A brief description of our barrels.

 

BASIC BARREL

This is a rifled bar of steel, cylindrical in shape, with a rough lathe turned finish. These barrels will vary in diameter but will always finish at least 1.200" O.D. This barrel is available in three lengths as noted on the price list and barrel shape chart. This blank is intended for those gunsmiths who wish to turn and shape their own barrels.

 

THE PRETURNED BARREL

This barrel is rough turned to approx. size and shape. Usually it will be .025" to .050" larger than the finished dimensions noted on the barrel size chart. It will be finish centered and will have a rough lathe finish. It is intended to be finish centered and final shaped by you. It comes to you 1-1/2" longer than chart dimension.

 

THE FINISHED TURNED BARREL

The finished turned barrel is to approx. chart dimensions within a few thousandths. It will have been finish centered accurately on a lathe and turned to dimension and then belt sanded with the final grit size being 180. It also comes to you 1-1/2" over length.

 

THE FINISHED, THREADED AND CHAMBERED BARREL

Here we use the finish turned barrel above and then cut the proper thread for the action involved, chamber for the cartridge ordered and crown the barrel. The chamber in this barrel is finished in the sense that a finishing reamer is not required. You must however make a slight cut on the breech with a lathe and have a method of gaging headspace. DO NOT FIRE this barrel without making this adjustment. A set of instructions will be enclosed in the package. Be sure that you do not throw it away with the wrapping material.

 

GRADES OF BARRELS AVAILABLE

Standard grade is a barrel that meets our dimension specifications but may have a minor amount of curvature. Truly, however, I see barrels in our scrap that are straighter than most factory barrels. A PREMIUM grade barrel is one that has been judged straight in checking. It will be marked with the symbol XX to designate this.

 

AIR GAGED QUALITY

In the process of checking our barrels all are checked with air gaging equipment. In so doing we find some that are more uniform than others. Those that measure .0001" or less variation from one end to the other are classed as air gaged. This does not mean that should you order a barrel of a lower quality grade that you might not receive a barrel that would have graded AIR GAGE but it does mean that if you specify AIR GAGE you will get a barrel with the tolerance indicated above.

You will find that most of our basic barrels are marked for the muzzle end. In the process of air gaging we mark the tight end as being the muzzle. Some people feel that the taper should be to the muzzle, others say that it makes no difference. At any rate the barrel is marked so the choice is yours.

 

PISTOL BARRELS

Many handgun shooters are having great success with DOUGLAS barrels. We do NOT install these barrels. We do supply basic blanks in chrome moly only, to pistolsmiths and gunsmiths who do cut and fit these blanks to handguns. We do no pistolsmithing with the exception of some silhouette barrels (See below).

 

SILHOUETTE BARRELS FOR HANDGUNS

Silhouette shooting with handguns is becoming very popular. Most barrel makers are supplying a single shape for this pur­pose. We have been supplying our regular sporter shapes and the customers have been cutting to 15" or whatever the customer desires. This allows a choice of weights so as to match stock, action and sights to weight limits. We will fit barrels and supply FTC barrels in suitable calibers for the Remington XP100 action only. Price is the same as for a rifle barrel.

 

SILHOUETTE and super magnum shape - This barrel shape was developed for silhouette shooting and high pressure 45 caliber cartridges. In the silhouette adaptation the breech diameter is always 1.200" muzzle diameter 750" and an O.A.L. of 24" to meet the weight requirements of this sport. The barrel used with the 458 cartridges will have an appropriate diameter for the action involved. This barrel is available in lengths from 22" thru 26". All these barrels have our sporter profile. Weight of the silhouette barrel is approx. 4 lbs. 7 ½  oz.

 

NOTE:  You must cut 1 ½ “ off of the muzzle of all BASIC, PRET and FT barrels.