Colerain Barrels

My .54 swamped, is the best barrel I have owned. It has shot consistent groups since the first day I loaded it, no break in at all. I'll have to look up the ball size but it is over 80 gr of 2F.

I own two rifles with colerain barrels a .62 and .54. Both require heavy patching in the 20th to 22th range because of the deep round bottom rifleing. they are very accurate and easy loading barrels.

If you are building a rifle, Colerain barrels (in my experiance) require more draw fileing than other barrels to bring them to final finish and make shure that the breach plug is installed properly. I have had two that were not seated properly and needed aditional work.

Load combo in my .54 is 80gr 2f swiss .530 ball 20th(actual measure) patching.

I have a colerain bbl in a .54 more or less the same as longhunter. They do shoot well, I don't have the exp that longhunter has with building, but from a shooter they preform well.

Have one on my .50 cal.Frankenstein,my tried to build one myself turnout!! This barrel is swamped and balances nice. It was also a shooter from day one and needed no break in. It is kinda like the T/C barrels as it has two sweet spots. One at 50gr. of 2F and one at 80 gr.

I know Brad at Cabin Creek likes them. I think Loggy might have that barrel....I can add a second barrel to your list if you have not bought one and that would be the Rice barrel......They are on target the first shot--look at their web site....
http://www.ricebarrels.com/

Colerai makes a fine barrel, right here in PA.! They require more work to finish the outside than a Rice barrel but are $50.00 cheaper. Your money or your labor. Also, pull the breech plug and make sure it's seated correctly. That's where they don't match up to Rice barrels. The bottom of the breech plug should contact the bottom of the thread bore at the same time the outside contacts the correct barrel flat. That's called timing a breech plug. If it's not done correctly you will have a cavity that's a breeding ground for corrosion. It's not only Colerain's problem, I bought a Getz barrel last week at Dixon's that has a .040 space beneath the breech plug. I would go with a 1-66 twist in a .54 reguardless of what make you buy.

IMHO-----in my order of pref. Rice and Getz are my first and second choice....Don Getz makes a GREAT barrel too and is selling tickets for a poor boy barn gun he made recently.

I'm not sure I like the round bottom rifling system used by some of the makers. Wide lands with round troughs in between. Don't get me wrong I have one, It seems to shoot well. I prefer much wider grooves with less radius curve to them. The problem as mentioned above with the tight radius grooves is the thickness of the patch required to seal the gooves.

Bunky, Your almost right, Don Getz <span style="color: #FF0000"><u>made</u></span> a great barrel. But he retired and John Getz makes them now. I use Rice barrels

Tobyje,
You hit the nail on the head. If John has an order to make a barrel to your specifications, that is, a custom barrel, you'll never see it unless you stay on John like white on rice. It generally takes five years and constant phone calls and even a personal visit or two before we see barrels. We've since started to use Rice barrels with no regrets.

There are very few guys who will cut customer designed rifling. if you know what your are doing, a custom cut barrel is worth the wait. Hoppy of H&H barrels met with me 30 yrs ago and patiently watched as I sketched and described what I wanted. He had my custom barrel in 3 months. It was well worth the trip to meet with him and the wait for the barrel.

Another great barrel maker is Ed Rayle. You can get his through Troy at Stonewall Creek Outfitters.

Yes John runs the shop now but Ill bet Don is lurking around somewhere. That reminds me Im going to call Don for some tickets to win that barn gun ----I thinnk there is a mason silver inlay (small) in case anyone is interested...PM me and I will send you a link since he has it posted on another site.

Zimmer,
Boy that's a name I haven't heard in awhile. Brings back fond memories.

Recon,
Ed Rayle makes excellent barrels. I have a couple custom Rayle barrels on rifles now and they shoot true.

Bunky,
Don did inlay a masonic symbol in his latest barn gun. When I talked to him at Dixon's I think he said he's currently working on a JP Beck rifle.

20----yes Don is working on a Beck. I would love to own one of his poor boy barn guns he throws together in a matter of 'days'.

Being a custom gun builder, I use barrels from several different makers. I breech all the barrels myself so I can't comment. To answer the OP's question on Colerain, I have no complaints. As Long Hunter pointed out, round bottom rifling does normally require a little thicker patching or a ball that's a little bigger in diameter and it doesn't matter who makes the barrel, that's just the nature of round bottom rifling.