M
model14
Guest
They have a new, fancy website, but no phone number listed (that I could find). Anyone have a number for them?
Thanks,
Richard
Thanks,
Richard
M
model14
Guest
Thanks, Tim. I called and ordered a barrel. Dan said it would be about 6 weeks.
Richard
Richard
B
Big G
Guest
Bad experience with McGowan
I had a real bad experience with McGowan barrels back in the early 70s. I sent a rem 541s to them to be restocked & rebarreled. After the agreed upon time frame for the work had passed I decided to give them a call to check on the progress. Mr. McGowan was extremely rude. He hardly had anything to say to me except when they finished they would ship my rifle back to me. And actually said his customers were a thorn in his side. I was completely surprised by his remarks. I had only called 3 times the entire project. #1 to discuss what I wanted to have done. #2 to make sure they understood how I wanted the customed machined trigger guard plate or action plate set in the new stock as the original was thin so I had a thick one machined. #3 to check on the progress after the agreed upon completion date had passed. When I finaly got my rifle back, I was appalled at the poor workmanship on both the stock & the barrel work. And they also managed to mess up my customed machined trigger plate anyway. Plus they were supposed to send my factory barrel & stock back to me which I never received. I was so disgusted that I didnt even want to deal with them anymore. I took the loss as a learning experience & sent the rifle to RWS Precision in Janesville Ca. As soon as they received my rifle Richard called me & asked me who on earth did the work. First I asked why he was asking then he proceded to tell me in all the years he had been doing custom work he has never seen workmanship that bad. Plus after doing a bore scope inspection he said he has never seen a custom barrel that was that bad. Said he couldnt believe they would actually install a barrel of that poor of quality. Anyway when I got it back this time it was exactly as it should be, VERY HIGH QUALITY workmanship in every aspect. Hope you have better luck with McGowan than I did.
I had a real bad experience with McGowan barrels back in the early 70s. I sent a rem 541s to them to be restocked & rebarreled. After the agreed upon time frame for the work had passed I decided to give them a call to check on the progress. Mr. McGowan was extremely rude. He hardly had anything to say to me except when they finished they would ship my rifle back to me. And actually said his customers were a thorn in his side. I was completely surprised by his remarks. I had only called 3 times the entire project. #1 to discuss what I wanted to have done. #2 to make sure they understood how I wanted the customed machined trigger guard plate or action plate set in the new stock as the original was thin so I had a thick one machined. #3 to check on the progress after the agreed upon completion date had passed. When I finaly got my rifle back, I was appalled at the poor workmanship on both the stock & the barrel work. And they also managed to mess up my customed machined trigger plate anyway. Plus they were supposed to send my factory barrel & stock back to me which I never received. I was so disgusted that I didnt even want to deal with them anymore. I took the loss as a learning experience & sent the rifle to RWS Precision in Janesville Ca. As soon as they received my rifle Richard called me & asked me who on earth did the work. First I asked why he was asking then he proceded to tell me in all the years he had been doing custom work he has never seen workmanship that bad. Plus after doing a bore scope inspection he said he has never seen a custom barrel that was that bad. Said he couldnt believe they would actually install a barrel of that poor of quality. Anyway when I got it back this time it was exactly as it should be, VERY HIGH QUALITY workmanship in every aspect. Hope you have better luck with McGowan than I did.
T
tbeasley
Guest
Big G
Sorry to hear the bad expierence from Harry. If done back in the 70's He was still in good health then and was making some good stuff. I had a .308 barrel that shot fine and I had the opportunity to handle 4 of his full blown custom rifles chambered in Rocky Gibbs line. (240 Gibbs, 6.5, 270, 30Gibbs) Each rifle had the prettiest blueing I have ever seen, guns worth 3x weren't as pretty as these.
As for McGowan Barrels...This is a new Company in itself..!
New owners that purchased the tooling and machines from Harry G.
Neat story..the new owners once worked at ?? (Not 100% sure of company name,but still want suggest it) and bought Harry's machines and moved back were they used to work and set up shop like 15 minutes down the road.
I have gotten 3 6x47 Lapuas from them as a 25-06. The 25-06 came damaged from UPS (crown) they paid the shipping back to them and recrowned free of charge. It shot outstanding with 115 Bergers.
I have also read where just one guy couldn't get his barrel to shoot and sent it back, they checked it out, admitted the lapping was bad, rehand lapped the barrel and shot very well from that point on.
Give the new MgGowan Barrel Co. a try, their barrels are worth the money especially going the Savage route. Hey! 10% off for new customer barrel orders. Also Jim at Northlander carries a bunch of these barrels too.
Sorry to hear the bad expierence from Harry. If done back in the 70's He was still in good health then and was making some good stuff. I had a .308 barrel that shot fine and I had the opportunity to handle 4 of his full blown custom rifles chambered in Rocky Gibbs line. (240 Gibbs, 6.5, 270, 30Gibbs) Each rifle had the prettiest blueing I have ever seen, guns worth 3x weren't as pretty as these.
As for McGowan Barrels...This is a new Company in itself..!
New owners that purchased the tooling and machines from Harry G.
Neat story..the new owners once worked at ?? (Not 100% sure of company name,but still want suggest it) and bought Harry's machines and moved back were they used to work and set up shop like 15 minutes down the road.
I have gotten 3 6x47 Lapuas from them as a 25-06. The 25-06 came damaged from UPS (crown) they paid the shipping back to them and recrowned free of charge. It shot outstanding with 115 Bergers.
I have also read where just one guy couldn't get his barrel to shoot and sent it back, they checked it out, admitted the lapping was bad, rehand lapped the barrel and shot very well from that point on.
Give the new MgGowan Barrel Co. a try, their barrels are worth the money especially going the Savage route. Hey! 10% off for new customer barrel orders. Also Jim at Northlander carries a bunch of these barrels too.
Bill Wynne
Active member
Big G,
Sorry for your bad experience 40 years ago. I had a Ford pickup back then that used a lot of oil.
I believe that any small company up against a payroll, taxes, equipment cost and everything else that goes along with the job, that remains in business for that long is doing something right.
I have had my own business since 1963 and I can tell you that I would do many things differently if I had it to do over. We usually learn from our experience. I wouldn't want to be judged by the mistakes I made in my learning stages.
I really think that if the company is respectable today and if it's products are respected it is doing a lot of things right.
Concho Bill
Sorry for your bad experience 40 years ago. I had a Ford pickup back then that used a lot of oil.
I believe that any small company up against a payroll, taxes, equipment cost and everything else that goes along with the job, that remains in business for that long is doing something right.
I have had my own business since 1963 and I can tell you that I would do many things differently if I had it to do over. We usually learn from our experience. I wouldn't want to be judged by the mistakes I made in my learning stages.
I really think that if the company is respectable today and if it's products are respected it is doing a lot of things right.
Concho Bill
E
Eagle_view
Guest
I have been in their shop several times and watched them make barrels, They have moved to a new location in Kalispell since then but I buy barrels from and have had very good luck as do several custom rifle manufacturers located in or near Montana. They are very busy right now so I would say that they are making good products.
Lowell
Lowell
R
rattletrap1970
Guest
Out of like 8 places I emailed about making a custom barrel for a pistol I have, they were the only ones to get back to me willing to do the job.
R
rattletrap1970
Guest
Very well put Bill. I agree completely. Boy there are some things I'd like a do-over for 
B
BenKeith
Guest
In Nov 2009, I recieved a barreled action from McGowen. This is a 24" CM, #3 Sporter, 6.5mm (260) 1:8 twist. I went with them because I heard they made a good barrel and they said they could get it back to me in six weeks. It actually took eight but I was still happy to have gotten it back that fast. I will not send them another action to rebarrel. I think they left all their good smiths at the old location. There was several things I'm not happy with and I know of at least two others that have gotten barreled actions back about the same time and they were not happy either.
Besides the machine work problems I found, the barrel is still heavily copper fouling the lands.I went through their breakin and after over 50 rounds it was still copper fouling the lands with five shot groups so I dropped back to cleaning after each round again for about 15 rounds. I went back to trying five shot groups and it still heavily fouls the lands. The barrel has had approx 300 rounds through it now and still fouls the lands. After three rounds, they are fairly fouled and after about 15 rounds the groups start to open up. It has good accuracy for the first three, five shot groups but it's starts going south pretty fast after that. Since this is a hunting rifle and the problems they created installing the barrel, I've decided to live with it.
I talked to Erin O'Neal (whom I've heard is no longer with them) and he said if I sent it back they would look at it, me paying shipping both directions. I know a guy that shipped his three times before finally giving up on them and sending it off to a very reputibable builder and having it completely redone with a different companies barrel. His was in much worse shape than mine though, he had some serious machining issues.
Besides the machine work problems I found, the barrel is still heavily copper fouling the lands.I went through their breakin and after over 50 rounds it was still copper fouling the lands with five shot groups so I dropped back to cleaning after each round again for about 15 rounds. I went back to trying five shot groups and it still heavily fouls the lands. The barrel has had approx 300 rounds through it now and still fouls the lands. After three rounds, they are fairly fouled and after about 15 rounds the groups start to open up. It has good accuracy for the first three, five shot groups but it's starts going south pretty fast after that. Since this is a hunting rifle and the problems they created installing the barrel, I've decided to live with it.
I talked to Erin O'Neal (whom I've heard is no longer with them) and he said if I sent it back they would look at it, me paying shipping both directions. I know a guy that shipped his three times before finally giving up on them and sending it off to a very reputibable builder and having it completely redone with a different companies barrel. His was in much worse shape than mine though, he had some serious machining issues.
R
RAG
Guest
Save your money...
for a few more bucks you can get a good,headache free product from alot of other sources. I'am stuck with one of them but did get my money back on the other barrel. In the end the Shilen lapped CM barrel ordered from the Barrelman cost about $15 more but is actually worth at least a couple hundred more. The bore in the one I returned was so bad that when you pushed a slug down it the slug would free fall the last 6-8" to the muzzle and it was unuseable anyways because they screwed up the shank size. The other barrel is a .17cal that I didn't slug but it fowls like crazy and doesn't shoot very well. The plan now is to kill it quick on a PD trip.
for a few more bucks you can get a good,headache free product from alot of other sources. I'am stuck with one of them but did get my money back on the other barrel. In the end the Shilen lapped CM barrel ordered from the Barrelman cost about $15 more but is actually worth at least a couple hundred more. The bore in the one I returned was so bad that when you pushed a slug down it the slug would free fall the last 6-8" to the muzzle and it was unuseable anyways because they screwed up the shank size. The other barrel is a .17cal that I didn't slug but it fowls like crazy and doesn't shoot very well. The plan now is to kill it quick on a PD trip.
B
Big G
Guest
knew there were more of you guys out there with Mc Gowan problems. IMO they suk