Re: McGowen Barrel issues
I won't elaborate any on experiences that were told to me by other parties or hearsay, so this is my personal experience and opinion based on 40 yrs. experience as a tool and die maker/rifle builder.
A customer was looking for a budget Savage build for his son, so I took the job knowing a high end cut rifled barrel and custom tight neck reamer couldn't be in the budget. Many years back I've used a couple of Ed Mcgowens barrels with good success on bench rest rifles....I guess I let the name give me a level of comfort.
To be fair, I would guess one of their blanks would be a very decent barrel for the price...provided a qualified accuracy gunsmith did the threading, chambering and crowning for their drop in barrels. This is not the case, it was even admitted to me that an apprentice was doing the chamber work...and apparently, there was no highly skilled accuracy gunsmith there to teach him the ropes.
Our first .223 barrel was a nine twist for heavy bullets, but it came throated for .50 grain bullets.LOL....a 69 gr. bullet would have to be seated well past the neck shoulder junction and into the boiler room to even chamber. I was told they chambered all twist rates with the same throat...I had to laugh, because who on earth would order a 9 twist for 50 gr. bullets. If you are going to offer a drop in barrel in different twist rates, you better have the appropriate reamers for the required throating. The whole point of a drop in barrel is to not require additional gunsmithing or have to purchase throating reamers. Well, that's funny enough, but the next flaw I spotted was mind blowing...the crown was totally destroyed by some barrel polishing gadget they bought from Brownells and didn't know how to properly use. They put the hardened 60 degree centers into the freshly cut crown and it pushed a large burr all the way around the inside of the crown, and it was shipped to me in that condition.
Dan was very apologetic, and agreed to pay shipping and correct the throat and re-machine the crown. I must say that from a cosmetic point of view..the barrel was very nicely finished, marked and threaded. Dan requested that I send a couple rounds with the bullets seated at desired depth to gauge the throating as would be expected...and I did so in a heat sealed plastic bag.
The barrel was returned sooner than expected, showing that Dan was trying to please us...and I commend that. Now the horror story begins. I looked the barrel over and noticed the same crown damage as last time...even slightly worse!..I couldn't believe it! It gets even more bazaar...the empty test rounds with seated bullets were returned still sealed in the same plastic bag and were never opened. Now I'm thinking OMG!....you guessed it, the barrel was now throated so deep it was ruined. You couldn't reach the lands with a bullet still in the case neck
at all...I would have needed 160gr. .224 bullet to reach now, and I don't think they make such an animal....can you say major freebore? LOL
At this point, My customer is highly pissed, and I'm pulling my hair out. I reluctantly called Dan about the new and old problems, and he informed me that again an apprentice did the work and he would try to correct it again. I'm thinking the ability just isn't there, so I'm just wasting my time...but I agree to send it back yet another time.
Again Dan's speedy attention has another barrel back in my hands in short order, and this time I'm sure he has put an experienced gunsmith on the job to save any more embarrassment....Well, no such luck! I absolutely can not believe what I pulled out of that tube this time..IT JUST KEEPS GETTING WORSE BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS! I'm now thinking this is some sort of joke and the real barrel will show up tomorrow.
This third barrel was a total mess. A complete thread was ripped out of the barrel shank where somebody disengaged the CNC threading machine in mid cut, The crown was just as messed up as the last two...BUT THIS TIME WE HAVE EVEN MORE!...The chamber is machined off center, and runs out eleven thousands from the bore...How do you do that with the bore as a pilot hole?...I don't think I could if I tried. I'm thinking OMG, what is the reamer pilot doing while the back end of it is wiggling around eleven thousands. I take my borescope for a look, and just as I suspected, pilot pressure marks in the lands just ahead of the throat....another fine barrel totally butchered.
This time my customer is absolutely red faced livid and starts screaming "we have run out of time and have a dog town trip planned and paid for, screw that piece of junk in the rifle and let's see if it will shoot". I followed orders, but didn't expect much.....didn't get much either...a factory Savage barrel would have bettered it easy under the conditions.
I did call Dan again and believe it or not...he was willing to try again, but indicated that we might be too picky! LOL He informed me that they didn't do accuracy gunsmithing. I informed him that if you claim to make accuracy drop in barrels...you have no other choice. If you can't do it...don't offer drop in barrels until you can. A barrel in no better than the machining quality used to install it.
I didn't bother sending the third barrel back, because I'm afraid I would have thrown it through my TV set on the next trip. It would have been pointless anyway because it's not that they don't want to or try to do the work...they just don't have the ability or tooling beyond just making barrel blanks....chambering and fitting is another highly skilled trade altogether.
I just call it a lesson learned. I later removed the barrel and bought my customer a new blank out of my pocket and chambered, threaded and crowned it.....now she's shootin bugholes.
If the bad barrel had been a fourteen twist, I could have made maybe a barrel for a XP 100 or something, but as it is, I just used the steel for making straight line seater dies.....expensive steel, but what can you do?
Hopefully, someone has realized that a major change is in order for the barrel fitting department, I can't see how this could go on forever. Dan is a nice guy that really wants to please his customers...I can tell that and wish him the best. I also wish a qualified accuracy gunsmith applies for a job in his shop and gets hired!