Midway's Adams & Bennett barrels.

[KP95DAO]

I would like to hear from people who have had experience with these bbls. They are now selling finished chambered and blued bbls for Savages in 35 Whelen and the equipment to switch them out . Thanks.

[Cris]

I have several put back in which I plan to build custom shooters on mauser actions (some of these were pruchases when they were 65$). What experience I have had is the barrels are good for hunting / shooting grade accuracy, not BR accuracy. The interior finish seems a to be "rougher" than a barrel from one of the premium makers but considering the price difference, that is to be expected. I know of several barrels in various calibers that have been screwed onto a re-worked miltary mausers and placed into a custom walnut stock that will shoot <= 1 MOA. What I plan to do, is use a very mild abbrasive (J-B's?) to lightly lap the barrel before installation in hopes of shooting moly-coated bullets. If I ever complete a project, I will post all results.

[4 Eyed Six Shooter]

Cris,
I bought a heavy .308 A & B barrel to put on a large ring mauser. It was pre threaded and short chambered. The barrel threads are too small for the threads in the receiver. The fit is very loose. I have not yet measured to see which one is out of spec. It might be OK, but I am anal when it comes to everything fitting right. Overall I was not impressed with the quality, but what do you want for $120. It is only being built as a cheap rifle, but it still buggs me. I may just put the barrel aside and use it later for another project. The way the barrel is made, you can't just cut off the threads and re thread it yourself. If I had it to do over again I would have spent more and bought an unthreaded barrel.
Mauser thread diameters do vary, so anything that is prethreaded is bound to be on the small side. Live and learn.
Happy New Year-John K

[Joe Portale]

Hello all,

I have had mixed results with the Adams and Bennet barrels. Maybe we should call them the Llama of rifle barrels. When you get a good one, you got a good one, when you get a bad one, well...

I built a 243 using one of the prethreaded, pre-chambered barrels with the medium countour. Plopped the metal into a Fajen Sporter walnut stock. Midway was selling the barrel and stock as a set for a decent price, and it seemed the right thing to do. This rifle turned out tack driver accurate. It holds under 1 moa at 100 yards with just about anything I feed it. Really nice rifle.

Then I built another in 308. This was going to be my steel target gun. The barrel again was the prechambered and threaded F99 (semi-bull) barrel. I mounted the works into a corelight stock. It couldn't hit the side of a barn at 100 yards. I have tried several things to improve the accuracy, but the best I can get is about 2.5 inches at 100 yards. Okay for hunting deer or pig, not so great on steel rams out to 300 yards.

Next I feel into a similar A&B barrel in 270. Tossed everything into another Corelight stock. Whammo, nice tight groups again.

A buddy rebarreled his VZ with the original 8mm caliber. Used a referbed original stock. He can't do any better than 3 inches @ 100 yards.

I haven't spent any time checking barrel hardness, concentricity or things like that. But from what I have experienced, I will hazard an opinion that you are paying less than $100 for a barrel, you may get what you pay for.