Thanks KC. I had McGowen make a 26" barrel in chromemoly instead of SS for a change and also in a sporter profile, thinking it would save weight-- all up weight is still a hefty 10 pounds.
The bore in the brand new barrel arrived looking like it was a messed-up used barrel and I almost called McGowen--I've bought a lot of the barrels of their's and never seen anything like it. It was filled with some kind of red powder (I'm guessing is a polishing compound?) and had other residue. Took two hours of running solvent patches and bore paste to finally reveal the smooth polished and clean bore. Other interesting parts include an original SSS comp trigger, Boyd's "featherweight" thumbhole stock and a NSS precision recoil lug.
Hope it shoots well.