I have never shot a finer barrel in 40 years of shooting. I am not saying that there are not equal quality barrel makers out there however. There are some very fine barrel makers. When I did the original research when I switched from McGowen and was looking at benchmark I learned the following.

1. Many,many world rimfire records. Spoke with some of those shooters.
2. My McGowens from the original group ( shoot excellant)of guys learned some special things from Ron at Benchmark. So Ron is also a gentleman!
3. Spoke with a guy that was shooting a benchmark at 1000yards and up to 1 mile. Super accurate,easy to clean and the 3 groove barrel gave him more velocity.
4. Ron is self owned and has been in buisness for a decade or so. Same group of guys making the barrels.
5. Turn around time is excellant.
6. First group with the first Benchark barrel showed extreme promise. The third,fourth,fifth and every group shot where one holers.

[img width=600 height=450]http://i311.photobucket.com/albums/kk460/emeraldislandlover/BenchmarkUltralightbarrel.jpg[/img]