Bergara B14R - KI Precision vs Bergara Heavy Barrel

[DannoP]

For the last two years I've been shooting 2-gun matches, and having a blast. A few months ago I picked up a Bergara B14R. This past Saturday I shot my first PRS Rimfire match, and love it. Now I'm looking at putting a better barrel on the Bergara, since it's already in an ARC Xylo chassis.

Does anyone have experiences with either the KI Precision Bergara barrel or the Bergara Heavy Barrel sold by A&J?

Thanks!

 

[Jagerwerks]

I have a Bergara with the heavy barrel for sale if you are interested!

https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/bergara-b14r-heavy-w-krg-bravo.7254118/

 

[Masojoh]

I have one of the heavy barreled ones, and it is very accurate. I would struggle to think you would be limited by that rifle for at least a year.

I do know a couple of guys with the KI barrel, but for my money, the heavy barreled one from bergara at $650 -ish is hard to beat.

Edited to add - they had been selling for $610-$650, but I am not seeing those deals now. Best I saw was $750, which is still reasonable for the barreled action. It does come with a trigger, but I did not use it once.

 

[DFOOSKING]

I have heavy stainless and the carbon. I don't think the stainless offers any improvement in terms of general group size. It's just whether you want the added weight and added length.

Not saying bergara makes shit barrels. Or accuracy is piss poor. Just saying its punch is commensurate to its cost.

Nobody is producing custom gun performance at half to a third the cost. So those crying the bergara isn't a Vudoo is just dumb.

 

[Mulepackhunter]

I don’t have experience with either but I suggest a quality barrel blank and a gunsmith.

 

[hafejd30]

You could buy the Bergara heavy if you can find a deal on it. I wanted to get more into precision .22 and have a B14R 18” steel. I wanted a second to build up as well. From battlehawk I got it for $640 like a month ago. See there not in stock and $930 there now. So I feel I made a good choice

I plan to test them against each other then send the worst to Modacam for a barrel upgrade. By having 2 I’ll shoot the one while the others away

I’m sure wait times will be decent for custom. Last I heard Modacam wasn’t taking orders because he was so backed up already

 

[WeeHooker]

I was thinking about "upgrading from my 18" Steel barreled action toa 20" Heavy Stainless. I researched it for the better part of two weeks and dozens of sources/threads. My conclusion was that the 20" had better ballance for games where your shooting on baricades but that the accuracy was not improved. FWIW, My 2024 production B14R (steel) will shoot with my tricked out Vudoo most days if I do my part.

 

[WeeHooker]

I was thinking about "upgrading from my 18" Steel barreled action toa 20" Heavy Stainless. I researched it for the better part of two weeks and dozens of sources/threads. My conclusion was that the 20" had better ballance for games where your shooting on baricades but that the accuracy was not improved. FWIW, My 2024 production B14R (steel) will shoot with my tricked out Vudoo most days if I do my part. ( Both are better than me on most days anyway.)

 

[bostonbullit]

There's a thread over on rimfirecentral talking about the quality control issues with the rifling on the recent B-14r heavies that you see for $650ish. Basically the rifling where it meets the chamber has a crazy hook to it, almost like a fleur de leaf. Lots of the usual debate about "send it back" vs "just shoot it". One guy sent his back and Bergara keeps moving the estimate for a gunsmith to look at it out, the OP of the thread shot it a bunch, then cut and re-crowned the muzzle so that's all his now!

Even with all that info I decided to take a chance and ordered one. Mine came in looking the same as the OPs unfortunately. I plan on spending a few hours at the range this weekend seeing how it groups with different ammo I have and can post back here when I'm done.
I will be doing the same testing with my original B-14r that currently has a 22" KI Precision barrel on it. I picked the barrel up here on the marketplace and unfortunately I've been having a lot of extraction issues with it. After putting a ball bearing on the left side spring and shimming the bolt head out .007" it seems to be extracting most of the time, enough to do some lot testing. If the lot testing doesn't pan out then I'm not going to spend any more time trying to get it to run properly.

 

[hafejd30]

There's a thread over on rimfirecentral talking about the quality control issues with the rifling on the recent B-14r heavies that you see for $650ish. Basically the rifling where it meets the chamber has a crazy hook to it, almost like a fleur de leaf. Lots of the usual debate about "send it back" vs "just shoot it". One guy sent his back and Bergara keeps moving the estimate for a gunsmith to look at it out, the OP of the thread shot it a bunch, then cut and re-crowned the muzzle so that's all his now!

Even with all that info I decided to take a chance and ordered one. Mine came in looking the same as the OPs unfortunately. I plan on spending a few hours at the range this weekend seeing how it groups with different ammo I have and can post back here when I'm done.
I will be doing the same testing with my original B-14r that currently has a 22" KI Precision barrel on it. I picked the barrel up here on the marketplace and unfortunately I've been having a lot of extraction issues with it. After putting a ball bearing on the left side spring and shimming the bolt head out .007" it seems to be extracting most of the time, enough to do some lot testing. If the lot testing doesn't pan out then I'm not going to spend any more time trying to get it to run properly.

I’d be interested to see your results. I haven’t bore scoped mine yet but I bought one of these about a month or two ago. Waiting to assemble it yet as I’ve been getting parts

 

[Mongo68]

I bought the 20” barrel action. Left it on long enough for my 24” KI barrel. Shoots lights out better than me. Balance is perfect.

 

[Turbwhistle]

+1 for a ki 24” barrel, been running it for over a year, and it just shoots. The ability to balance the rifle with the heavy barrel makes it a no brainer. I shoot sk rifle match, i have shot sk standard, sk long range, and lapua center x, all shot great, so i normally just run what i can find.

 

[doodle 2229]

I just received a KI 24" barrel, 1.220 inch straight, with target crown. So far, I have tried 3 different lots of Eley SABR, 3 lots of Eley team, and a random bunch of SK standard+ and rifle match. At 50 yds, no 5 shot group has been larger than .4 inch, with most in the .2's and .3's. Cci sv and norma tac 22 were more like an inch, not unexpected. I have not bore scoped it, but with the way it shoots, I see no need to. Outside fit and finish is perfect. The included bolt shims were a great touch, and I used a .004 shim to get reliable extraction of Eley spent brass. It currently sits in an MDT xrs chassis with the internal weight, and balances 4 inches in front of the mag well. Groups at 100 averaged just over an inch with sk stuff, but 3/4 inch with eley. Considering none of the ammo used was lot tested for this barrel, I am very impressed so far. Granted, it took 16 weeks to arrive, but it appears to have been worth the wait.