To answer you question, no, I haven't tried one of Benny's barrels.
Benny was sort of my mentor into Blackpowder way back when. Back in around 1975 some locals put on a deer rifle match using deer sillouhettes. Open sights and legal deer calibers at 100 yards, scopes at 200. Any shooting position. Benny showed up in buckskins carrying a .45 flintlock he had built. It was the first time most of us had seen a muzzleloader being shot much less a handbuilt flintlock.
Benny had to wait until everyone else was finished before he got to shoot, then he stood there and took his 5 shots offhand, most others had shot prone or sitting. He got a lot of ribbing from rednecks squatting down and motioning like an exaggerated ram rodding.
Nobody really took him serious but I was watching his target and all his shots seemed to hit the same place in the dirt behind it. Then he called a shot..."Missed that one at 12:00"
When we went to look at the target there was one shot right above the deer at 12:00 and 4 more in a tight little group right in the lungs for a score of 20.
If he had of hit the deer anywhere that one missed shot he would have gotten 3rd place. He could have won either 2nd or first, depending on where that shot hit.
All in all, it was very impressive for the day and time and the area of the country.
He motivated me to buy a ML and the next year I won the same match, including a shootoff against a .243 for first place. But I didn't shoot offhand.
A couple of years ago Benny told me he wasn't shooting rifles anymore but was now into smoothbores and that he was making barrels in his shop. I haven't talked to him since but I would imagine that any barrel made by Benny Coogle would be a barrel worth having.
