Custom Barrels - Do You Use Them? Have A Need for Them? Where Do You Buy Them?

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Ezana4CE

Ezana4CE

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Jan 15, 2021
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Texas, United States
After a recent conversation I learned of an American-based custom barrel manufacturer. They currently manufacture rifle barrels, but are open to discussing producing custom PCP barrels. Is there a need for this sort of thing? I notice that some of y'all are really into aigunsmithing and tuning, but I haven't read much about custom barrels. I also thought it might be something that interests airgunners who are into casting their own ammo. 

Do any of you currently make your own barrels or deal with someone who does? If, not would you be interested in that sort of thing? I'm intrigued. Let's discuss it.
 
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Custom .. AS IN special land / groove / twist rates ? LW will already do this with a special tooling cost and IIRC a minimum number of barrels on the initial order.



Most of us Airgun smiths use the barrels we can get as "Blanks" and machine them to fit the gun being worked with. Choked or not, leade, throating, crown work and transfer ports added as required per application.



In the bigger bore areas ( .25 and up ) Many use the Liners made by TJ's placing them in CF sleeving, tensioned or other creative miens. TJ's on many calibers make AG specific land / groove barrels and a few twist rate options.



WOULD CUSTOM to spec barrels be nice ? ABSOLUTELY tho doubtful sales would be that good being the low #'s and cost of such custom barrels would be per unit.



Just thoughts ...
 
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Hi I only use them for bullets I currently waiting for my mandrels to be made in .224 .. 1-8 n 1-9 .... and one. 257 .. 1-8 ...tj will receive the mandrels to manufacture the barrels...if the 257 ..1-8 work for what I want .. bullets between 99g to 105g ..then I go with a bartlein 1-9 in my .257 Texan...the .224 are for my condor for now carbon sleeved...to keep the weight down in the condor..I know they are all ready available but only in bull barrels..more difficult to find someone with the patience to work with such a heavy barrel in airguns..will be working in a 30" barrel cricket. 22 for now it will be. 224 1-14 ..for the Lyman 225-107..really nice little bullet that sized. 224 fit the cricket mag no problem n pass the oring in the barrel effortlessly so I could use all factory parts. Almost no custom machining aside for maybe 2 barrel bands..
20210730_150413.1627672441.jpg

 
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Most airgun barrel's don't adhere to SAAMI specs.
https://saami.org/technical-information/ansi-saami-standards/

Pellets are nowhere as picky as slugs & most airgun platforms can't be consistent at the pressures needed for the slugs.

Serious long range slug shooters like Mountain Ghost of PNW Airguns, Doug Noble, John Bowman of Scandalous Airguns who were skilled machinists decided to make great ones that can. 

Scandalous name was passed down to John by his Father-in-law, the late Jack Hailey & greatly improved upon by John in all ways & utilizing Lilja barrels.

Doug makes awesome Condors from the ground up or improves a factory one with custom barrels or TJ liners.

PNW Airguns makes the most notoriously awesome Veterans on the planet.

Each has their own cult following & all shoot extremely well.

There's definitely pluses to custom barrels & super rigid platforms. 
 
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Custom .. AS IN special land / groove / twist rates ? LW will already do this with a special tooling cost and IIRC a minimum number of barrels on the initial order.



Most of us Airgun smiths use the barrels we can get as "Blanks" and machine them to fit the gun being worked with. Choked or not, leade, throating, crown work and transfer ports added as required per application.



In the bigger bore areas ( .25 and up ) Many use the Liners made by TJ's placing them in CF sleeving, tensioned or other creative miens. TJ's on many calibers make AG specific land / groove barrels and a few twist rate options.



WOULD CUSTOM to spec barrels be nice ? ABSOLUTELY tho doubtful sales would be that good being the low #'s and cost of such custom barrels would be per unit.



Just thoughts ...
Click to expand...

@Motorhead Glad you chimed in. This area definitely isn't my wheelhouse, but I've read a lot on AGN and thought this may be something of interest to others. I'm also interested in learning more. I mentioned twist rate to a gunsmith I spoke with and asked if they could build a custom barrel with a specified or desired twist rate. He said it's something that he would look into. The company currently manufactures barrels for PBs. Who or what is TJ?
 
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you can purchase barrel blanks direct from lothar walther although its not an intutive process, i assume for legal reasons .. but yeah you can get themi n just about any flavor you want ... machining most airgun barrels is straightforward for anyone that uses a lathe and does basic machining 'except' in some cases for a recessed oring groove thats actually down inside the throat ..the guy that did mine (my son) was perplexed only by that but figured it out, had to buy some kindof special bit that would reach down in there and apparently it was very slow going because not much pressure could be applied to the bit .. but yeah, you could could put a fancy barrel in about anything for a couple hundred depending on how much a machinist will charge and how much you can do yourself ...
 
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If you want a specific twist rate..like those in the fx liners...you go to Pacific Tooling... send them the desired twist rate..n bore n grove wanted they make the mandrel needed for making the barrel..they shipped directly to TJ .. n you have what ever combination you need... tooling $240 + shipping..barrel aprox..27" ..$150 + shipping + whatever the rate of the machinists $125+ for a condor barrel..any other design with iner or outer origin will be a bit more....so you have the idea of cost in this route..for a custom airforce new twist rate..$500 ...😁
 
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I've got a few, some second hand, some I've had made from one location or another. TRRobb recently took upwards of 6 months to complete a LW barrel (at a really good price) But lead time directly reflects the absolutely massive amount of business he is seeing. I have another made by Mountain Air, another from a former forum member who is no longer with us, and another unknown. 

As for using them? Yes. I use all of them. Do I have a need? Probably not, but I like being able to hit exactly what I'm aiming at.

I'd likely have a LOT more if I had means to mill them myself. I havn't fallen down that rabbit hole, but is only a matter of time.
 
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Lowthar Walther has been making airgun barrels for top tier gun makers such as RAW, Daystate and others and has a great reputation. BSA barrels have a faithful following too. You can buy LW barrels direct from LW or SPAW but you will have to have them machined to fit your application. Martin Rutterford, former owner of RAW can do this for you at airguns-usa.com.
 
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