I've done it. It would probably be hit and miss on accuracy. Some criticize the Wilson barrels, but almost every Cooper I've owned and knew about shot very well, including all the centerfire 38s that passed through my hands. It's not the name on the barrel that makes it good.

This is just my opinion, but I personally think the highest odds for success on re-barreling a .22 LR is a Lilja barrel hand-lapped with a tapered bore, cut off at the tightest area (don't cut to a specific length; let slugging the barrel tell you where to cut and crown), then chamber with a "match" reamer. My personal favorite is the "Lilja 1.5 degree" reamer sold by PTG. I would lend you mine if you decide to proceed. Bluing sounds fine, but bluing just the barrel then installing it on the receiver can sometimes produce marring on barrel and receiver, even when taking great care.

Good luck.

 

I've done it. It would probably be hit and miss on accuracy.

This is just my opinion, but I personally think the highest odds for success on re-barreling a .22 LR is a Lilja barrel hand-lapped with a tapered bore, cut off at the tightest area (don't cut to a specific length; let slugging the barrel tell you where to cut and crown), then chamber with a "match" reamer.

I've done it too and as usual, TBR is on the money with his comments. Lilja's lead times were way out there when I had mine done & then I had to get the barrel blank to Australia.
I spoke to the owner of True Flite in New Zealand and they supplied one of their ultra match hand lapped stainless blanks profiled to my specs.
My smith fitted the barrel (match chamber) and it finished up a tad longer than the factory barrel after slugging to find the ideal spot for the crown.
I can't tell you how much that barrel would have improved accuracy as that rifle had so many issues as received that I bought enough spares from Cooper to basically re-build it from scratch and my smith did exactly that!
That rifle sits in the back of the safe these days as I no longer have the ability to shoot it to its potential. However, I can tell you that it was capable I shooting 20X5's at 50 meters outdoors in the high .2's" on a sanctioned SSAA range here in Australia AND it looked pretty good while doing it too.
Quite a few of my friends on here are familiar with this rifle as I documented my journey with it at length on this forum. It certainly gave me a bit of grief at the beginning but turned out to be a lovely, well balanced off hand 22 & I've not regretted importing this one.
Allan

 

Hey Guys , xlnt feedback .

T.B.R. , all the Cooper rimfires which I have shot have been
good & accurate the only reason to change barrels on the
Montana V. is esthetics.
I have an LVT with a blue barrel which I feel better with than
a Montana SS.

Yea know right now some readers are going ''wah , wah'' what
a problem to have , which Cooper do I take to the dance .?

Hey Allan , what a beaut of a gun , we should do a trade .

Does Lilja do ''Blue'' barrels ?

skoal

, prost , cheers ... skwerl

 

Yes, Lilja will make a chrome-moly barrel. Don't know what the lead times are, however.

 

It will have a long uphill battle to have Cooper do it. Being that you are in Canada you will have a lot of dollars and time tied up in shipping and customs, jumping through export/import hoops and the associated costs of doing that.

But an even bigger problem is that Cooper is, at least temporarily, closed down and in the process of moving. At this time there are rumors about them being sold, having been sold, etc. I know this - their Montana facility is setting empty, the machinery has been removed and they have no employees there, at this point there is not even any place you can send it to. I have my doubts that Cooper will be back in business until it is sold, and even then it will likely be quite a while before the new owner would have it up and running.

If you really want the looks of a blued barrel then your option is to have it ceracoated. A good applier can come darn close to matching the action or you could have the action done at the same time as the barrel and have a perfect match.

drover

 

As T-connor mentioned, just CeraKote the barrel and be done with it. Following the recent posts on stainless and blackening makes it clear how many people here do not like the stainless barrel look, so blackening the barrel on that Cooper will probably enhance its value, not detract from it.

 

WoW. Sorry to hear Cooper has CLOSED. l called them a couple months back asking about a replacement stock for my Model 21 MTV. They were unable to assist because all their production was being used to fill a backlog of SOLD orders!!

 

See another thread about Cooper closing. They were sold and were moving to a new location.

 

My Cooper Montana Varminter has a stainless barrel which is a case of mind over matter . . . I don't mind and it don't matter!

 

Hey Mel , I know it is cosmetics t doesn't matter tho as in my
pics above I like to looks of the ''Blue'' LVT more than the
SS Montana.
I am a traditionalist .

... skwerl

 

I recently purchased a Browning-marked 52C sporting rifle advertised as perfect, as NIB. When it arrived, I was really pleased with it, as the appearance was indeed, perfect, with not a scratch or dent anywhere. But when I pushed a wet patch down the bore in preparation to take it out to zero the scope I'd mounted, there was obviously a whole lot of lead fouling, and it took me a couple of hours of working with a bronze brush with lead & carbon solvent to get it clean enough to shoot. I borescoped it with a Hawkeye before shooting, and was not pleased with what I found - the throat was rough, with smeared lands in the leade that suggested it'd been chambered in a hurry with a dull reamer. There were also several small grooves around the bore in places - I decided it was no wonder it'd leaded so badly. But after I'd taken it out and put 65rds of a very good lot of SK Std+ through it - without a single decent group being produced - I found the bore to be severely lead-fouled again. That's when I got on the horn to Krieger Barrels and spoke with Shay about getting a replacement barrel to match the contour of the OEM one. Fortunately, at the time, they had a few straight cylinder blanks large enough to make a copy of the OEM sporting bbl, and they had them in both SS (416R) and chromemoly. I was tempted to have them use one of the CM blanks, but there's no longer anyone that I'm aware of in the region that is set up to do hot bluing. There used to be a fellow who'd graduated from the gunsmithing school out at Trinidad, Co. who had a shop in Eads, Co. IIRC, and who did very nice bluing, but he'd gone to work for Cabela's at one of their locations, and had closed his shop in eastern Colorado. So I asked that they use one of the SS blanks, knowing that I could bead blast it after I finished fitting & chambering it, or use one of NIC's darker blue shades of CeraKote. I've fitted and chambered several CF CM barrels in the past, and have always felt that 416R SS cuts smoother, so that's another reason I went with it instead of CM. I haven't started on this project yet, but having looked at NIC CeraKote's color selection, I have no doubt that I'll be able to get something that will turn out to look ok...and if I'm not completely satisfied with the results, I can always blast the CK off and then clean up the resulting rough blasted finish with finer glass beads, which leaves a cleaner, more even satin finish. I have great confidence in the accuracy of a Krieger blank chambered with my EPS reamer - have done several of them - though they were heavier, sendero contour blanks - for converted 40X repeaters and Vudoo repeaters, and they've all been hammers...