08-13-2013, 10:19 PM
I've been on the phone with Midway several times trying to get an answer as to where the AR-Stoner brand barrels are from. I have yet to receive a straight answer. Every time there has been silence for me. First it was stated that they were ER Shaw barrels in this thread, after someone did some googling. Then it was confirmed that, no that's not correct, they're Liberty Barrels. See what I'm talking about? Best thing for them to do would be to take that AR-Stoner name off the barrels, since so many people have experienced great results with them. Just call them what they are and disassociate them from a product brand scheme that usually has less than mediocre customer reviews.
I'm in the same boat as everyone else. I want a good product at the right price, from a quantifiable source. At no time have I suggested anyone look at another product here. This is actually the first time I have received this type of feedback on this site about my posts, so I'm willing to look within and take responsibility for anything I've said that proves to be incorrect. My original post was admittedly not in line with the thread, and would be quite unwelcome anywhere else. I will not erase it, but update with an appropriate ending. I'm here to make friends, not burn bridges.
I have recognized over the years on the forum that for the most part, customers who have purchased 6.5 Grendel AR-Stoner barrels from Midway are happy with them, and I made it a point to state that. I just want to see everyone with as close to the industry standard as possible, to alleviate a lot of the headaches we have seen when other manufacturers have tried to jump on the wagon without meeting that standard. There are forum members who have ended up with complete abortions for barrels, and those barrels had "6.5 G" "6.5 Grendel" or no engravings on them, with no idea of where they came from. Trouble-shooting them was a total nightmare, and close inspection would uncover things like insane chamber dimensions, cheap barrel extensions that thrash your extractor, 1/2x28 threads?, and gas ports cut for maybe a 5.56?.
The end result was a barrel/upper/rifle that would choke on every shot, if you could even get them to chamber. There have even been customers who walked away entirely from this cartridge because they thought they had an industry standard 6.5 Grendel, when it was nothing of the sort.
Gladly, those issues have been minimal with the AR-Stoner 6.5 Grendel barrels, but there have been some. No product is perfect, but I would say that this one has a fairly good reputation. There have been issues that we've seen on the forum with extractor interface with the case rim, but this has also happened with other manufacturers. If you find yourself in this position, tuning an extractor is quite simple with some patience and a few brain cells. Another thing I have seen related here on the forum and on Midway's reviews are a few chambering issues, and shorter COL's than we would expect for the Grendel.
Midway has a stand-up customer service policy and reputation, and have been great about returns. In my case with the flaking BCG, I was overseas and had the product too long, so I didn't get refunded, but got store credit instead, which was totally fine since I was averaging a large order at least every 45 days.
I still think it's important for us as customers to let distributors know that we expect a certain standard, and will hold the entire industry to that standard, otherwise you end up with a scenario like the 6.8 SPC SAAMI chamber having an incorrect reamer made for it, which was quite dangerous and produced some of the most spectacular AR15 kabooms I've ever seen, the pictures of which have been thoroughly scrubbed from the net. That's the benefit of having seasoned people in the industry to remember those lessons learned, and pass them on.
Before the internet, you hoped you would be steered right by your family, local gun store owner, gun smiths, and industry reps. Since the internet, we're flooded with information that is easy to send without checking the veracity of it, so we need a filter that follows some type of logic. It's clear from my post about certain 5.56 barrels being from overseas under that name brand, that one could interpret or perceive that I was suggesting that their Grendel barrels might be from some 3rd world country. For that I am truly sorry if they are in fact Made in the USA. Just understand that I have been trying to get a straight answer as a potential customer for the same products, and have not received that answer after seriously searching for at least 2 years, to include inquiring from industry reps and other professionals who would know from my contacts at SHOT and elsewhere.
I'm in the same boat as everyone else. I want a good product at the right price, from a quantifiable source. At no time have I suggested anyone look at another product here. This is actually the first time I have received this type of feedback on this site about my posts, so I'm willing to look within and take responsibility for anything I've said that proves to be incorrect. My original post was admittedly not in line with the thread, and would be quite unwelcome anywhere else. I will not erase it, but update with an appropriate ending. I'm here to make friends, not burn bridges.
I have recognized over the years on the forum that for the most part, customers who have purchased 6.5 Grendel AR-Stoner barrels from Midway are happy with them, and I made it a point to state that. I just want to see everyone with as close to the industry standard as possible, to alleviate a lot of the headaches we have seen when other manufacturers have tried to jump on the wagon without meeting that standard. There are forum members who have ended up with complete abortions for barrels, and those barrels had "6.5 G" "6.5 Grendel" or no engravings on them, with no idea of where they came from. Trouble-shooting them was a total nightmare, and close inspection would uncover things like insane chamber dimensions, cheap barrel extensions that thrash your extractor, 1/2x28 threads?, and gas ports cut for maybe a 5.56?.
The end result was a barrel/upper/rifle that would choke on every shot, if you could even get them to chamber. There have even been customers who walked away entirely from this cartridge because they thought they had an industry standard 6.5 Grendel, when it was nothing of the sort.
Gladly, those issues have been minimal with the AR-Stoner 6.5 Grendel barrels, but there have been some. No product is perfect, but I would say that this one has a fairly good reputation. There have been issues that we've seen on the forum with extractor interface with the case rim, but this has also happened with other manufacturers. If you find yourself in this position, tuning an extractor is quite simple with some patience and a few brain cells. Another thing I have seen related here on the forum and on Midway's reviews are a few chambering issues, and shorter COL's than we would expect for the Grendel.
Midway has a stand-up customer service policy and reputation, and have been great about returns. In my case with the flaking BCG, I was overseas and had the product too long, so I didn't get refunded, but got store credit instead, which was totally fine since I was averaging a large order at least every 45 days.
I still think it's important for us as customers to let distributors know that we expect a certain standard, and will hold the entire industry to that standard, otherwise you end up with a scenario like the 6.8 SPC SAAMI chamber having an incorrect reamer made for it, which was quite dangerous and produced some of the most spectacular AR15 kabooms I've ever seen, the pictures of which have been thoroughly scrubbed from the net. That's the benefit of having seasoned people in the industry to remember those lessons learned, and pass them on.
Before the internet, you hoped you would be steered right by your family, local gun store owner, gun smiths, and industry reps. Since the internet, we're flooded with information that is easy to send without checking the veracity of it, so we need a filter that follows some type of logic. It's clear from my post about certain 5.56 barrels being from overseas under that name brand, that one could interpret or perceive that I was suggesting that their Grendel barrels might be from some 3rd world country. For that I am truly sorry if they are in fact Made in the USA. Just understand that I have been trying to get a straight answer as a potential customer for the same products, and have not received that answer after seriously searching for at least 2 years, to include inquiring from industry reps and other professionals who would know from my contacts at SHOT and elsewhere.