Anybody have a Shilen Savage Sporter or Heavy Sporter barrel?

Has anybody bought a Savage Sporter prefit or maybe Heavy Sporter prefit from Shilen? If so, are they two-taper barrels, or bell shaped as Jon @ Savage-Barrels.com calls that contour? Or, are they straight taper like a Predator contour barrel, and therefore thicker than factory, especially in the forearm area? Are the Mcgowen prefit Sporter (not magnum) the same exact contour as factory sporter barrels? Thanks to anybody that can inform me. ;D

don't have an answer got you per se, but I've purchased a barrel from McGowen. They are really friendly and helpful over the phone. I would give them a call on monday if I were you and you'll have your answer that fast. Their barrels are awesome! I am still fire forming 270 Gibbs from std Win. Brass and cheap 130 gr Rem bullets over W760 just because I had a lot of it laying around. I am getting .5 - .7 inch groups already. Very impressed with their barrel.

The last barrel I ordered from Mcgowen was a 24" 308 barrel in a light varmint/heavy magnum contour. The muzzle diameter is .750", and it is NOT a 2-taper barrel. It is a straight taper. I dont know if this is a standard available contour from Mcgowen or not, but this is what I told them I wanted and they had no problems giving me that.Their CS was very good to deal with over the phone.

I am sure if you want a Shilen barrel that they can do it in whatever contour you want as well. They're just a phone call away.

Here ya go. Check this out. According to this it looks like they are straight tapers.

http://www.shilen.com/contours.html

http://www.shilen.com/savageBarrels.html

Yeah, that's the way the barrel I just sold was, too thick for my project stock. I was not going to sell it because I have that LH VLP stock from Cliff and it was fine there. But since I felt forced to sell the barrel, I should sell that stock also, and go back to my project stock. I haven't talked to Sinman yet either. I wonder if Mcgowen can do both straight taper and two taper, or bell shaped as Jon from Savage-Barrels calls them. If I knew a regular "McG" (or Shilen) sporter barrel is straight taper also, that would be fine, but Jon says it's just like a factory sporter. That's too light. Anyway, you're correct that tomorrow I need to talk to or E-mail McGowen, Shilen, etc. Thanks again Mike.

I ordered a Shilen barrel thru Jim at Northland last year. It took almost 22 weeks to arrive. It is a Savage Heavy Sporter straight taper small shank, like the Predator, 26" 6mm AI. I went and measured it and at 26" it is .705", at 24" it is .710" and at 22" it is .727". Hope this helps you.

Yes it does Cover Dog, especially the "like a Predator" part. That's just what my McGowen Magnum was. If the Shilen (standard) sporter is also straight taper, just a little faster, I would have my barrel. It should thin down just enough more in the forearm with a .585 muzzle to fit. The lead time isn't great but survivable. Thanks much. I know Jim at NSS will know, and maybe the barrelman, and Shilen themselves.