i hate to ask this but, barrel repair

[dammitman]

i know that its been told that its not worth it to find someone to replace a ar15 barrel extension but i want to know this. i have a chipped barrel extension on mine and wonder if it could be replaced? its the bottom most tooth in the bolt area and i am sure its not good. i have done a buch of looking online for replacement and all i find is its not worth it. its a shilen barrel not a real cheapy with not all that much use. i understand that finding a extension that would line the gas port back up when torqued on is really not possible but i would suggest just redrill the gas port and the gas block would cover the old hole so that problem solved. then its just a matter of checking and making sure its still has correct headspacing with the replaced extension. i just dont understand why this wouldnt work and actually work well. brownells sells the extensions so someones replacing them. really frusterated and not wanting to just throw the barrel away.

[rasp65]

I have heard the same and you would also have to drill a new index pin hole. It would seem that if the profile is heavy enough you could shorten the chamber end but the standard answer is it can't be done. Maybe Mark from PF will chime in on this.

[SG4247]

Its really not a big deal. Done it twice...recently.

Buy a new extension and have a machinist/gunsmith install it with the proper extension assembly tools and head space gauges. If needed, he can machine the extension shoulder to reduce head space.

Then have him drill a new gas port hole indexed to the extension indexing pin center-line. Install a gas block that covers the old hole. Clamp on gas blocks work best.

I have even machined the gas block bore, to provide a pressure feed groove from the original hole in the barrel, to the hole in the gas block, on barrels where port alignment was just off less than 1/4".

Your local smith should be able to do this for you.

[VASCAR2]

Have you considered contacting Shilen? It might be worth a phone call, I'd trust the manufacturer first.

[LRRPF52]

I would contact Shilen, but first tell how the thing chipped. When you say chipped, is it a small chip, or did a tooth in the extension break during firing?

We need pics.

[dammitman]

Happy day. Called shilen and guess what? No problem. Just pay for extension and time and they gave estimate and all fixed. I am stoked. Now that made my day! I was dreading the call too.

[NugginFutz]

Excellent news. Just goes to prove you never know until you ask. If you don't mind, a followup post would be nice once you get it back.

[LRRPF52]

I had Bill Alexander short chamber one of the original Lilja barrels for me with a SAAMI reamer, and he went through the parts bin until he found one of his extensions that would time correctly with the existing gas port. You don't want to mess with new gas ports if accuracy is important to you.

He just cut off the barrel tennon threads, cut a new shoulder and tennon, and made me a custom length gas tube that looks indistinguishable from a factory tube.

[LRRPF52]

Also, one thing I have been noticing with manufacturers who are nitriding barrel extensions is that some of them are extremely brittle, which does not give me a warm and fuzzy.

I was recently polishing and blending the feed ramps on one of my personal .223 Wylde barrels, and the right feed lip edge chipped like a piece of glass, and I was only using a Cratex rubberized abrasive bit. I've never seen this happen over the years of doing this, so be very careful with the barrel extension.

I have also seen galling on some 8620 extensions that were really soft and had very course grain structure to the steel. The most beautiful extensions I have seen to date are the ones Lilja used and polished from BAT Machine.

All extensions are certainly not created equally.

[dammitman]

i will post back when i get it back. i was really impressed by the phone call i had with a girl named Ashley who was intelligent and knew what i was talking about and i could tell went right to the machinists and asked them about my problem and what the deal would be. i feel like they are gonna fix it right. i mad eit clear thats its not their fault and i wasnt looking for any kind of deal, just wanted to have the barrel fixed if possible. you can get alot of runaround from places but Shilen barrels gave me none of that. this barrel took about 7 months of waiting to get but thats what it was like last year remember? (2013) i did include a request for 2 bolts! lol, its never too many and the real storm is comin and when it does your gonna be glad you got 6 extra barrels and 10 bolts and 20000 rounds of ammo you know shoots right and thats all i have to say about that!

[SG4247]

Good thing you didnt launch it into the trash!

Good to hear on Shilen, I just bought a 6.5mm Select Match blank yesterday.

[NugginFutz]

i did include a request for 2 bolts! lol, its never too many and the real storm is comin and when it does your gonna be glad you got 6 extra barrels and 10 bolts and 20000 rounds of ammo you know shoots right and thats all i have to say about that!

How true, how true. A bit of nonperishable food stuffs may not be a bad idea right now, either. (No, I don't wear an aluminum hat).

[dammitman]

Good thing you didnt launch it into the trash!

Good to hear on Shilen, I just bought a 6.5mm Select Match blank yesterday.

man, i really need to get one of those,,,,,,,,,,,lets see,,,dear santa, i have been a really good boy

[dammitman]

How true, how true. A bit of nonperishable food stuffs may not be a bad idea right now, either. (No, I don't wear an aluminum hat).

get the hat, it makes you sleep better and you have really cool dreams!

[NugginFutz]