@rbernie - it’s unfortunate that you seem insulted by my honest opinion about McGowen barrels. I’ll explicate my experience with them which has formed my opinion: I haven’t been impressed by them - and as I said, not really disappointed, just not impressed. For a non-competitive Savage prefit shooter, they’re a great option at a low cost. That savings on the prefit chambering and threading work is a big savings. For non-prefits, where they cost basically the same as everyone else, or slightly less, I take my money elsewhere, and I get smaller groups for it. They make a good barrel, as I stated above, better than factory barrels, but I’d be lying to say I thought the average McGowen would shoot as small as the average Shilen, Krieger, Lilja, Hawk Hill, Proof, or Bartlein I have ever bought. A 3/4moa rifleman who never intends to improve would never notice the difference in any of them.
I haven’t used McGowen’s AR barrels, and I haven’t used Columbia River (Black Hole) bolt action barrels yet, so I haven’t had them side by side. I tend to expect bolt guns to shoot smaller than AR’s, but maybe McGowen barrels don’t follow common logic and shoot the same in either. If that were the case, I’d expect them to shoot just about the same 1/2-3/4moa groups as Black Hole/Columbia River barrels, but looking at their prices, they’re higher cost, and won’t have the advantages inherent to polygonal rifling. So objectively, same accuracy, longer cleaning time, higher cost, and slower speeds...
They aren’t bad barrels, but I need an objective reason to buy one. In Prefits, objectively, you get a great value. I even considered using their prefits on a switch barrel Ruger Hawkeye hunting rig. But for blanks, eh. Money better spent elsewhere.