Preferred Barrel Blanks Insight?

[srodge10]

I am thinking about doing a caliber conversion from a .223 to 22-250. I have looked at many options and Preferred Barrel Blanks fits my budget and looks fairly trustworthy. Has anyone had experience rebarreling an action with them and how is the quality/accuracy of their barrels? Thanks for taking a look at my post.

 

[Trees91]

Bolt face diameter is different assuming you're starting with a 223 barreled action.

I too am curious about preferred barrel blanks. A shouldered prefit for a tikka is super easy to do and their price is reasonable....been thinking of putting together a 6.5prc

 

[srodge10]

Bolt face diameter is different assuming you're starting with a 223 barreled action.

I too am curious about preferred barrel blanks. A shouldered prefit for a tikka is super easy to do and their price is reasonable....been thinking of putting together a 6.5prc

I already have the bolt face. Just need to figure out the barrel.

 

[MrSunday]

I have Preferred Barrel Blanks shouldered 7 SAUM pre-fit on my Nucleus. The company was good to deal with in my experience. Responsive and willing to accommodate special requests. I had them chamber using a dummy round I sent in. The fit and finish is nice. I went with their taperless profile to save weight and still be able to run a suppressor. So far I'm happy with the profile.

I've put about 150 rounds down it so far and the barrel has sped up about 80fps in that time. As far as accuracy...I have only done the most basic load development for fast-approaching hunting season but I did shoot a .58" moa five-shot grouping this last Monday.

Overall no complaints and I would buy from them again. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

 

[sndmn11]

I bought a pre-owned 7-08 barrel for a Tikka off of here last year. It is easy to shoot well. I just ordered a 22BR for the same rifle and they were great in helping me understand chamber dimensions and whatnot.

 

[srodge10]

I have Preferred Barrel Blanks shouldered 7 SAUM pre-fit on my Nucleus. The company was good to deal with in my experience. Responsive and willing to accommodate special requests. I had them chamber using a dummy round I sent in. The fit and finish is nice. I went with their taperless profile to save weight and still be able to run a suppressor. So far I'm happy with the profile.

I've put about 150 rounds down it so far and the barrel has sped up about 80fps in that time. As far as accuracy...I have only done the most basic load development for fast-approaching hunting season but I did shoot a .58" moa five-shot grouping this last Monday.

Overall no complaints and I would buy from them again. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

Thanks!

 

[TK177]

Post your groups once you get it all set-up

 

[willfrye027]

I hesitate to post this but..

I have two tikka prefits from them. First barrel is a 25creedmoor. Shoots well, about 100fps slower than I expected. But consistently half MOA without too much trouble in load development. The neck dimensions are TIGHT, basically it’s a neck turn and I did not specifically order that. They were not interested in remedying this.

second prefit just arrived and it’s a 25-284 with the blackjack chamber. Something is very wrong with it, I’m getting major pressure at 300fps below expected. Essentially same velocity as 25 creedmoor. Tried multiple powders and ruled out the common culprits; I am shipping it back for them to take a look at. How they handle it will determine if I end up using them again. The first barrel is fine, not amazing…but the new one is unusable as far as I am concerned.

another negative would be their contour selection. The shank is very long on all the sporters. Depending on what stock you plan on using that may be an issue. Take a close look before expecting to drop it in easily except for on a chassis.

I am not bashing the company (yet), just giving you my 2 cents working with them so far.

 

[CApighunter]

Reports on PBB seem to be hit and miss. I’m still tempted to try an origin prefit in 6BR or 6ARC though.

 

[sndmn11]

There are contours beyond what is shown that are available as "custom". They sent me a few Tikka contours because I was trying to see what would fit in the stock that I sanded out to fit the pre-owned I bought that has a shortened shank.

 

[wind gypsy]

I'm really happy with my arrowhead TC encore smokeless 45 ML barrel which uses a preferred blank. That said, I have read a number of negative reviews over the past couple years in relation to their pre-fits. Enough that the risk of a headache is worth paying a different smith the extra money to avoid it IMO.

Unless you got a bunch of spare time, there is a lot of value in not having to fight through a mediocre barrel with a bunch of wasted time at the range and loading bench and wasted components. I'll pay a few hundred $ extra if it helps me avoid that. The time and $ into barrel break in and load dev is worth more than that to me.

 

[Cahunter805]

I have a preferred on my 28Nosler currently and it’s been excellent so far. Accuracy has been sub MOA from the start and it did speed up at about 125 rounds down the barrel or so. Barrel cleaned up very quickly also.
This was a blank that was chambered by my brother not a prefit though.

 

[762 ULTRAMAGA]

I've had some pretty hit and miss experience with PBB as well.
The first barrel I had was a 300 prc and it had serious accuracy issues, and it copper fould really realy badly.
I sent it back and they claimed the chamber was out of spec?? They sent it back and told me they rechambered it, well it still shot like garbage so I mailed it back and asked for a refund.

Long story short I finally talked them into giving me a 16" 6.5 saum tikka prefit as a replacement.
I had an issue with the neck being way tight, like .004 tighter than saami.
Sooo I sent it back and told them about the problem, they told me it was my loading technique causing sizing issue.
I started getting pissed at this point and asked the guy to go get his reamer and measure the damn thing.
Sure enough the neck was .004 under saami.

They rechambered it with a new reamer and now its shooting pretty dang good, 1/2 moa consistently.
I will say though, after all the time I wasted sorting through issues with those guys I won't buy from them again

 

[willfrye027]

I hesitate to post this but..

I have two tikka prefits from them. First barrel is a 25creedmoor. Shoots well, about 100fps slower than I expected. But consistently half MOA without too much trouble in load development. The neck dimensions are TIGHT, basically it’s a neck turn and I did not specifically order that. They were not interested in remedying this.

second prefit just arrived and it’s a 25-284 with the blackjack chamber. Something is very wrong with it, I’m getting major pressure at 300fps below expected. Essentially same velocity as 25 creedmoor. Tried multiple powders and ruled out the common culprits; I am shipping it back for them to take a look at. How they handle it will determine if I end up using them again. The first barrel is fine, not amazing…but the new one is unusable as far as I am concerned.

another negative would be their contour selection. The shank is very long on all the sporters. Depending on what stock you plan on using that may be an issue. Take a close look before expecting to drop it in easily except for on a chassis.

I am not bashing the company (yet), just giving you my 2 cents working with them so far.

just to follow up here..preferred looked at the barrel and chamber and found it all to be in spec. One of the barrel makers called me and we talked quite a bit about other potential issues. None of them were relevant but it was reassuring that they went to some effort to help work it out. They sent the barrel back to me and nothing had changed. Still getting pressure at 2850-2900fps. I decided to just shoot it some more and hope it sped up enough to be useful. Lo and behold the damn thing sped up 300fps over the next 40 rounds!! No changes to reloading process or anything like that.

I can’t explain why or how…but now the barrel is hammering. One of the more accurate barrels I’ve had and I am getting the full speed potential I hoped for (pressuring up at 3150fps or so with RL26). For now I will continue using these guys especially because they have a great selection of reamers for 25cal stuff.

 

[sndmn11]

Good follow up!

 

[eLightfoot]

just to follow up here..preferred looked at the barrel and chamber and found it all to be in spec. One of the barrel makers called me and we talked quite a bit about other potential issues. None of them were relevant but it was reassuring that they went to some effort to help work it out. They sent the barrel back to me and nothing had changed. Still getting pressure at 2850-2900fps. I decided to just shoot it some more and hope it sped up enough to be useful. Lo and behold the damn thing sped up 300fps over the next 40 rounds!! No changes to reloading process or anything like that.

I can’t explain why or how…but now the barrel is hammering. One of the more accurate barrels I’ve had and I am getting the full speed potential I hoped for (pressuring up at 3150fps or so with RL26). For now I will continue using these guys especially because they have a great selection of reamers for 25cal stuff.

How much rl-26 are you topping out at? I tried it in my 25-285 and pressured out at 55 grains. Velocity wasn’t great 3000fps, accuracy wasn’t great either. H1000 was bout the same max speed but accuracy was way better.

 

[eLightfoot]

And as for PBB I bought a shouldered prefit for my tikka in 22creed. Every load I’ve shot in it is extremely accurate. Multiple diff bullets too. Love it

 

[willfrye027]

How much rl-26 are you topping out at? I tried it in my 25-285 and pressured out at 55 grains. Velocity wasn’t great 3000fps, accuracy wasn’t great either. H1000 was bout the same max speed but accuracy was way better.

26in barrel 7.5tw
135gr Berger LRHT
Lapua brass
CCI200
Here’s the two loads I am fine tuning/playing with still. These are about 0.3 grains below ejector marks/pressure. Barrel has about 100 rounds down the tube now.

53.5gr RL26 at 3115fps
54.5gr H1000 3015fps

Similar group size and ES for both. Not sure which one I am going with yet..3000fps is taking me out to 1000 yards with 1800fps at 400feet elevation. So more than enough to hunt long distance.

 

[762 ULTRAMAGA]

Good to hear!
It looks like PBB is turning things around
I had two of their barrels that shot like crap, finally talked them into a free replacement for one and it's shooting .3s

 

[BoltActionBrotherhood]

I have a few of their barrels, all shot half moa 5 shot groups, they are not hand lapped which I was bummed about. But I can’t complain, I have had a semi pro loud mouth gunsmith tell me the bore is not always centered or something, but I take him with a grain of salt.