Aftermarket Barrel Quality, or lack thereof...with pics.

[REDLINE]

Finally got the replacement barrel today.  Definitely an improvement.  What do you guys think, either in comparison to the 1st barrel I had, or on its own?

The pics below are generally targeting where the throat meets the lands.  My barrel has 6 lands.  The first pic is of the land that starts just right of the barrel hood, with the continuing pictures showing the lands in order clockwise around the bore for both the original and replacement barrels as listed below;

1st, the pics of the barrel I returned to StormLake:















2nd, the pics of the replacement barrel I recieved from StormLake today (4-12-13):

[The_Shadow]

The free bore looks more concentric but a little rough... that should smooth out with some bullets down the tube! 

[Bongo Boy]

It's an improvement. It really makes a fella want to build a polishing arbor or go in there with a fine sanding drum or even a riffler and at least take that shoulder off the aft ends of the lands. It would be easy enough to do and take about 20 minutes to get that portion of the lands where they feather out to the freebore much smoother. I personally would have to use the camera to check my work, though, since even with an OptiVisor it would be tough to get enough light in the right place to see what I was doing 'real time'. It would be done pretty much by feel, a little wee bit at a time, probably with something like this:



Anyway, I'm sure it's nothing a few 100 rounds of FMJ won't straighten out, and the concentricity looks WAY better than what you had.

The finish reminds me of what we would have when milling some chrome moly steels--I think it was 4140--back in the Ancient Times. Very 'stringy' looking--almost like a gauling of the material. I'm no expert but my first guess would be the tooling isn't getting sharpened frequently enough, the coolant isn't doing its job or is inadequate to the task of lubricating the cutter. Most stainless steels are brutal on tooling, and even carbide doesn't escape severe punishment.

[REDLINE]

It really makes a fella want to build a polishing arbor or go in there with a fine sanding drum or even a riffler and at least take that shoulder off the aft ends of the lands.

100% agree!

It bugs me that the new replacement barrel throat looks to have been cut with duller tooling than the barrel I had sent back to them.  So now I have a barrel that has a much better throat, but rougher tooling marks.

I'm sure it's probably not a big deal.  Like The_Shadow and Bongo Boy said, a few bullets down the tube should smooth things out some.  Hopefully that's true.  I don't know to what extent some bullets down the tube will smooth things out being that 416R SS is awfully hard compared to the copper used to make bullet jackets.

[Bongo Boy]

Yeah, you've got a great point there re: relative hardness of the materials. It would be cool if you were able to get nearly-identical photos (great photos, BTW) after say 1,000 and 5,000 rds down the tube. I have no idea what the impact would be.

[REDLINE]

I hope to at some point.  For now though and into the intermediate future I don't expect to do much shooting.  I'm at a point where I'm more into developing loads through handloading, and at this time it's proving difficult to impossible to get the load components I need to move forward.  Other than that, it is something I want to see for myself when the time comes, and will of course post pics at that time.

[sqlbullet]

barrels that look perfect sometimes shoot terrible.  And sometimes barrels that look terrible shoot fine.

[Yondering]

Like the others said, that looks pretty rough, and the sharp lip on those lands is going to be bad for cast bullets (I'm assuming that shooting cast is part of the reason for buying the barrel?). That is pretty crude, especially as a replacement for what you sent in.

Are you sure it's a new barrel, or did they just open the throat more concentrically on your old barrel? If so, the throat may be a bit large; you'll want to slug that and find out.

If it was my barrel, I'd be doing a bit of firelapping to smooth it out, unless the throat is already oversize, in which case I'd be sending it back to SL again.

Thanks for the pics; don't think I'll be buying any Storm Lake barrels! "Match Grade!" 

[REDLINE]

(I'm assuming that shooting cast is part of the reason for buying the barrel?).

No.  I don't really ever intend to shoot cast lead.  I wanted the addtional velocity from 6.02" as opposed to 4.6".  And I could have went with the Glock accessory 6.02" barrel but didn't because I also wanted the additional chamber support of the Storm Lake version, which is excellent.

Are you sure it's a new barrel, or did they just open the throat more concentrically on your old barrel?

I'm positive it's a new barrel.


You are right, that going by my pics, the machining does look very rough.  In reality though, looking just with the naked eye, it looks relatively smoothly finished (I'm not saying mirror finish...).

[sqlbullet]

I still say shoot it before you make a judgement.  Easy, cheap way to find out if the barrel performs.

[Yondering]

You are right, that going by my pics, the machining does look very rough.  In reality though, looking just with the naked eye, it looks relatively smoothly finished (I'm not saying mirror finish...).

That's good then. Shoot it, see how it does, and maybe those sharp edges can be lapped out, or smoothed out with the methods others suggested here.

[REDLINE]

I still say shoot it before you make a judgement.  Easy, cheap way to find out if the barrel performs.

Please forgive my ignorance, what judgement are we talking about?

[The_Shadow]

It is possible to take an FMJ type bullet, seated very long on a dummy cartridge and use some valve grinding compound (very fine grit) the compound needs to be on the tapered shoulder right at the max diameter start and hand lap the throat area where the land start.  Take an old casing drill out the primer pocket to accept a small bolt (the pocket could be tapped & threaded but not needed) then with a nut and washer locked in place to use as a lever, shank or handle, that would allow you to twist and turn the extended bullet against the area to smooth out the roughness. 

However, What you have in the bore is not that obtrusive, in that shooting some bullets would do the same over time!  The only thing I think is you may see some fouling in the affected area but that will probably add to the smoothing, as it is dragged over those areas.

If it be me I just shoot and not worry myself over that issue...

[sqlbullet]

Ultimately the quality of a barrel, IMHO, is how well it puts bullets where you wanted them to go. I don't really care what it looks like as long as it performs as I need it to.

That is the ultimate judgement of barrel quality.

That is the judgement to which I refer. 

We are seeing lots of suggestions on how to change how this barrel looks on the inside.  I would shoot it first and see if I want the barrel to be changed.

[REDLINE]

If it be me I just shoot and not worry myself over that issue...

Me too.