{"id":2005,"date":"2026-02-07T13:14:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T13:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tactical-dailynews.com\/?p=2005"},"modified":"2026-02-07T13:15:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T13:15:00","slug":"douglas-barrels-handcrafted-precision-gun-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tactical-dailynews.com\/?p=2005","title":{"rendered":"Douglas Barrels: Handcrafted Precision – Gun Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I take you through Douglas Barrels\u2019 factory to show you how they\u2019ve been handcrafting super precise barrels for over 75 years.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When I began wildcatting the 2Fity-Hillbilly cartridge\u2014now the .25 Creedmoor\u2014a decade ago, I had two rifles made up for it. The second rifle was a Remington Model Seven with a 1:8 twist barrel, and when Hornady introduced the .25 Creedmoor, I was excited to finally have factory ammo for my rifle. Unfortunately, Hornady\u2019s factory ammo is loaded with bullets that require a 1:7.5-inch twist, and the ammo did not shoot well in my rifle.<\/p>\n

So, I was left with a dilemma: Do I keep handloading for my rifle \u2026 or re-barrel it?<\/p>\n

I\u2019d ordered my 1:8 twist 0.25-caliber barrel from Douglas Barrels<\/a> in Charleston, West Virginia, and my personal gunsmith Jerry Dove at Dove\u2019s Custom Guns installed it on my Model Seven. With my handloads, that rifle shot very well. I used it to take a big nine-point whitetail in Nebraska and several other deer. Since I already have a brand-new Christensen Arms Ridgeline FFT rifle in .25 Creedmoor\u2014with the correctly twisted barrel\u2014I didn\u2019t see much sense in refinishing my Model Seven into another .25 Creedmoor. Instead, I sent the rifle to Douglas Barrels for the installation of a different barrel in a different caliber and chambering.<\/p>\n

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The author with his rebarreled Remington Model Seven (center) with Travis Beasley (left) and Travis Asbury (right) of Douglas Barrels.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Legacy Barrel Maker<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When I was much younger, I was heavily involved with traditional muzzleloading rifles, and back then you could not be around muzzleloading rifle enthusiasts without them talking about Douglas Barrels. When I first learned about Melvin Forbes and his tack driving featherlight New Ultra Light Arms rifles, I found out he used Douglas Barrels exclusively. That\u2019s the barrel Melvin put on my first NULA rifle, which was chambered in .35 Remington.<\/p>\n

Douglas Barrels has a stellar barrel-making reputation that began in 1948 when a hobbyist gunsmith named G.R. Douglas founded the company. By 1954, Douglas was fully committed to fabricating premium, \u201cultra-rifled\u201d custom gun barrels. Douglas pioneered a unique push-button rifling approach, where a handmade carbide button is pressed through a barrel hydraulically, and using a gear-driven process, the button displaces instead of subtracts metal to form cleaner rifling than is achievable with the cut rifling practices. The company has occupied the same building since inception.<\/p>\n

\"douglas\"douglas
When it comes to modern barrel making, machines and automation play a part, but there are some things humans need to do with their hands if you want a high-quality barrel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Douglas Barrels has a long history of supplying winning shooters, long-range professional marksmen, and the U.S. Military with ultra-rifled barrels that have delivered results. The walls at Douglas Barrels are covered with awards of the unrivaled success their barrels have achieved. Also, Douglas Barrels is the only gun barrel manufacturer to have had a barrel on the surface of the moon during the Apollo missions\u2014and the rifle Bradley Cooper\u2019s character used in American Sniper<\/em> was fitted with a Douglas Barrel.<\/p>\n

Aside from their unique 75-year technique of gear-driven push-button barrel rifling, some other things set Douglas Barrels apart. Unlike some of the big-name barrel makers you read about in all the gun magazines and see splashed all over social media, Douglas does very little advertising, and they have not engaged in big marketing campaigns. They\u2019ve never needed either to get business\u2014the word of mouth of satisfied customers has and always will be the best marketing available. This allows them to offer their services at very competitive prices.<\/p>\n

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Everything at Douglas Barrels, from the barrels they turn out to the tools they use to make them, comes from within their own shop and is tried to absolute precision.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The other difference is experience: Not only does Douglas still use the same techniques and even the same machines they built their reputation on, but the experience of their technicians is unrivaled in the barrel-making industry. They have an average time in service of about 20 years. Travis Asbury\u2014the plant manager at Douglas Barrels\u2014has been with the company for 2 decades. Asbury\u2019s father worked for Douglas Barrels, and Asbury\u2019s first visit to the company was on his way home from the hospital the day he was born.<\/p>\n

Unquestionably, when it comes to precision barrel making, there are mechanical tolerances that must be maintained, but Asbury and some of the other long-term Douglas employees also have that \u201cfeel\u201d for what\u2019s right and what\u2019s not. It\u2019s a skill that can only come from crafting, looking at and gauging thousands of barrels by hand and by eye, for many years.<\/p>\n

\"douglas\"douglas
Master barrel maker Travis Asbury scrutinizing a finished barrel after air gauging at Douglas Barrels.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I was visiting Douglas, Asbury tossed a newly bored barrel on the rack where a light could shine through it, and he told me to look through the bore and see what I thought. I did, and the barrel looked damn good to me. Asbury said, \u201cLet me see.\u201d In a matter of seconds, Asbury said, \u201cI\u2019m glad you don\u2019t work here. That barrel is sh*t. It will never leave this factory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years ago, Rodney Chiodo and a couple of his close friends purchased Douglas Barrels. Chiodo is a businessman from Pennsylvania, but more importantly, Chiodo is a hunter, shooter and handloader. Just a few minutes after I met Chiodo, we were talking about the different ballistic advantages of various cartridges, handloading techniques and about the deer we did and didn\u2019t kill last season. Years back, Chiodo had purchased a barrel from Douglas, and he\u2019d driven down from Pennsylvania to pick it up. He became enthralled with the company, the employees, and the character of both. When the opportunity to purchase Douglas Barrels presented itself, Chiodo was all over it like a rut-crazed buck on a hot doe.<\/p>\n

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Hand tools are part of the process at Douglas Barrels because\u2014though they use some automation\u2014their craft is tied to humans with unparalleled barrel making skill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The new ownership is committed to maintaining the high standards Douglas Barrels is known for, but also in helping Douglas step into the future. They\u2019ve made substantial investments in new machinery, rededicated the company to maintaining their industry-leading four-week delivery times, created an all-new customer-friendly website to make online barrel ordering easier and hired a new metallurgist. Douglas Barrels now implements MET (Metal Enhancement Technology) and a new lapping-type process for all their barrels. During my visit, it was refreshing to see that this legacy company will continue to deliver even better barrels as they approach 100 years of business.<\/p>\n

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Douglas Barrels sources the best chrome molly and stainless-steel that is available worldwide for the barrels they craft.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Proof in Precision<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But, back to my rifle. As mentioned, one advantage with Douglas Barrels is that they will not only make you a barrel in the caliber you want, at the length and contour you want, and with the twist rate you want, but they will also install that barrel on your action and chamber it for whatever cartridge makes your heart go pitter-patter. Douglas has a large catalog of carrel contours, but one of the coolest machines they have is a barrel contour duplicator. This allows Douglas to match the contour of the barrel they make you to the barrel they\u2019re replacing on your rifle.<\/p>\n

\"douglas\"douglas<\/figure>\n

With my rifle, I made it rather easy for them: The first Douglas barrel I ever owned was the 0.35-caliber barrel on my NULA rifle in .35 Remington, so I specified a 0.35-caliber barrel with a standard Remington contour and a 1:12 twist rate, chambered in .35 Remington. The common twist rate for a .35 Remington is 1:16, but I wanted to specifically shoot the Tipped Controlled Chaos bullets from Lehigh Defense, and Mike Cyrus of Lehigh Defense suggested the 1:12 twist rate.<\/p>\n

Douglas Barrels\u2019 master gunsmith, Travis Beasley, made the barrel, installed, crowned and chambered it, and like with all the barrels Douglas makes, it was air-gauge tested and\u2014most importantly\u2014it held up to the eyeball scrutiny of Asbury.<\/p>\n

\"douglas\"douglas
Travis Beasly talks Richard Mann (left) through the barrel-making process at Douglas Barrels.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cyrus picked the re-barreled rifle up for me, and while he had it, he worked up some handloads for the Lehigh Defense 180-grain Tipped Controlled Chaos bullet. After he dropped the rifle off, I tested it with those loads and two factory loads, including a hardcast load from Buffalo Bore. The handloads shot great, but the real surprise was Federal\u2019s factory 200-grain load that averaged almost three-quarters of an inch. I think G.R. Douglas, Chiodo and even Asbury\u2014with his keen barrel-peering eyes\u2014would have been proud of how it performed. I sure was.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s world, you\u2019d not expect a custom-crafted rifle barrel installed and chambered on your action at the cost of less than $700\u2014all finished up in less than four weeks\u2014to deliver dime-spitting accuracy. But the guys at Douglas didn\u2019t think it was a big deal at all. Hell, they\u2019ve been making barrels that shoot like this and doing the same thing for a long, long time.<\/p>\n

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Handloads with the 180-grain Lehigh Defense Tipped Controlled Chaos bullets delivered consistent sub-inch groups.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shooting Results: Remington Model Seven w\/18.5-inch, 1:12 twist, Douglas Barrel<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Load<\/strong><\/td>\nMV<\/strong><\/td>\nME<\/strong><\/td>\nSD<\/strong><\/td>\nPrecision<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
180-grain Lehigh Defense TCC<\/td>\n2,375<\/td>\n2,255<\/td>\n11.1<\/td>\n11.1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
200-grain Federal Soft Point<\/td>\n1,936<\/td>\n1,664<\/td>\n31.9<\/td>\n0.79<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
230-grain Buffalo Bore \u201cHeavy\u201d Hardcast<\/td>\n2,063<\/td>\n2,175<\/td>\n22.5<\/td>\n1.24<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>
Notes: Muzzle velocities are the average of nine shots measured with a Garmin XERO C1 chronograph. Precision is the average of three, three-shot groups.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Contact Information:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Douglas Barrels
5504 Big Tyler Road
Charleston, WV 25313
(304) 776-1341
DouglasBarrelsLLC.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Editor’s Note:<\/strong>\u00a0This article originally appeared in the March 2026 issue of\u00a0Gun Digest the Magazine<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n

More On Barrels<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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