Best moderately priced Garand barrel

Gben

I need to re-barrel for a Garand. I see that Sarco has new Citadel barrels for under $150.00. What is the quality of these barrels? Does anyone know? I am retired and once you figure in the labor this is not a "cheap" project. I have read posts about pros and cons but have NOT found any definitive information. While I don't shoot national competition I do enjoy shooting against "local" hunters and a group of fellow retired folks. I would appreciate anyone with more knowledgeable in this area than I have giving their opinion.
Gben

nononsense

Gben,

Welcome to the GB forums!

Buying cheap is not always the best solution even when you're on a budget. I have rarely found anything cheap to be satisfactory in the long run. In fact, the frustration factors are usually higher with cheap than with reasonable quality.

I don't know anything about 'Citadel' barrels other than they are mass produced and have a spotty reputation. Wilson barrels and some other medium priced barrels seem to have a better, more consistent reputations. Brownells sells Wilson barrels and a number of Garand gunsmiths will install them. Fulton Armory sells and installs.

This is a discussion about several of the Garand barrel choices. Just be aware that when you get an 'expert' that is 180 degrees out from everyone else, there is the potential for something to be amiss...

http://www.odcmp.org/new_forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=37512

http://www.wilsonarms.com/

http://www.fulton-armory.com/

Best.

beachmaster73

gben, If you are not competing in the JCG Matches and you are not competing at 300 and 600 yards there are any number of reasonably priced barrels for your perusal. Any Douglas or Wilson barrel will more than meet your expectations. I would also not worry about the Citadel barrels at all...they should be more accurate than you are. AND they are a bargain! I am a CMP Garand/Springfield Master Instructor and it seems to me that many new Garand owners think that they need nail driving accuracy...they don't. I would add though that commercial barrels will generally start to show some reduction in accuracy after 4000-5000 rounds. Military barrels should easily last twice that long...so you might be better off trying to buy a used military barrel with a decent MW(<2.0) and TE(<3.5). There also have been more than a few Marlin M1 barrels(used as Armory replacements) coming on the market recently and they are not overly expensive at all. One of my very stock M1's with its original 1944 barrel recently shot a 288-6X in National JCG competition. There are a lot of guys spending mega bucks on their M1's trying to push the rules in accuracy that can only dream of a score like that.
Bottom line........buy the Citadel and shoot the heck out of it. Oh yeah try and get your barrel in a 1/12 twist. That works well for ball ammo. It won't hurt if you get a 1/10 twist on the barrel but that twist does tend to favor the heavier(168-176 grain) match bullets rather than the ball stuff(147-155 grain). Beach