, they are all the same.

Last time I spoke to Brian he was doing a barrel fitted in any calibre he had a chamber in stock for, for £450. If that is still the case it seems a fair price to me.

ATB

Tahr

I believe they hone the internal diameter to spec on a CNC honing machine. Then they are button rifled. No further lapping, computerised or otherwise takes place.
 
Yeah but most of us are not RFD's so have to pay full price!

Ian.

I think you are missing the point. I get the impression that by mentioning the cost of a barrel to an RFD (trade), he is intending on passing on some of that saving to the customer...
 
Go to Dolphin Rifles in Lincolnshire. Mik produces excellent rifles for F-Class shooting. I suggest using whatever he recommends; I know it'll work brilliantly.
 
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