Buddy of mine ordered a 24" .25-06 barrel with flutes from the custom shop. 17 week wait time. When it showed up, the flutes were cut with different gap between them. When turned over one flute is close to being in line with center of forearm where the other is offset. They are supposed to be centered with the gap between them right in the middle. Shoddy machining work but if it would have shot worth a dern, he would have kept it. Tried 12 different loads and nothing shot as well as his other off-the-shelf factory barrel. He called them and sent it back. Another 6 weeks and they replaced the barrel and had a note saying accuracy tested. This one has flutes with different gap between them as well. Not as bad as the other but visible different indexing. This one shoots a little better. Still experimenting with different loads.
He ordered custom gold inlayed frame with whitetails fighting (shoddy looking inlay), $999 presentation quality walnut stock and forearm (beautiful wood) and the custom barrel all at the same time. They sent the stock and forearm and the forearm wasn't even for the barrel he ordered. He had to send it back and 4 weeks later, when he received it, they had taken a socket and sandpaper to relieve the barrel channel. Didn't even seal the wood after sanding. Just as well they didn't, because we still had to sand it quite a bit to get it to fit correctly as they relieved it for a regular off-the-shelf heavy barrel and this was a heavy barrel from the custom shop which is larger than the regular heavy. Go figure.
In short, I wouldn't recommend ordering anything from the custom shop unless you want to receive sub-standard work.
