.358

I used to have Dick Nickel re-bore some rifles for me. But, sadly, he is gone. How much would a rebarrel job cost, say on a Rugar 77 MKII, nothing fancy, just cut to length and contour similar to the original. Whats a good bbl to use and who could do the job at a reasonable cost. A gunsmith told me Mcgowen did a good job but others have said the opposite. I want to rebarrel a short action to .358

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.358,
I would think a $400 - 500 bill should get you a barrel and have it installed. As far as barrels any of the name barrel makers would work. Douglas, Lilja, Hart, Shilen, Krieger, & Pac Nor to name a few.

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1SHOT_1KILL

.358, Harry McGowen will, indeed do you a good job and at a reasonable price. I would say that he would charge somewhere in the $300-$350 range for a #3 contour, cut & crowned, chambered in .358 Win, and installed on your Ruger M-77 Mk-II. McGowen barrels are excellent shooters for hunting guns, but are not up some others in the match grade barrels, but are better than ER Shaw, Adams & Bennett, and even Douglas.

Makes like Hart, Lilja, Shilen, Kreiger, Shcneider, and Pac-Nor, will cost considerably more. There quality, especially in match grade barrels are slightly better than McGowen barrels, but you are going to pay 2x-2.5x as much just for the barrel alone.

I have Harry McGowen's phone number and address, that I'll send to you if you want it. If you want it, just let me know.

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1shot_1kill,
I noticed you put Douglas barrels in the same class as A&B and Shaw. As for price Douglas and Shilen are about the same. For quality as far as I'm concerned Douglas edges out Shilen. As for the cost of the other barrels Hart & Lilja aren't that much more than Shilen or Douglas.

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1SHOT_1KILL

From what I understand Douglas has come up in quality some what in the last couple of years or so. But I had a some bad experiences with a couple of the so called premium barrels about 12 years ago and have not used their barrels since. Out of personal preference still won't use Douglas barrels, doesn't mean that they don't make good shooting barrels, just my personal preference. I do know that McGowen make a great shooting barrel, himself, and $ for $, it is very hard to beat his barrels.

Back when I was shooting in benchrest competition, you would be laughed off the firing line if it were known that you were shooting a Douglas. You never heard of anyone wining benchrest competitions with a Douglas. I got used to using Shilen, Lilja, and Hart barrels.

boltman

Most of the custom barrels are fairly similar in price. A Hart doesn't really cost much more than a Douglas when you're just buying the barrel alone. Much of the price for a barreling job is for the smith work, not the barrel. For a reasonable price with a good barrel look at Pac-Nor. They make a really good quality barrel and will chamber and true your action for a reasonable price.