Broughton and John Whidden?

[DougMH]

Anyone out there have a Broughton barrel finished by John Whidden.

I've been corresponding with Broughton about a barrel for my new Savage 12 Target Action and asked them whether they finished their own barrels. Many barrel makers do not, but will recommend a good gunsmith for finishing.

Tim from Broughton wrote back and said John Whidden finished their barrels. I knew from his articles that Mr. Whidden favors Broughton barrels, but I didn't know he had an association with them.

Anybody?

Doug Hurst

[xman77777]

Don"t personally have one, but the guy I shoot with has several, .284, .243, .243wssm, etc. All shoot great, and the Broughton barrels have all been fast, (read smokin fast). John does excellent work, I 've looked at the chambering and it is smooth as silk. I think John uses a CNC to profile the chambers before finish reaming also.

We have an ongoing challenge shooting my Savage/Shilen/Mcgowan rifles against his Remington/Broughton Whidden built rifles. The latest one, a .284 is tough. I'm doin my best, but right now, I can't take him. He is shooting Berger 180 hybrids within 100 fps of my 7WSM and grouped five of them into .690 @ 300yds. on our last outing.

[memilanuk]

My first custom barrel that I bought new was a Broughton 5C, 30" medium Palma contour. At the time, I thought I was going to be burned at the stake for shooting High Power Rifle and not getting a Krieger...

The Broughton was a joy to shoot, and cleaned up easy. The gun (a Palma rifle built on a 40X repeater action) has since been sold to the state Junior program and by all accounts is still shooting well enough for the little rascals to clean up @ matches...

I haven't had any barrels done by John, just some reloading gear (his CNC toolheads and pointing dies) but I don't think I'd hesitate for a minute to have him work on my stuff...

[243wssm]

I live about 30 miles from John and I have a rifle in 243wssm that he built for me and it shoots fantastic. The barrel is a Broughton 8 twist barrel and cleans up super easy. John is an excellent guy to deal with and builds a very good rifle, You want be dissapointed.
No sure what kind of finish work he does on rifles but I had mine bead blasted and I love it.