The switch from Douglas Match Grade Barrels to Wilson barrels under contract was somewhere betwen 130-05000 and maybe 130-08000 but maybe as high as 130-10000 predicated on build and ship date.
I'm pretty comfortable saying if it's past that 130-10,000 point that in all likelyhood it's a Wilson barrel.
Now to answer you question, yes The problem off long throated barrels appears with the early Wilson barrels and as the demand for barrels increased in the late 70s and into the 80s Part of this was the production of a lot more barrels and the slipping of QC at Wilson due the the increase demand. That's parts of it. The other part of it is caliber specific. Some calibers were deliberately long throated due to the nature and age of the cartridge and the ammo usualy used in it.
The caliber that suffered most from this was the 7x57. Apparently they/Ruger felt that most guys were still going to be shooting big old slow 175 round nosed bullets in their 7x57, that was it's history after all, so they throated it accordingly. ALL of the early 7x57s #1s I've ever owned were long throated.
Other calibers never suffered the problem. They were new enough that tey had never been loaded with long, slow, round nosed bullets and the throats were just fine. I have no idea how many 7mm Rem Mags in #1 I've owned in the last 40 years, but I never had one that was throated too long to use a reasonable handload with a medium weight bullet.
There is a lot of discussion about the accuracy of Wilson barrels but most shot as well as anything else and some shoot as well as anything I have ever owned, including high dollar customs.
If I had a line on a good 130- 7mm Mag and the wood was good and the price was right I sure wouldn't let the Wilson barrel be the reason to back away.
Of course that's just a personal opinion. ;-)
Ross
