White Oak barrels vs Faxon MATCH & Criterion

[JJ3]

I've had a very similar experience with my 20 inch WOA varmint barrel. Loaded 69smk and 73eldM in Lapua brass, TAC and CCI#41 primers. Tried from min-max OCW tests 2 times. Would shoot about 1moa at best. Then loaded up 55gr Hornady SP with H335 in win brass with CCI#41 from 21.8-24.5gr and all were sub moa most .5 and under. Just bought a 24 inch WOA barrel, when it gets here I'm going to try the 69SMK again, and if it doesn't shoot I'll go try the lower grain bullets

Exactly the same for me. 18” spr we call Larry. Everyone loves it but it only loves 55gr hornady sp. shoots them .5-.7 consistently with several powders and several different brand of brass…at 2800-3100fps.

Will shoot fusion 62s and 60vmax ok…like 1-1.5 min, 77/73s any combo is 1.5-2”

I’m looking to build a 16” gasser for 77s now because Larry is so picky. Considering proof steel, cle douglas but weight is a factor.

 

[oldrifleman]

I am running a couple WOA 20 “ Bartleins in their national match uppers and they are spectacular

 

[Mike_k]

I've currently got a Faxon match barrel and it's not shooting as good as I'd hope it would - around 1.2-1.8 MOA with IMI 77gr OTMs. 1.9-3.0 MOA with M193. I'm going to play around with a couple more bullet weights but I'm unsure it'll improve drastically. I'm trying not to fall into my habit of constantly changing my rifle (this would be it's 4th barrel since I first bought it) - but I know exactly what I want - a lightweight, fluted barrel that can shoot consistent MOA with match ammo and 2.0 or better with M193, and while the faxon is lightweight and fairly accurate I want MORE.

I had a Criterion before. It was alright, but their backorders are LONG. So I'm leaning White Oak (Or rainer, etc).

I know it's fun to drag on Faxon, but without bias, would white oak really shoot lights out compared to Faxon's **match** barrels?

I like to use this article (it comes out new about every year) for judging barrels. Caveat — these are all heavy match profiled barrels being used, not even medium weight barrels, and certainly not fluted. But also these guys probably all put at least 5000-6000rnds (if not approaching 10,000) down range a year, and see what their competitors are using, so are probably good judges of what’s out there.

Kinda like when I found out Formula 1 drivers almost all have a Ferrari in their own garage, no matter which team they actually race for, tells you something about Ferraris.