Barrel Ordering Aggrivation

[GillaFunk]

Rant on;

In February I called Krieger to order a non-parkerized .30-06 GI spec barrel with a 1:11 twist, that would be custom chambered by my smith for my hand-load on my 1903 Springfield build. I spoke to one of their workshop/barrel cutter's at length about what I was looking to have done. I was told it would take about 8 months to finish. 6 months later the barrel was done and shipped to my gunsmith. The gunsmith is assembling my build and noticed something odd about the barrel.




Mainly it was 3.5" too long

After emailing Krieger I was told that since they did not short chamber or crown the rifle, it was left at blank length, but cut for the front sight key at the correct legnth. In short, they told me I'll have to cut, crown and finish the barrel on my own dime.

Now, this is my first rifle build, but given what I told them, and after looking at my order form, and emails to them I am astonished they are pulling this malarkey, knowing full well I am not happy with what they did, nor is it what I ordered.

My only hope is the chamber is short enough to still accommodate reaming/finish for my custom round length. The smith has already resolved the barrel length/crowning issue.

Either way a big to Krieger for weaseling out of providing what was asked.

No where at any time was anything said about not finishing the muzzle to mil-spec.

I paid extra and waited 6 months for a custom barrel that should have only needed chamber finishing/reaming and a park job. What I got was an unfinished barrel.

Rant off

[ott1]

How much to cut and crown on your own dime? You got your barrel back 2 months ahead of estimated time. Call yourself lucky.

[nastyhabts26]

Send them a copy of your order and a copy of your cost incurred to resolve their errors and ask for reimbursement for your costs and the extra you paid for the special work they failed to perform.
If they balk at that I would give them the option of making things right or go on a full bore flame fest on every forum you can get on.
I did this once with a boat i bought and the manufacturer denied warranty for their shoddy work that almost cost me sinking the boat.
I Joined every boat forum I could find and I flamed them in every one and sent the manufacturer links to all the forums so they could see what I had done.
They covered my warranty claim and extended the warranty foe another year as my boat was in the shop for over 6 months.

[kendog4570]

Thats standard on their pre-turn unchambered service rifle barrels. They would have cut to finish length and crowned if you specified, and paid for such. It woud have also added some time to the delivery.

[coma13]

Not getting what you paid for is dumb, but cutting and crowning is the quick work. Any gunsmith can knock that out for you in no time.

[GillaFunk]

6 months and $420 for a rifle who's muzzle isn't even cut or crowned? give me a break.

[kcstott]

Thats standard on their pre-turn unchambered service rifle barrels. They would have cut to finish length and crowned if you specified, and paid for such. It woud have also added some time to the delivery.

Yep nothing shady about it that's what a custom barrel is. Now you could have ordered it long chambered and just had your smith set the barrel back a touch. But since they were not given that opertunity they left to rough. Which I would have expected.

Kieger is far from shady.

[GillaFunk]

Is why I called and spoke to them on the phone, gave details about what I was doing with the barrel.

[Fjold]

That's standard for Krieger and most custom barrel makers. I've been ordering contoured blanks for over 20 years from Krieger, Pacnor, Shilen, Hart, Bartlein and others and every one has been longer than ordered and not crowned.

[ar15barrels]

No where at any time was anything said about not finishing the muzzle to mil-spec.

I paid extra and waited 6 months for a custom barrel that should have only needed chamber finishing/reaming and a park job.
What I got was an unfinished barrel.

Does your order specify cut length and crown type?

It's NORMAL for an unchambered barrel blank to also NOT be crowned.
Every gunsmith who is threading and chambering a barrel also expects to cut the final length and put the crown on it.

[ar15barrels]

6 months and $420 for a rifle who's muzzle isn't even cut or crowned? give me a break.

Post up your order acknowledgement where ALL the specs of your order are shown.

[ar15barrels]

From Krieger's price page on their website:

PLESE NOTE: Krieger Barrels, Inc. does not offer any pre-fit or drop in barrels for any bolt action rifles.
We can sell you a rifled and contoured blank (no threads/chamber/crown) or we can fit it to your receiver if the action you have is listed on our list of accepted actions and we have a chambering reamer for the cartridge you want to use.

In bold print on their services page is this:

PLESE NOTE: Krieger Barrels, Inc. does not offer any pre-fit or drop in barrels for any bolt action rifles. We can sell you a rifled and contoured blank (no threads/chamber/crown) or we can fit it to your receiver if the action you have is listed on our list of accepted actions for fitting and we have a chambering reamer for the cartridge you want to use.

They do indeed offer a service to crown the barrel for $45.
Did you have that on your order?

[kendog4570]

Back in the last century, Krieger supplied service rifle barrels, either unchambered, short chambered, or completely finished with the muzzle completely done.
I took a 10-12 year break from doing any gun work, and upon resuming, I received an AR 7.7 twist service barrel with unfinished muzzle. I called them and found that this is no longer their practice, mostly due to too many gun plumbers screwing up the crown. I guess with the installer cutting to length and crowning they got less complaints about bum barrels, that ultimately were to blame on the blacksmith that mistreated it.
Sounds like you got exactly what you paid for.
To be fair, they could make it a little more plain on their website, but the bulk of their customers are advanced installers and they take things like this in stride.

They also used to put the FSB shoulder in the right place for a real M16, but now it is .030" closer to the gas port because the same guys that jacked the crown, couldn't fit a front sight base to a free float handguard either.

[kcstott]

to further expand on my previous post. It is customary to leave a barrel a few inches long. due to the manufacturing process and the possibility of the bore being fouled up in the last inch or so of barrel.

This is all perfectly normal. You didn't order a pre fit drop in barrel (which they do not make) you ordered a contoured blank and that is exactly what you got.

It's kind of the same answer I give people when the complain about a $79 AK barrel. I say shut the hell up until you order on from a top maker and pay close to $500 for a barrel that is just close to finished

Rant on;



My only hope is the chamber is short enough to still accommodate reaming/finish for my custom round length. The smith has already resolved the barrel length/crowning issue.

Either way a big to Krieger for weaseling out of providing what was asked.

No where at any time was anything said about not finishing the muzzle to mil-spec.

I paid extra and waited 6 months for a custom barrel that should have only needed chamber finishing/reaming and a park job. What I got was an unfinished barrel.

Rant off

And no where did you specify a finished barrel?? By the way your smith is a dip. I would have cut the barrel to length crowned it and be done.
2nd item is you don't short chamber barrel you long chamber them as no two reamers cut the same nor are held on the same axis in perfect alignment.
Long chambering allow the smith to set the barrel back without touching the chamber. Much better results

[kendog4570]

6 months and $420 for a rifle who's muzzle isn't even cut or crowned? give me a break.

You got a semi-finished 1903 pattern, cut-rifled match barrel in a non-standard twist for the price they publish on their website. Their wait time on 03 barrels has always been long. If you wanted quickfast n inahurry plug and play you should have got a Criterion.
Just curious... what chamber are you cutting, and why the 11 twist? Cheater rifle??