School me on polish tantels

[Maddog5150]

I have a polish tantel back home that I bought from henderson defense. Its a fun little right and i love shooting it. Unfortunately I didnt have enough time to go shoot it before I left and group some targets. I hear random bad stuff about them however and I wonder if I bought something that is junkie. Thoughts?

[MrNiceGuy]

Basically your Tantal is probably made by Century.
Century built a batch (or more) of Tantals using 5.56 barrels (should be 5.45).
So.....since the 5.56 barrel is bigger than 5.45 bullets, it "might" "keyhole".
Even if it doesn't keyhole, the accuracy "might" no be as good as a Tantal with 5.45 barrel.
You might want to do a "bullet test" on the crown of your barrel to see if it pass or not.
If the shell case touches the crown of the barrel it's most likely a 5.56 barrel (or your barrel is really really worn).

Then again, if it doesn't keyhole and you're happy with the groupings you shot, then who cares, just enjoy it.

[Jpach]

IIRC, the newer Tantals have been fixed. The keyholing Tantals were of older yet still relatively recent batches. I guess youre just gonna have to go out and shoot it to see how it does

[Maddog5150]

When I get back home in several months I will have to check it out. How easy would it be to slap on a new barrel like this? https://www.apexgunparts.com/product...219d89028b6988

[MrNiceGuy]

It's a virgin barrel so it'll take a bit of work to get the front sight, gas block, etc onto it assuming the barrel will even fit into the Polish trunnion (I have no idea).
See FrediUSA's excellent write up on how to build with virgin barrel here.
And you'll need a special barrel press tool to get the barrel out of a complete receiver of course.

I've heard folks on Gunco among other places that basically just converted their 5.45 tantal to use 5.56 rounds because they had a 5.56 barrel on it already, used the same 5.45 bolt either got a 5.56 follower into their 74 mag or used a .223 mag.
No idea how it runs or how to get it working in the first place.