How good are Custom Rifle Barrels?

[AllenOne1]

Not a custom rifle barrel but the Custom Rifle Barrel blanks made by Austin Orgain aka ACE Precision. I know these are the offshoot of the Hawk Hill barrels with a new owner. New owner new issues? Starting and running a business is hard work.

I'm looking for benchrest accuracy, (aren't we all) not pretty. I have been running cut rifling barrels for several years, Proof, Kreiger and Bartlein, with Bartlein being my current favorite. Never tried the Hawk Hill now CRB barrels.

Then you have the whole 4 groove vs 5 groove argument. The 5R might be easier to clean. But that might be a whole different discussion.

 

[oldrifleman]

I shoot Bartlein and CRB, both are exceptional.

 

[Maurygold]

Bartlein Kreiger brux are most of what you’ll see in an actual benchrest comp since you mentioned accuracy

 

[diggler1833]

I did enough research on my own recently while I was looking for my next blank. I went with a CRB. I don't doubt that it will outshoot me and my (limited) skills.

I've had Kriegers, Bartleins, and Brux...and they are all equal on paper to me... even my current Krieger and Bartlein in 6.5x47 shoot the loads developed for the other barrel into a half-minute. I expect no difference with a CRB.

 

[Gray shooter]

I am currently shooting a CRB purchased in the end of 2024. It is chambered in 6 dasher with a Alpha reamer. If I do my part it will really shoot some small groups. I am close to 500 on the round count. Copper fowling has been very minimal.
Yes, I would get another one.

 

[TheOE800]

What’s available in the twist, contour, and rifling you desire? All major high quality blanks are $420-490 now anyway. The chambering job matters more once you’re in this tier of barrel IMO. I bought a couple more Krieger blanks recently because I like the two barrels I have, the twist was right, the contour was right, and I’m fine with 4 groove rifling. Before that I had Bartlein 5R and PVA Osprey barrels; all shoot better than me.

 

[Entropicitis]

They are fan-fucking-tastic

 

[Jcarpenter223]

CRBs absolutely hammer.

 

[EagleEyeShooting]

We use CRB exclusively for 6mm. 25 Cal, 6.5 and 30 Cal. Our 6 Dasher builds have been placing podium finishes. But their 22lr barrels are another story, did not have good results with the batch of 60 barrels we received and they will not their honor their warranty or return policy.

Give them a try if your considering a centerfire barrel

 

[dgheriani]

I've yet to try them but I've had plenty of Hawk Hills and they were always hammers

 

[Redfisher60]

Just got back from the range with my CRB 6 Dasher. .2-.3 inch groups consistently, I have less than 60 rounds through the barrel, load development has been easy and it is probably been the easiest barrel to clean that I have ever owned. Will not be my last CRB.

 

[Matt_3479]

We use CRB exclusively for 6mm. 25 Cal, 6.5 and 30 Cal. Our 6 Dasher builds have been placing podium finishes. But their 22lr barrels are another story, absolutely horrible

Give them a try if your considering a centerfire barrel

What’s wrong with there rimfire barrels

 

[EagleEyeShooting]

What’s wrong with there rimfire barrels

We placed an order for 100, received 60 and during testing of 13 barrels, 10 of those showed flyers and significant cold bore shift. We stopped production using these barrels and contacted CRB with no luck getting them to honor their return policy or warranty even after an expensive return freight shipping of all unused barrels on our own dime.

Unfortunately its a civil matter at this point, ill get into details at some point when its settled to show the defects I found after inspecting over half these barrels. Just our unfortunate expirence with the batch we had and dealing with CRB as a FFL 07 rifle manufacturer. We had extremely good results with thier centerfire barrels and the first 22lr barrel sent for demo, which prompted me to proceed with a large order of 22lr barrels

I still recommend their centerfire barrels over others in the market. They got that dialed in

Some of the results 50 yards to give perspective of what I was seeing with the 22lr barrels. Target 1 and 2 where cold bore. 3 different lots. Also had a partner shop of ours give a few a try with same results

This was the first CRB 22lr barrel sent to us to try, built on a 40x Action. So to be fair, I had 3 out of the 13 shot like this. With such a wide performance band and our shop accuracy guarantee, having to rebarrel over 60% of the ones built, wouldn't work out for our needs in regards to loss production, machine time and loss cost of the barrels over others I've tried