What barrel does Thomas Air use?

[KodiakJac]

Hi guys!

What barrel manufacturer does Thomas Air use for their builds? Or are they cutting the bore and rifling themselves from bar stock?

And what type of rifling is Thomas Air using in their benchrest builds (traditional land and groove, polygonal, twist rate, etc)?

Thanks!

 

[XSUltimate]

Pretty much all proprietary information AFAIK but you are welcome to ask Mike N directly. I think he is the only one that knows that information. Sorry for the bad news.
Thx
Dan

 

[Motorhead]

LW ... spec made for Mike only. Thus why he won't sell you a bare barrel generally.

 

[wwo2015]

Mike doesn't do anything out of the box-all unique to him. Just the way he rolls.

 

[igolfat8]

His barrels are not an off the shelf item that anyone can buy without the rest of the gun attached to it I believe Mike also puts his own chokes in them plus hand laps each barrel to a mirror finish unlike any that I have seen previously. He shoots it, laps it, shoots it, laps it, repeats until its ready to win national events. Recently I shot 1300 plus pellets during one range session and afterwards I pulled 1 patch through it and the patch was SPOTLESS and as white as snow. Try that on any other barrel !

 

[manabeknives]

not free knowledge ..Mike worked hard for his results

 

[jeffhernandez]

I was told by a very knowledgeable person that Thomas Air heats the barrels to extreme temperatures and then put them to extreme cold several times back and forth until they are ready to roll

 

[Franklink]

He hammer forges them, by hand.

 

[Joef]

I heard that they come from the planet Asgard the place Thor's mighty hammer was forged.

 

[Chuck-in-Ohio]

I heard that they come from the planet Asgard the place Thor's mighty hammer was forged.

Thors hammer was forged by dwarves, in Svartalfheim.

The power generated by the heart of a neutron star only gets you a barrel blank though. Mike finishes them out, it is rumored, using the power of the one ring.
He won the ring from Sauron at a match, beat him on X count.

 

[KodiakJac]

Recently I shot 1300 plus pellets during one range session and afterwards I pulled 1 patch through it and the patch was SPOTLESS and as white as snow. Try that on any other barrel!

This is what I was curious about. I have a LW poly barrel in my BRK Ghost that is filthy after about 75 shots. Actually, I'm finding I'm going to need to clean it after 50 shots to maintain something over 245+ on N50 targets. Have shot JSB, JTS, and AEA pellets. Washed and waxed. All end up fouling my barrel beyond 50 shots.

Was just curious how often Thomas Air barrels needed cleaning.

Thanks!

 

[Franklink]

This is what I was curious about. I have a LW poly barrel in my BRK Ghost that is filthy after about 75 shots. Actually, I'm finding I'm going to need to clean it after 50 shots to maintain something over 245+ on N50 targets. Have shot JSB, JTS, and AEA pellets. Washed and waxed. All end up fouling my barrel beyond 50 shots.

Was just curious how often Thomas Air barrels needed cleaning.

Thanks!

Polish the snot outa that thing!

JB bore paste for starters. Sounds like it could even use more aggressive agents.

Polishing and lubed pellets should extend the cleaning interval.

 

[KodiakJac]

I'm sure Thomas Air makes exceptional rifles. The results in the N50 Benchrest League don't lie. But I think the reason for the amusement with the "mystical information theory" in several posts above is because...

Twist rate can be measured using a simple technique by flagging a cleaning rod...
How to Determine the Rate of Twist in a Rifle Barrel Presented by Larry Potterfield of MidwayUSA

And the type of rifling in a barrel can be determined with a $50 borescope from Amazon in less than 30 seconds. The source of the barrel could very well be proprietary information with a manufacturer. But the other questions I asked are not for proprietary information.

 

[KodiakJac]

@Franklink

Thanks! I've come to the same conclusion.

 

[Loufish]

@Franklink

Thanks! I've come to the same conclusion.

Ha! I heard from a friend, that's not it.

 

[Franklink]

I'm sure Thomas Air makes exceptional rifles. The results in the N50 Benchrest League don't lie. But I think the reason for the amusement with the "mystical information theory" in several posts above is because...

Twist rate can be measured using a simple technique by flagging a cleaning rod...
How to Determine the Rate of Twist in a Rifle Barrel Presented by Larry Potterfield of MidwayUSA

And the type of rifling in a barrel can be determined with a $50 borescope from Amazon in less than 30 seconds. The source of the barrel could very well be proprietary information with a manufacturer. But the other questions I asked are not for proprietary information.

Yes, agree completely. Anybody with a Thomas in hand could easily figure out what they've got, as far as twist rate and type of rifling.

My understanding is that a large part of the "magic" of a barrel in a Thomas is the masters touch. Hard-earned knowledge (via experience, via trial and error) to figure out how to make a barrel shoot the best that it's capable of shooting.

 

[dgeesaman]

And the type of rifling in a barrel can be determined with a $50 borescope from Amazon in less than 30 seconds. The source of the barrel could very well be proprietary information with a manufacturer. But the other questions I asked are not for proprietary information.

$50 borescopes don't do .177. But you can tell something looking down the barrel.

My Thomas is an early build and it has polygonal rifling, which I'm told he no longer uses.

If Mike spends significant time lapping and polishing then that certainly will be laborious and not duplicated by DIY'ers.

 

[steve123]

Aside from which barrels he uses he shared with me that he rejects barrels which should have been good barrels but did not meet his criteria to begin with.

This is the difference that I can respect to a higher degree vs most other gunsmiths who wouldn't know why a barrel should have been rejected to begin with.

Very rarely do I get better than average barrels on stock rifles but when I get a Thomas I know the gun will shoot about as good as a gun will. Just a month ago I hit a 1" spinner 9 times in a row at 100Y in fairly windy conditions with my Thomas HPX converted to shoot 42gr swaged slugs. I doubt my decade old Anschutz 1827F 22rf is capable of doing that. Then a week later at 222Y the vertical seemed less than 2" when shooting at small rocks because we didn't miss much and that was more wind related than vertically related.

 

[BobS]

Okay everyone, I know the secret to Mike's incredible rifle barrel and I've decided against all that is good and all that is evil to share this information with you. Mike's barrels are sautéed, after completion, in the finest of Agave Tequilas for a full 30 days - after which they are soaked in the finest of Brazilian limes for an addition 5 days until they are seasoned to perfection. Every pellet and every slug at that point will experience the sublime feeling of twisting through a sea of pleasure until reaching it's final destination point, upon which the sound of "Arriba" can be heard in the faint distance.

 

[Joef]

Okay everyone, I know the secret to Mike's incredible rifle barrel and I've decided against all that is good and all that is evil to share this information with you. Mike's barrels are sautéed, after completion, in the finest of Agave Tequilas for a full 30 days - after which they are soaked in the finest of Brazilian limes for an addition 5 days until they are seasoned to perfection. Every pellet and every slug at that point will experience the sublime feeling of twisting through a sea of pleasure until reaching it's final destination point, upon which the sound of "Arriba" can be heard in the faint distance.

View attachment 494873

Heck I'm using barrel the wrong way. Time to take it off and have a few shots and snorts.