Tweet
Originally posted by lazyengineer
View Post
Here in 2023, metallurgy and machining practices are such that it's possible to get such a barrel, even for $150. Maybe. The counter to that, is the way to keep prices down is you don't spend a lot of time on each barrel - you can't. What I'm finding, is that means they rush the chambering. The don't bother to get it centered and aligned right, don't QC check it, and don't run it slow and carefully to assure a smooth uniform cut. They chuck up a chamber reamer that's still hot from the last BBL, in a rig who's barrings are hot and were last checked... someyear. Result - in a lot of cheap barrels, that are otherwise potential tack-drivers, they F'up the leade with an off-axis chamber, and your round begins its life crooked and off center. Some rounds in some barrels overcome that (a 90 TNT shoots MOA with charcoal gunpowder down a sewer pipe). Many do not. What I've learned with cheap barrels is the first thing you do is bore-scope the throat, before you even think of mounting it. If it's straight, good odds you've got a solid MOA shooter. And I'm old enough, that MOA was the goal - and a rare one, that took premium construction and care to feed, and you had to call over a High Master level shooter. Unlike today, that's for sure. So yea, a cheap barrel with a straight throat, is a good start to being an MOA barrel. OP's barrel? No.
I will say first hand, I picked up a 5.56 FAXON 16" Match GUNNER profile (5r 1/8 SS wylde); that shot terrible. I scoped it, found out the same thing - offcenter throat (this is VERY common), and sent it back. they sent me a replacement, I scoped it again - centered throat. Unlike PSA, they don't go 2 cycles of sending you the same one back, before actually replacing it. How's the replacement low cost- BBL? one of the best BBL's I've ever bought. Seriously - it's an air-light skinny front BBL that shoots MOA and holds zero even when it heats up. Difference? Centered throat. (also, as an Engineer, this IMHO is the one 5.56 BBL profile that has every single specification exactly optimized, from the profile cut, to the grove spec, to the twist rate, to the chamber - it's exactly what I'd spec as the perfect general purpose 5.56 16" BBL)
I will say first hand, I picked up a 5.56 FAXON 16" Match GUNNER profile (5r 1/8 SS wylde); that shot terrible. I scoped it, found out the same thing - offcenter throat (this is VERY common), and sent it back. they sent me a replacement, I scoped it again - centered throat. Unlike PSA, they don't go 2 cycles of sending you the same one back, before actually replacing it. How's the replacement low cost- BBL? one of the best BBL's I've ever bought. Seriously - it's an air-light skinny front BBL that shoots MOA and holds zero even when it heats up. Difference? Centered throat. (also, as an Engineer, this IMHO is the one 5.56 BBL profile that has every single specification exactly optimized, from the profile cut, to the grove spec, to the twist rate, to the chamber - it's exactly what I'd spec as the perfect general purpose 5.56 16" BBL)
Comment