I just finished bedding an M40 for a customer who had a new Bartlein barrel installed onto his receiver. Upon re-assembly, I checked the bore to make sure no debris had made its way into the bore. This was an unfired chrom-moly barrel. The bore looked like a sewer pipe!

The company that did the parkerizing did not plug the bore and parkerized the inside of the bore! I would also like to specify that I had no part in the building of this action. I was given the action and stock to bed. Here are pictures of the chamber, throat and bore. This is after I scrubbed it for a half an hour.









We'll see how it shoots, but man, that's a damn shame. I wish I looked into the bore before bedding it.

Tony.

Holy crap! That really seems like a rookie move on their part. Was the customer already aware of this?

Seems to me the refinishers owe your customer a new Bartlein barrel.

The owner knew nothing of this until I texted him these images.

Tony.

Ugh. Stupid rookie mistake. IMO, the company that did this owes the customer a new barrel -- and a refund for the work done. The customer needs to find a new shop to work with.

However, I wouldn't parkerize a Bartlein barrel.

He sighted it in a few days ago and is shooting a match with it today. His final group was maybe an inch. He shot at 100 yards and left the impact high for a 200 yard match.

quote:

Originally posted by benny6:
His final group was maybe an inch.

Assuming he has good fundamentals, that's not a good showing for a Bartlein barrel.

I agree. He has very good fundamentals.

Tony.

quote:

Originally posted by fritz:
Ugh. Stupid rookie mistake. IMO, the company that did this owes the customer a new barrel -- and a refund for the work done. The customer needs to find a new shop to work with.

However, I wouldn't parkerize a Bartlein barrel.

100% all of this.

Parkerizing is a trade name for adding a metal phosphate coating for protection against rust. The metal phosphate is in crystalline form. The crystals migrate into the metal surface, and can be likened to icebergs floating in water. You can’t see the part of the crystal that is below the surface. In coating the metal parts, the process includes cleaning, rinsing, acid passivation, metal phosphate reaction, and rinsing. The size of the crystals is dependent on the strength of the solution, the acid passivation that creates initiation sites, and process temperature and time settings.

So, mechanical scrubbing can attempt to remove the crystals but most often the crystals will pull free from the underlying metal and leave a tiny void. In gears, such voids are crack initiation sites and can lead to micro and macro pitting.

Although the barrel and shooter performance are comingled, the shooter is surely affected by this process failure. Corrosion is likely to increase. Barrel harmonics are likely not affected, but chamber dimensions, freebore, and headspace could be.

The customer should seek a replacement barrel regardless of the target shown.

They are looking for a replacement barrel and I will do the barrel swap for him.

Tony.

quote:

Originally posted by benny6:
They are looking for a replacement barrel and I will do the barrel swap for him.

Nice.
Bugholes may have the right barrel in stock.

I’m not a precision rifle guy, shoot, I’m barely a rifle guy in threads like this. Is that barrel complete trash now or is it just trash for precision gun games. Like, would a schmoe like me shooting groups at 100 yards probably be completely happy with it?

I saw the groups he shot. They looked good to me. 1 moa. What was he looking for out of that barrel?

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
I saw the groups he shot. They looked good to me. 1 moa. What was he looking for out of that barrel?

An M40 put together by Tony, a Bartlein barrel, a shooter with very good fundamentals....the combo has the potential of 100 yard groups of less than 1/4". The barrel is damaged beyond repair for a good shooter.

Yikes. Thanks.

For what the barrel is, it should shoot as Fritz says. It's usable as a casual shooter, but not for competition.

Tony.