Another Shaw Barrels(Sort of)Question

Horse Plains Drifter

By looking over Shaw Barrels' web site, I see they offer barrel installs along with some other gunsmithing services. Their prices are quite reasonable compared to some of the few other prices I have been able to find for such work. Does anyone here have experience with the quality of their work? I emailed one gunsmith 2 days ago, but have yet to hear anything out of him.


I have a Husqvarna 30-06 that I am slowly turning into a 6.5-06. The stock is a fairly nice piece of walnut, and I have a fella now freshening up the finish, and checkering. I have also been looking at used Leupold 3.5 X 10 scopes here on GB.


At Shaw, it looks like I can get the barrel duplicated to the contour of the current barrel, have it installed, bolt lugs lapped, test fired, and the whole barreled action blued for $570.00 + shipping. Conversely Douglas appears to charge $500.00 labor just to install the barrel.

TIA for any input.

charliemeyer007

I like the .256 Newton. I have a shot out barrel. I would like to re-rifle it to 7mm-06 Improved.

I have shot a few Shaw barrels and knew the guy who installed many. All were acceptable hunting rifle accuracy considering the good price. That same guy let me help turn and install a free new in cosmoline Springfield barrel on the Newton action. I bead blasted the barrel and hot salt blued it too. It has only been test fired by me back in the mid 80's. Best double set triggers I have ever used are on that action.

I would look for someone local so that I could examine their work and tooling. I have only ever ordered one gun, as I prefer to examine them before I buy.

That seems like a very reasonable price for all that work.

rufe-snow

I just don't see the 6.5-06's advantage, over the .270 but it your money. With the popularity of various semi-auto platforms. B-A rifles have gone down in price substantially.

Seems like every week I'm getting e-mails from CDNN. Announcing sales for various B-A rifles, at very discounted prices.

Like I said before, it's your money. But before I would spring $570 from Shaw, for a wildcat 6.5-06. I would buy a new Savage in .270, for less money. From one of the on-line discounter's.

nononsense

Horse Plains Drifter,

quote:Their prices are quite reasonable compared to some of the few other prices I have been able to find for such work.

And there is a reason which supports those lower prices... lower quality, button rifled barrels. You can't take a top-of-the-line cut rifled barrel selling for $350.00, thread, chamber, crown and blue for $150.00 and stay in business.

However, when you outsource the bluing and pay the extra for matching the contour, the Douglas price is only $60.00 more than the Shaw. Douglas wants $50.00 for the contour and commercial bluing companies charge about $80.00 for bluing just the barrel.

rufe-snow,

quote:I just don't see the 6.5-06's advantage, over the .270

The fact that it is a 6.5-06 and NOT a .270 is the advantage![}:)][;)]

quote: I would buy a new Savage in .270, for less money. From one of the on-line discounter's.

You could not give me a Savage let alone a Savage in .270 because I would turn it down. But if that's all it takes to trip your trigger, then so be it.[;)]

There really is no comparison between a Husqvarna rifle and an off-the-shelf Savage in any chamber. The Husqvarnas were built with the best steel to such a degree of fine manufacturing that they are still around and still being used as original rifles or used as a basis for custom rifles.

Savages have made some headway in the last couple of decades but they are still just a Savage, stamped out, slapped out by the 10,s of thousands in an attempt to convince the general public that they can buy a fine rifle for little money. When you check the 'for sale' ads around the country, the most offered rifles in the secondary market are Savages. People fall for the low prices, the advertising and the shills selling them, then after personal experience, turn to the secondary market to unload them.

Best.

tsr1965

I once used one of their 22 LR drop in barrels for a 10/22 custom build for a customer on a budget. He actually had gotten the barrel before he came to me. It was "cheap" he said. Just because it was a bull/target sized barrel on the outside, he figured it would shoot like my personal 10/22 custom job with a Shilen barrel, which cost 3 times more. He soon found that cheap is, what cheap was.
quote:At Shaw, it looks like I can get the barrel duplicated to the contour of the current barrel, have it installed, bolt lugs lapped, test fired, and the whole barreled action blued for $570.00 + shipping. Conversely Douglas appears to charge $500.00 labor just to install the barrel.

It is your money, spend it the way you wish. The old saying will hold true, "You get what you pay for". If you are willing to spend $570.00, just to be able to say "I got one", then by all means go for it. It might even be able to meet your needs. If it does not quite meet your needs, then you will always be wondering what if...If you want a real tack driver, then find someone to install a Bartlein barrel, in the chambering of your choice. At this point, your bolt lugs are lapped to your action...installing a new barrel does not change that, so that is a bit of pushy salesmanship on the behalf of Shaw.

quote:I just don't see the 6.5-06's advantage, over the .270 but it your money.

The 6.5-06 has more capacity than that of the 260 Remington, 6.5x55, 6.5x47, or 6.5 Creedmore. Those last four cartridges mentioned are in the same class of external ballistic performance...all fall within 50 fps of each other with the same weight bullet. That said, launching a 120 grain Nosler BT around 3000 fps, they hit the shoulder like a 243 with a 100 grain projectile...that same 120 grain bullet, has more energy(yes energy is a skewed figure in favor of the velocity being squared), than any readily available commercial loading for the 308 Winchester, or 30-06 SPRG, all while shooting flatter than O'Connors fabled 270...so yes it has a lot of advantage.