Best Custom Rifle Barrel: What The Pros Use

Barrels are deceptively simple yet crucial to the precision required for long-range shooting. I once visited the shop of Benchrest Hall of Famer Cecil Tucker, and I recognized a unique opportunity to learn from a legend. So I asked him the million-dollar question: What is the most important thing when it comes to precision rifles? Cecil didn’t hesitate. He seemed to have been preparing his whole life to answer that elusive question, and it was on the tip of his tongue: “The barrel and the bullet.” Deceptively simple.

Retired Army Ranger Sniper and respected precision rifle teacher Ryan Cleckner explains, “Just as the receiver is the main part of the rifle for legal purposes, the barrel is the main part of the rifle for accuracy purposes. A good rifle with a bad barrel will not shoot accurately. Conversely, a poor-quality rifle with a good barrel can shoot accurately.”

I recently surveyed the top 200 ranked shooters in the Precision Rifle Series, and this article will share all the data related to the barrel those guys are using to compete at the highest levels. This article shares insight into each of these aspects:

• Barrel Brand
• Barrel Length
• Barrel Contour
• Total Rifle Weight
• How often do they clean their barrel?

Best Precision Rifle Barrel Brands

Let’s start by looking at what brands of barrels these pro-level shooters chose to use:

49% of these top-ranked PRS shooters were using a Bartlein barrel, which is as much as the next 10 brands combined! That included 4 of the top 10 shooters and represented 40% of the top 25. Bartlein barrels have been the leading brand among these pro shooters every year I’ve reported on this since the PRS began in 2012.

“Our rifling machines are so accurate, we can carry the twist rate to the 4th decimal point (example: 11.3642),” explains Bartlein. Wow. I’ve also heard some veteran gunsmiths say that all barrel brands have duds every now and then – but Bartlein has the least.

The next most popular brand was PROOF barrels at 12%. PROOF has some of the most competitive pricing of any barrel brand, with some of their pre-fit barrels as low as $649 (at the time this was written). That is a steel barrel that is pre-chambered and has a threaded muzzle that is ready to be installed on your rifle. (Learn more about pre-fit barrels.)

PROOF is also known for its carbon fiber barrels, but these guys weren’t running carbon fiber barrels. Almost 90% of these pro-level PRS shooters are running rifles that weigh 20-26 pounds in a “ready to fire” configuration (including optics and other accessories). So, a carbon fiber barrel is counter-productive to the rifle weight and balance they are going for to be competitive at the highest levels.

Krieger Barrels is the 3^rd most popular brand, representing 10% of these pros. One of the top 10 shooters was using a Krieger barrel. Krieger is another brand that has been on this list of barrels that the pros have used year after year, all the way back to the inception of the PRS.

Benchmark Barrels and Hawk Hill Customs both represented 9% of these top competitors. 2 of the top 10 shooters were using a Benchmark barrel, and 2 were using a Hawk Hill barrel.

Speaking of Hawk Hill, one interesting note is that two-time PRS champion Austin Orgain recently bought Hawk Hill’s barrel manufacturing operation and equipment. Austin has moved it all to his hometown of Hammon, Oklahoma, and rebranded it “Custom Rifle Barrels.” CRB didn’t launch until a few months ago, but I already know several of these pro shooters using a CRB barrel. I’d expect those to be represented well among this group the next time I send out the survey, so they’re worth checking out.

The brands above represented 90% of the shooters, but there were a lot of other barrel manufacturers that were represented by 1-3% of these shooters:

• Brux Barrels
• Criterion Barrels
• Geissele Barrels
• Hart Barrels
• HS Precision Barrels
• K&P Barrels
• Masterpiece Arms Barrels
• MullerWorks Barrels
• Shilen Barrels
• X-Caliber Barrels

Barrel Length

Okay, now let’s look at what barrel length these nationally ranked marksmen chose to run in long-range rifle matches.

95% of shooters were running 26” to 28” barrels. 58% were running a 26” barrel, 26% were running a 28” barrel. Of the guys who finished in the top 10 in terms of PRS Season ranking in the Open Division, 4 of those were running a 26” barrel, 3 were running a 28” barrel, 2 were running a 27” barrel, and 1 was running a 25” barrel.

Barrel length preference could vary by cartridge, so below is a more detailed breakdown of all of the cartridges that 8 or more shooters were competing with. The percentages represent how many shooters using that cartridge said they were running that specific barrel length.

Cartridge	22”	24″	25″	26″	27″	27.5″	28″
6mm Dasher			4%	59%	8%	4%	25%
6mm GT		5%		84%			11%
6mm BR or BRA	4%	4%	18%	25%	11%	21%	68%
6mm Creedmoor				91%	9%
25×47 Lapua				78%	11%		11%
6.5 Creedmoor				75%			25%

You can see that a 26-inch barrel is most popular across the board, but many of those shooting a 6BR or 6 BRA opted for a 28-inch barrel. The 6 Dasher is very similar to the 6BR, and there were a significant number of those shooters who opted for a 28-inch barrel – although the majority of those shooting a 6 Dasher were using a 26-inch barrel.

A common misconception is that these guys primarily choose longer barrels to maximize their muzzle velocity. If the primary goal was to maximize muzzle velocity, the BR/Dasher cases wouldn’t be the dominant cartridges. For most of these shooters, the biggest factor that plays into barrel length is making it whatever it needs to be for the rifle weight to perfectly balance 4-5 inches forward of the magwell. That means if you set your shooting bag down on a barricade, rock, or other prop and then put your rifle on top of it, your rifle should be perfectly balanced on your bag. When your rifle’s center of mass is right in the middle of your positional bag, it will help you be more steady for shots and also make it easier to spot your own impacts. Both of those things are infinitely more important in the game of precision rifle shooting than a few more feet per second in velocity. (Hear tips from a pro on tuning your rifle balance.)

Another factor that affects what barrel length these guys choose is maneuverability. We occasionally have stages where we have to shoot out of several windows in a short amount of time. Moving a 26-inch rifle in/out of windows can be a little easier/faster than a 28-inch rifle. I’m not saying that is a more important factor than balance point, but it’s simply another factor some of these shooters consider when deciding barrel length.

Barrel Contour

10 years ago, we all used standard barrel contours (see the data), but that is not the case anymore! About 1/3 of these guys are running some type of custom contour, and by that, I simply mean it’s not a contour that goes by a common name like MTU, M24, Heavy Varmint, etc.

How I’ll Try To Standardize The Contours Data

Over the past several years, these pro shooters have migrated to heavier and heavier barrel contours. As everyone has trended to heavier contours, there aren’t established names for all of them. Many of the contours they’re running only have a slight taper to them and are heavier than the standard contours that were most common for barrel manufacturers to make for the past 50 years. So, some of these don’t have names – or they might go by multiple names, which is even more confusing!

So I reached out to barrel manufacturers and these shooters to get details on all the contours they said they were using, and then tried to group and standardize those, hopefully in a way that makes this easier to understand! 😉

One of the confusing aspects about comparing contours is often the diameter at the muzzle is referenced as a dimension – but it might be for a 26” barrel or a 28” barrel or even longer, and that can vary from one manufacturer to another or even within the same manufacturer’s specs! That makes it hard to do an apples-to-apples comparison of contours.

Since the majority of these guys are running 26” barrels, I’ll standardize the muzzle diameter that I reference for each contour to reflect what it’d be at 26”.

Many of the barrel contours are variations of a standard MTU contour, which at the shank or chamber side of the barrel is 1.25” in diameter for 5”, and then it has a straight taper down to 0.93” diameter at the muzzle on a 26” barrel. Many of these guys will run a similar contour, but it will simply taper less and have a 1.00” diameter muzzle on a 26” barrel, or maybe 1.10” inch. There aren’t standardized names for those contours, or they may go by a variety of names, like MTU+, Comp, or VCC. To try to make it more clear in this article, I’ll group all those into a name that starts with “MTU” followed by the diameter of the muzzle on a 26” barrel, like “MTU with 1.00” muzzle” or “MTU with 1.05” muzzle.”

Here are the results:

There were several popular contours, but a straight barrel with no contour was the most popular choice, with 32% of these 200 top-ranked shooters in the PRS Open Division. 2 of the top 10 shooters were using a straight barrel. I’ve been doing these “What The Pros Use” surveys of the top-ranked PRS shooters every couple of years since the inception of the PRS around 2012. The first time I saw any of the top shooters using a “straight” contour was during the 2018 season – and there were only 7 shooters of 173 surveyed (4%) using a straight barrel that year (see the data). 2018 seems to be around the time this migration to heavier barrels and rifles began in the PRS.

The next 3 most popular contours are all very similar contours. An MTU barrel has a 1.25” barrel shank for 5” and then a straight taper down to 0.93” on a 26” barrel. That standard MTU contour was the 3rd most popular, representing 18%, but the 2nd most popular was virtually identical, but it only tapered to a 1.0” muzzle. We could have called a “Heavy Varmint” contour an “MTU with 0.90” muzzle” – but since “Heavy Varmint” is a standard/common contour, I left it under that name. But the Heavy Varmint contour has the same 1.25” barrel shank for 5” and then tapers to a 0.90” muzzle at 26” compared to an MTU at 0.93”. That is VERY similar! That means the contours that were the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th most popular were basically an MTU contour where the muzzle diameter varied from 0.90” to 1.00”. Those 3 contours combined to represent 54% of these top-ranked shooters, including 7 of the top 10 shooters.

The M24 contour was the 5th most popular, representing 10% of these pro shooters. One unique aspect of the M24 contour is it has a slightly smaller shank diameter at 1.20” compared to 1.25” on most other contours used by these guys. The M24 contour is the barrel contour used on the legendary M24 Sniper Weapon System, which was a heavy-barrel, bolt-action rifle built on a Remington 700 action that was used by the US military from 1988 to today. When these long-range rifle field matches started in the late 90s and early 2000s and eventually evolved into the PRS in 2011/2012, the M24 rifle was very representative of what everyone was using. That rifle could be considered the grandfather of this style of competitive shooting. While most other parts of a modern competition rifle have evolved, it’s cool to see remnants of that M24 design that are still represented at the highest levels.

Here are the major dimensions of each type of contour, listed from lightest to heaviest:

Contour	Shank Diameter (in)	Shank Length (in)	Muzzle Diameter at 26” (in)	Notes
Marksman	1.25	3	0.87	Standard/common contour
M24	1.20	3	0.90	Standard/common contour
GAP #6	1.25	3.5	0.90	George Gardner, owner of GA Precision, gave me these specs. It features a sporter contour, not a straight taper.
Heavy Varmint	1.25	5	0.90	Standard/common contour, but could’ve referred to as MTU with 0.90” muzzle
MPA Match	1.20	13	0.90	Phil Cashin, owner of MPA, gave me these specs directly (view drawing)
MTU	1.25	5	0.93	Standard/common contour
MTU with 1.00” Muzzle	1.25	5	1.00	aka MTU+, PROOF’s “Competition” contour
BCP Contour	1.30	6	1.01	Corson Piper is the shooter using this contour, and I asked him for these specs directly. BCP stands for Buffalo Creek Precision.
MTU with 1.05” Muzzle	1.25	5	1.05	Benchmark’s new “VCC” Contour (view drawing Benchmark sent me)
MTU with 1.10” Muzzle	1.25	5	1.10	CRB’s new “Comp” Contour
MTU with 1.15” Muzzle	1.25	5	1.154	Chad Heckler’s custom contour, which he said was 1.150” on a 27” barrel

Why such heavy barrel contours?

It isn’t necessarily because they think heavier contours shoot tighter groups. A few years ago, I was talking about barrels with Wade Stuteville, Overall Champion of the 2012 Precision Rifle Series, and I remember a profound statement from that conversation. Wade explained, “I don’t think it’s that heavy barrels necessarily shoot better, as much as I shoot better with a heavy barrel.” He felt the increased weight and balance of a rifle with a heavy barrel helped him be steadier and made it easier for him to stay on target.

Like barrel length, it’s often more about how the rifle balances, and the majority of these top shooters I’ve talked to want their rifle to balance at a precise point that is typically 4-5” in front of the mag well.

The barrel contour these guys choose also has a lot to do with what they want the overall weight of the rifle to be – so let’s look at that next.

Total Rifle Weight

Ten years ago, most PRS shooters were running 12-16 pound rifles. Over the past 5 years or so, the match rifles these guys are running have drastically increased in weight.

I asked these guys to share what their rifle weighed in “ready to fire” configuration (including optics), but I also said that if they didn’t know exactly to simply leave it blank. So all weights I’m referring to are for the rifle in “ready to fire” configuration, which includes optics, mount, and whatever muzzle device they’re using (most use a muzzle brake). It typically does not include a loaded magazine.

90% of these shooters knew exactly what their rifle weighed, and here are those results:

89% of these top-ranked shooters are using a rifle that weighs between 20 to 26 pounds, with 60% falling between 22 to 25 pounds. Yes, there were a few guys running rifles that were over 28 pounds! And none of these top shooters reported using a rifle that weighed in under 18 pounds.

All of the guys who finished in the top 10 in terms of overall season rankings in the PRS Open Division were running a rifle that weighed 19 to 24 pounds. The average weight reported among the top 10 was 21.25 lbs.

In 2018, the overwhelming majority were using rifles that weighed 18-21 pounds (see the data). That is the last time I reported on the total rifle weight that these top-ranked shooters were running, and it was around that time that the shift to heavier rifles started. Unfortunately, I didn’t ask about total rifle weight in any survey before 2018, but I’d bet if you went back to around 2014/2015, most rifles would have weighed 15-18 pounds.

I remember when I was first exposed to someone using a 22-24 pound rifle in a PRS-style match. I was shooting in a squad with Jake Vibbert, who has more national wins than anyone in precision rifle shooting. We had a stage where we had to climb up on a fire truck to engage targets. After Jake shot, he handed me his rifle as he was climbing down – and I remember thinking, “WHOA! This is ridiculously heavy!” I even said it out loud, and Jake laughed. But I also watched how Jake’s rifle didn’t move one bit as he ran the bolt, and even when he was shooting from a barricade, his rifle barely moved under recoil.

Even though I thought it was ridiculous, I thought, “Don’t knock it until you try it.” So, still highly skeptical, I ordered a weight kit for my rifle, and before the end of the first range session, I was sold! So, while lots of people like to be critical about this trend in the PRS by saying it’s become “barricade Benchrest,” before you knock it … I’d challenge you to try it for yourself.

The heavier the rifle, the more it resists movement (increased inertia) – which, when you’re shooting off a prop at a tiny target a long way off, is a very welcome advantage. This is part of the reason match directors have to constantly shrink target sizes and make matches more challenging. If we took our heavy rifles and sandbags back in time to a 2016 PRS match – I’d wager that many of these guys (if not most) would clean the match. And if you transported a top 10 shooter with their 16-pound rifle to today, odds are they’d struggle.

How Often Do You Clean Your Rifle Barrel?

This year, I also asked these guys how often they clean the barrels on their match rifles. Here is what they said:

61% said either after about 200 or 300 rounds, and that included 90% of the top 10 shooters. A typical national-level, two-day PRS match consists of 180 to 200 total rounds. That means they will clean their barrel before a major match, then fire a few rounds to “foul” their barrel, and then they might check their dope at distance or practice with a few rounds on the tune-up day the day prior to the match. Then they’ll shoot the entire two-day match without cleaning their barrel.

Many of these guys are shooting 10-20 major, two-day matches per year – so that cadence of a match or two every month leaves you cleaning your rifle every 200 or 300 rounds.

I do know a few of these guys who might clean out the chamber portion of their barrel between Day 1 and Day 2 of a match. Some (possibly most) might only do that if the conditions are really dusty. Very few of these guys actually run anything down their bore between Day 1 and 2 of a match, although there might be a few that do that.

I do know one former PRS Season Champion who told me that the year he won it all, he didn’t clean his barrel one time! He asked me not to mention his name because his dad taught him better, and he’d be disappointed to hear that! 😉

Coming Up Next

If you enjoyed this content, there is more to come! Over the next few months, I’ll be publishing a ton of data on what the top precision rifle shooters are using. Check out the other “What The Pros Use” articles that have already been published.

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