Thread: 22lr Benchrest: Rebarrel a 22, preferred gunsmith

Your title to this thread has "Benchrest" in it this form of competition shooting has to be, in my opinion, the most precise forms of rimfire competition shooting.

From what I understand Grant at Trueflight had input from one of the top rimfire Gunsmiths in New Zealand when he was developing the Trueflight rimfire barrels.
The gunsmith I'm referring to was Harvey Westland, he truly understood rimfires and also competed in rimfire Benchrest. His action was built by himself and while it looked like an Anschutz it did have a number of similarities to the Brno model 1-2 action.

If you are truly looking for Benchrest accuracy I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a barrel from Trueflight, but I'm not sure who I would recommend as a gunsmith.
HJA8's post has a lot of sound information in it.
I have no knowledge of the TX1 but I do look at Rimfire Benchrest results and most (99%) of the winning rifles are built on custom actions, 2500X, Hall, Turbo, Falcon etc and Shilen, Benchmark, Lilja, Rock Creek etc barrels, this is at the top level of Benchrest.

There are many rifles that are accurate, Rem 540x (541), Brno Model 1, Anschutz, Walther etc, the Anschutz match 54 has been an excellent action and team that action up with a top class barrel and if everything is done right it will be a very competitive rifle, another that was sought after many years ago was the Suhl action.
There are many things that make a rifle competitive but one addition is a tuner and the next is finding the ammunition the rifle likes.

If you are serious about shooting rimfire Benchrest both NZDA and TSNZ run rimfire Benchrest competitions, the NZDA National Rimfire Champs will be held at the Nelson range on Easter Monday.

I took the barrel off my T1X for shits and giggles, it took a while to find a torx bit that would stand the torque required, I think I snapped at least 6 or 8 (3 brands tried at least haha) before the final set screw "cracked" - so its "doable". Kenny at Desert Precision Gunworks has made some excellent videos on the issues you might encounter upgrading a T1X.

In the end I decided there were easier/better platforms to focus on than the T1X. It's biggest advantage is that you can get absolutely tier 1 triggers for it.

Originally Posted by blip

it was....how many jws are up there at Olympic or dominating bench rest worldwide out of curiosity?

If the article I have around here somewhere is accurate...more than you think...

Norinco is Northern China Company (or similar) and is a large group of manufacturing plants. The target rifles (centrefire and rimfire ) were made by Norinco for the olympic teams....The EM332 was reportedly out of the same plant, but JW15s are made in most of the plants and under different brandings and qualitites....(Polytech, Bushman Norinco and a couple others that I cannot remember.) The thing to remember is Chinese factories are well capable of making extremely high quality products, but no one in the west is prepared to pay top dollar for made in china...so they sell us the stuff we pay for (often cheap nasty stuff cos thats what we expect) Think of Japans reputation for manufacturing cars and motorbikes in the 50s and 60s The term Jap crap ring any bells? And remember the Japanese were centuries ahead of western nations at metalurgy in the 1800s so why was their stuff suddenly rubbish?? Cos thats whaat the west told them hey would pay for it....

In the early 2000s I was dealing a litle bit with imorted products and I saw some exceptional quality coming out of Russia and I saw some absolute rubbish coming from the USA and some of that had supposedly reputable branding on it too......

The comment re ammo selection is valid - Tested good lot numbers will determine the ultimate accuracy of any 22LR build. Not sure about NZ but finding SK/Lapua in any quantity has been virtually impossible in my area for several years now.
I have several Bartleins & Benchmarks in various contours, lengths and chambers - My TF barrels fitted and chambered my my Tasmanian gunsmith will run with any of them.
I'm yet to be convinced that these faster twist barrels offer any advantage over the 1:16 and unless you're trying to balance a butt heavy rifle, these 1.2" straights don't do a lot for me either!

More irreliventia: I believe the EM332 is modelled on the Suhl action.

Talk to Grant at Trueflite, he built a Lithgow up for me with one of his barrels that shoots fantastically, as good as any of my many other custom 22RF BR rifles, Vudoo's included

The problem with the Lithgow is the trigger, it is lbs not ozs

I have a couple of Krieger 1-16 22 RF blanks in stock

Now you tell me you've got 16t RF barrels......2024 goals updated.

Originally Posted by Jaco Goosen

Now you tell me you've got 16t RF barrels......2024 goals updated.

I have a heap of US cut rifle barrels here, getting them in constantly

Originally Posted by timattalon

If the article I have around here somewhere is accurate...more than you think...

Norinco is Northern China Company (or similar) and is a large group of manufacturing plants. The target rifles (centrefire and rimfire ) were made by Norinco for the olympic teams....The EM332 was reportedly out of the same plant, but JW15s are made in most of the plants and under different brandings and qualitites....(Polytech, Bushman Norinco and a couple others that I cannot remember.) The thing to remember is Chinese factories are well capable of making extremely high quality products, but no one in the west is prepared to pay top dollar for made in china...so they sell us the stuff we pay for (often cheap nasty stuff cos thats what we expect) Think of Japans reputation for manufacturing cars and motorbikes in the 50s and 60s The term Jap crap ring any bells? And remember the Japanese were centuries ahead of western nations at metalurgy in the 1800s so why was their stuff suddenly rubbish?? Cos thats whaat the west told them hey would pay for it....

In the early 2000s I was dealing a litle bit with imorted products and I saw some exceptional quality coming out of Russia and I saw some absolute rubbish coming from the USA and some of that had supposedly reputable branding on it too......

I have a russian and a mauser rf target rifles. The russian is your typical agricultural tank but man can it shoot once you get used to the trigger

Originally Posted by timattalon

If the article I have around here somewhere is accurate...more than you think...

Norinco is Northern China Company (or similar) and is a large group of manufacturing plants. The target rifles (centrefire and rimfire ) were made by Norinco for the olympic teams....The EM332 was reportedly out of the same plant, but JW15s are made in most of the plants and under different brandings and qualitites....(Polytech, Bushman Norinco and a couple others that I cannot remember.) The thing to remember is Chinese factories are well capable of making extremely high quality products, but no one in the west is prepared to pay top dollar for made in china...so they sell us the stuff we pay for (often cheap nasty stuff cos thats what we expect) Think of Japans reputation for manufacturing cars and motorbikes in the 50s and 60s The term Jap crap ring any bells? And remember the Japanese were centuries ahead of western nations at metalurgy in the 1800s so why was their stuff suddenly rubbish?? Cos thats whaat the west told them hey would pay for it....

In the early 2000s I was dealing a litle bit with imorted products and I saw some exceptional quality coming out of Russia and I saw some absolute rubbish coming from the USA and some of that had supposedly reputable branding on it too......

the legend re the toys coming out of Japan is worth re telling....
the specs said 2 in every hundred could be faulty...so when final shipment arrived there was a box with all the faulty ones included..they had been made DIFFERENT so they were faulty.

Allen Carr Gunsmith Kapiti.

Jason Lowe (Lowey Products here in Aus) has built two really nice BR rifles using the LA101 & 1761 actions. There are now several trigger options available for the 1761 and he overcame the Lithgow trigger issue by fitting an Anschutz 5018 - A lot of work but his Lithgow now has one of THE best triggers ever put on a 22LR.
I'm not into BR type guns and my LA101 & 1761 customs are set up as repeaters. I own a couple of other "quality" rim fires but these two are as accurate as any of them AND function 100% which is important to me.
I'm not sure if these are available in NZ yet but perhaps worth a look for anyone looking for an "all round" gun:

https://sporting.nioa.com.au/product...-shot-threaded

Originally Posted by Kiwi Greg

Talk to Grant at Trueflite, he built a Lithgow up for me with one of his barrels that shoots fantastically, as good as any of my many other custom 22RF BR rifles, Vudoo's included

The problem with the Lithgow is the trigger, it is lbs not ozs

I have a couple of Krieger 1-16 22 RF blanks in stock

I was thinking about you when I started this thread as I remember you being one of the first guys to start bring in Vudoos.
Promising to hear a rebarrelled Lithgow will hold it's own against them.

Originally Posted by Beetroot

I was thinking about you when I started this thread as I remember you being one of the first guys to start bring in Vudoos.
Promising to hear a rebarrelled Lithgow will hold it's own against them.

As mentioned its the trigger that lets mine down, Grants barrel & smithing certainly works with this rifle

Originally Posted by Kiwi Greg

As mentioned its the trigger that lets mine down, Grants barrel & smithing certainly works with this rifle

Just based on Gregs reply, I would again recommend a trueflight barrel and add get Grant to chamber and fit it.

It has been said by more than Greg, the trigger is what can make or break a rifle and Benchrest triggers are measured in oz, not lbs.
While a Anschutz trigger has been fitted to a Lithgow to make it better, what was the cost, would it have been a better use of funds to start with the Anschutz