My experience: BSF Barrels May Experience Substantial Thermal Drift.

[StoneHendge]

Guys, I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of this particular barrel vendor.

I'm sure they didn't put all this effort into making something that was garbage, and I'm seeing a sample size of one right now. Maybe I overlooked something.

I don't know these people, have no experience with them or their products, but would like to hope this was a one-off issue and lean to giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Has anyone else had experience with them?

When I see the thread title, I wonder if something like "My experience with a 6.5 Grendel BSF barrel" might be more gentlemanly of us.

What do you think, StoneHendge?

No problem with title change I've cooled down (pun intended) and got my money back, but how about BSF Barrels May Experience Substantial Thermal Drift.

But that's the thing that got me. Everyone knows to be careful with carbon fiber from experiences with Christenson and that gave (and probably still gives) Proof Research baggage to overcome. BSF claims that their sleeve and hole design allows the barrel to cool. Maybe it does a little, but mine behaved like it was for the most part insulated. They claim to have spent 3 years developing it, to have set a new industry standard and to make it the "most cost efficient, accurate and versatile barrel on the market." The last part is what gets me. Everyone knows what they get with a Christenson - and that's fine for a big game hunter who wants something light to carry around the back country and impress his friends when he's only going to take a shot or two to fill his tag.

It was an easy 1/2 MOA shooter when cool. I was really impressed at first. I guess the drift it had when it got warm could have been caused by something else - maybe the sleeve connection or out of spec sleeve caused the barrel to warp. But I'm inclined to believe it was almost surely from being hot in the core since the insulating Faxon Carbon Fiber handguard added another 1-2 inches of drift when I did the same test with that handguard on.

If anyone else who has one is happy with theirs and they shoot it at a slow pace, I would NOT recommend doing what I did since it cant be good for the throat. But if anyone thinks they might use it from the prison guard tower someday when the zombies are crashing the fence, they should try my test. Because mine was outside of minute of zombie head and they would have gotten in.

Edit / Add: I've thought about trying the same with my Proof S'more barrel, but I can't let myself do it. Even if it doesn't (and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't since there is negligible drift if I do a 10 round mag in a minute), I don't want to burn that much powder that fast in a throat that will likely only last around 2500 rounds under normal fire.