Douglas Barrels

Al Nyhus said:
Nothin' like lumping an entire group of people together and assigning a label.....:rolleyes:
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That was not a criticism, it was a remark based on years of observation and simply a comment on how they watch the equipment lists and buy what the winners buy. Don't try to read more into it than was intended.
 
Douglas

Wasn't Douglas the first to button the barrel ?
IN prone they sure put the hurt on a lot of barrels.Won
a lot of matches at Camp Perry Nationals.
 
glp said:
Stan, I guess I agree with you but a COMPETITION barrel at $300 or so should never leave the factory without the maker borescoping it and if it looks like trash, it should end up in the trash recycle bucket not in a shooters hands! I have had 2 barrels that looked like trash inside and both shot like trash. Both were not Douglas. One make gave me 2 new barrels, one to compensate me for the bad one and one for the cost of the chambering job. The other maker just gave me a new barrel. I was out the chambering cost. --Greg
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This has happened to me once, too. Again, not a Douglas barrel. Fortunately, the smith who was to fit it looked down the bore and noticed a couple gouges. The barrel was replaced at no charge.

"Let the customer do the quality control" seems to be more and more a way of life in this modern world. Back in he 1990s, we had this trouble with a bunch of expensive computer equipment -- I call a $100 mouse expensive, just like a $4,000 computer.

I laud Douglas for at least looking, but also agree it would be nice if such were borescoped. How much would that add to the cost?

(In the interests of full disclosure, I count Stan as a friend & won't comment specifically on Douglas barrels.)
 
Charles, I just don't know why a "PREMIUM" or "BENCHREST QUALITY" or any other adjective or superlative that a competition barrel maker chooses to use, would ever not borescope a barrel and even think of letting out a buggered up one. Sure it "might" shoot but probably won't. That should never be the end user's problem imho.

Charles E said:
This has happened to me once, too. Again, not a Douglas barrel. Fortunately, the smith who was to fit it looked down the bore and noticed a couple gouges. The barrel was replaced at no charge.

"Let the customer do the quality control" seems to be more and more a way of life in this modern world. Back in he 1990s, we had this trouble with a bunch of expensive computer equipment -- I call a $100 mouse expensive, just like a $4,000 computer.

I laud Douglas for at least looking, but also agree it would be nice if such were borescoped. How much would that add to the cost?

(In the interests of full disclosure, I count Stan as a friend & won't comment specifically on Douglas barrels.)
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There are good and bad barrels made by all. But to come on here and bad mouth the manufacturers is just wrong. You have a problem, Call the barrel maker. I will say that any barrel maker that doesn't scope for quality control IMHO is not giving his customers their moneys worth and God knows the price is excessive. I've said it once and i'll say it again, We will price ourselves out of existence if the fuel prices don't get us first. To many people trying to make a living on a borderline hobby.

Just my 2 cents and keep the change
 
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Mickey,
"Benchrest shooters are double first cousins to lemmings".
They say most good comedy has an element of truth to it. Your Benchrest line certainly did. I thought it was funny as hell ! :)
Best,
Dan Batko

"Where are we going and why am I in this basket?"
 
wolf gray said:
Mickey,
"Benchrest shooters are double first cousins to lemmings".
They say most good comedy has an element of truth to it. Your Benchrest line certainly did. I thought it was funny as hell ! :)
Best,
Dan Batko

"Where are we going and why am I in this basket?"
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Dan,
Obviously the comment was made TIC but you seem to be the only one who recognized that. My compliments and thanks. :)
 
Butch, If I remember correctly I think Douglas was a little ahead of Hart in buttoning barrels. If not they were within a year or so apart. Along with Walkers help in setting up the button process, Harts claim to fame was the first good stainless. At about that time G.R.Douglas was having a tough time trying to find a good machinable stainless,but was winning some big matches with chrome moly buttoned barrels. Remington (Walker) was buttoning 03-A3 barrels in the late 40's so there's no question who was first. The question I have is how did Douglas get this technology with no apparent connection to Walker or Remington? A few years back I asked Walker about this and he told me that he did not know Douglas and had never met him. The only connection I can come up with is Homer Culver. Would appreciate hearing from anyone out there who can shed some light on this.
Martin
 
ohhh nooo Mickey you were more than just a little right.
I have watched the trends for some years and have posted about it several times but to my shigrin once that was brought up things got quiet.
ALTHOUGH I have at times been guilty for exactly the same thing.
 
Vern, we're all guilty of it. Me too, and I've even been guilty of passing along such as "what's known" to new shooters. I have to work real hard to keep the wives tales and current fashions out of both my shooting and my posts.

In fact, I just ordered a rimfire action with a 6:00pm firing pin. AFAIK, there is one well-known guy pushing this, and a whole bunch of evidence saying it doesn't matter. Well, I figured, it can't hurt ;-)

Or, I just earned the scorn of a bunch of long-range shooters on the 1K forum by saying that the positive effects of meplat trimming and repointing need to be checked -- not that there aren't benefits, but the amount claimed needs confirmation . . .

Back to the original question. I have three Douglass barrels I'm going to chamber up and try this year. A 6mm for a PPC, a .308 for a .30BR, and for long range, another 6mm that'll become a Dasher. All the double-button variety. We shall see.
 
For some reason the name/term Douglas "glass barrel" is stuck in my mind from back in the 70's when they were on top.
Is my memory fading or.... what is a glass barrel?
 
Glenn Chism said:
Back in the the early 90's,I had two Remington hunting rifles rebarreled with Douglas "Air Gauged Barrels" They both shot a lot better than the factory barrels.

The only reason I chose Douglas Barrels was because nobody else said their barrels were "air gauged". Sounded real high tech back then. I never really understood how a barrel was Air gauged". Still don't. So,could somebody explain the process?





Glenn
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They run a probe through the bore that has air pumped into it. The probe lets air escape at a fixed rate and the air pressure in the probe is measured by an instrument with a bubble of some sort in a tube. Any variance of .0001 is shown by the bubbles rising and falling within the tube.

Stan Taylor can give a much better explanation because he knows the proper terms but this is essentially how it works. I've seen the room where they air gauge barrels many times. I think they have one for each bore size.

Tim Gardner, the owner, told me that 98% of their barrels will air gauge.
 
Vern said:
For some reason the name/term Douglas "glass barrel" is stuck in my mind from back in the 70's when they were on top.
Is my memory fading or.... what is a glass barrel?
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That's a new one on me insofar as Douglas is concerned.
 
Glenn Chism said:
Thanks Mickey. That's a good explanation for a Dummy like me. I kinda get the idea. Back when I had the two Douglas Barrels installed,that phrase "Air Gauged" sort a made me feel I was getting some special technology. Great idea for marketing I guess.

Thanks Glenn
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It was something special. I still IS something special.... Air Gauging was and is a way of checking the bore for diametric imperfections. Nowadays "slugging" is the accepted way of evaluating a bore and it's an OK way. Especially because the average gunsmith can do it in-house. But it's not as telling as air gauging. Running a fitted gauge through the bore under pressure while gauging the air escaping around the gauge is extremely accurate. It doesn't actually "measure" the bore but that's impossible with current tech.


I'm not aware of a better evaluation than air gauging for checking the bore for uniformity.

al
 
Well then Mickey I guess you have confirmed that I just do not have a correct memory orrrrr whoever used that term so many decades ago didnt know what they were talking about. Anyway I am glad I dont have to walk around wondering what it was.
 
Glenn Chism said:
Thanks Mickey. That's a good explanation for a Dummy like me. I kinda get the idea. Back when I had the two Douglas Barrels installed,that phrase "Air Gauged" sort a made me feel I was getting some special technology. Great idea for marketing I guess.

Thanks


Glenn
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Glenn, Pleased that I could be of help.
 
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