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Vudoo barrel choices?

Bowie 6

Private
Minuteman
Sep 30, 2020
29
17
Considering the choices Vudoo offers what barrel would you choose and why?Looks like Ace, Bartlien and Lothar-Walther are the options. Would be a NRL/NRLX22 rig primarily.
 
Don’t think you can go wrong with any barrel that vudoo threads into their action. That being said I went with their ace barrel. It was what they developed at the time when their first gens were being produced and haven’t been more satisfied.
 
From their FAQ section:
"What barrel makes are available?
We primarily use our own Vudoo barrel we call the Ace, however, we stock Bartlein and Krieger too. We are working with other manufactures too, such as Proof Research, and will make an announcement as it and others are available."
 
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I went with Ace. Couldn't be happier.
 
I'm going with an Ace. No hands on experience with any of them, but since Vudoo has their own supply to their tolerances, why second guess.
 
I went with the Ace. The wait for a Bartlien or Krieger was a lot longer. Ace is as good Bartlien or Krieger with less wait.
 
I got a Kukri 20" Bartlein a few days ago. Still waiting on it to come in, so I can't speak from experience. But here's my perspective:

Kukri: I chose this because there is no accuracy advantage with the MTU. It's simply better for weight distribution toward the barrel. So the balance point might be a few inches more forward - which is great for barricades, for example. But perhaps not so great for off-hand shooting. I want to do both, including hunting so I chose Kukri. Oh, and Kukri is simply lighter. It's also their most popular profile.

20": I chose 20" for looks primarily. You won't see major differences in velocities in any of these sizes, neither will it affect accuracy. I just didn't want a stubby looking gun. But also wanted to fit through ladders and such without great difficulty.

Bartlein: To be honest, it was my only option for Kukri 20". But I like the company and it's reputation for making extremely nice barrels. I don't know much about Ace, other than their association with Vudoo. I heard Bartlein and Ace are very, very similar in terms of accuracy (this is from the Vudoo guys).
 
As @ermilla said, when I bought my 20" Kukri I was looking for something that would fit into an AICS (as a trainer for my AX short / long action) and not look funky. You may have the same consideration based on the chassis you select.

I'm going to start shooting PRS Rimfire this year and while I may weight the front a bit more for balance, I'm satisfied with the length, velocity and groupings I'm getting with Lapua Center X.

Check out the video X-Ring did about barrel length and velocity, and he has others about PRS Rimfire and NRL22. He talks about the ammo and barrel starting at 6:30.

 
I just received my 20" Kukri Bartline on Tuesday. In 30 min of getting the Barreled Action home I was confirming zero at 50 yards. I am happy with the setup. I also have a 20" ACE Kukri on an order that is due in the next 3-6 weeks. Its waiting on Stock and Barrel Backorder. The Kukri fits the profile look I wanted and think MTU would have been ok as well. The only difference in the 2 barrels I know of is a Bart is 5 grove and the Ace is 6 grove. According to the Data from XRing's video above the numbers are the same. The paper print with groups and ammo is where I'll be looking when my other one shows up.

I can say you can't go wrong with a Vudoo build either way for NRL22 or PRS Rimfire matches.

First 40 rounds down my barrel with SK Long Range. That was the last of it I had. SK Standard + and Rifle match will be feeding it from this point forward.
tempImage51NBWD.png
 
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I just received my 20" Kukri Bartline on Tuesday. In 30 min of getting the Barreled Action home I was confirming zero at 50 yards. I am happy with the setup. I also have a 20" ACE Kukri on an order that is due in the next 3-6 weeks. Its waiting on Stock and Barrel Backorder. The Kukri fits the profile look I wanted and think MTU would have been ok as well. The only difference in the 2 barrels I know of is a Bart is 5 grove and the Ace is 6 grove. According to the Data from XRing's video above the numbers are the same. The paper print with groups and ammo is where I'll be looking when my other one shows up.

I can say you can't go wrong with a Vudoo build either way for NRL22 or PRS Rimfire matches.

First 40 rounds down my barrel with SK Long Range. That was the last of it I had. SK Standard + and Rifle match will be feeding it from this point forward. View attachment 7600309
Great Groups. I'm excited to get mine on Monday. I also bought a Manners PRS1T to put it in alongside a TT Diamond. I don't have the ability to be shooting within 30 minutes of building, however. ;(
 
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Great Groups. I'm excited to get mine on Monday. I also bought a Manners PRS1T to put it in alongside a TT Diamond. I don't have the ability to be shooting within 30 minutes of building, however. ;(
Perks on living in the county with nice crop ground around you and an Old growth woods on a hill!!! I can get 75 if I set up in the front yard. people do look at me funny or honk when they drive by...
 
I don’t think you can go wrong with any of their barrels. Personally I am starting to go longer with a larger contour as I’ve seen a little more forgiveness in ammo choices. Any of the vudoos with the right ammo will shoot lights out.
 
I don’t think you can go wrong with any of their barrels. Personally I am starting to go longer with a larger contour as I’ve seen a little more forgiveness in ammo choices. Any of the vudoos with the right ammo will shoot lights out.
Where did you see this? Just your experience? Can you elaborate?
 
Where did you see this? Just your experience? Can you elaborate?
This is from my own experience having a 18” -24” barrels. Due to my sample size being only one barrel in 2” increments out to 24” of which only two barrels from the same manufacturer as well as only having a couple lots from a couple ammo brands it’s not enough to have a solid conclusion. But that being said what I have found from my small sample size is that my 22” and 24” barrels shot all lots of ammo really well. I also had higher speeds in the 22” barrel than I did the 18” & 20” which goes against others testing. The 24” benchmark actually had the same velocity as the 20” which again was very interesting as I was not expecting that. From the little testing I have done it seems that there are just too many variables that come into play where we can blanket one conclusion across the board. I have a 26” benchmark that arrives today which I’m excited about playing with. It will be interesting to see if I have similar results. I’m hoping to maintain a relative velocity of the 24” only to improve on the slightly better SD and ES that I have seen with my lots of ammo as the barrel has gotten longer.
 
Rimfire is elusive, everyone has different experiences with different results. It is a strange game as I had a friend that also purchased a 22” barrel and his was 5fps slower than both the 18” & 20” barrels I had. But he did have great accuracy over a variety of lots we had available. Does it hold water that the longer the barrel the less picky the barrel will be? Meh not sure, maybe it’s just the barrel and the ammo combo, but so far it seems to correlate for me and my ammo.
 
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This my vudoo with a 16.5 Walther lothar barrel. I put it in a McMillan stock. I shoot metric silhouette. Ours ranges go out to 110 yards. I found the SK + lot it likes. I can cover 5 shots with a dime. I love my Vudoo. I have built a lot of silhouette rifles from rem 40x’s to 54 ms to Sako p94s to 1712 with custom barrel to stiller 2500. Now I want to get a Rim x to try.
Wiz
 

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