Casing being scratched

[Sticks]

I would not go lower than 1000 grit. You want to polish, not remove material other than the tiny high spots, that even this method will not do as good as a reamer would.

I would give BFT a chance to get Faxon to wake up and get with the program here. Especially with the Group Buys that we have.

[Kswhitetails]

I checked my brass, and sure enough, it's exactly like what has been mentioned above. The first 13 rounds were pretty bad. Deep scratches below the shoulder, and I was concerned. I was also having issues that remind me of an under gassed system, and quit when I had a rather pronounced bolt-over. I don't know how I missed the scratches?

I put the upper in my vise, turned where I could get a good look at the extension and chamber. I couldn't see anything in the chamber itself, but there was an apparent burr on one of the bottom extension lugs. On my attempt to get a pick in the extension and check if it was a piece of dirt, it was definitely a burr. When I pushed on it to see if I could knock it off, sure enough, it broke off and came out. Okay, back to the range.

Next 30 rounds all fed MUCH better, bolt locked back, and things seem to be overall more-bettah Gretta! (BTW, the LaRue Tranquillo brake makes a rather awesome fireball at dusk folks, really cool stuff) Still had scratches on the shoulders of all my brass though, my best guess is that the remaining, smaller burs on the extension are the culprit.

When I got home, I put the upper back in the vise, reviewed the chamber, and sure enough, the little burrs were still there. Nothing had apparently changed, so I whipped out the trusty Craftsman shaft driven dremel, chucked in a fine pointed stone and touched the interior of the extension teeth on the corners and knocked the burrs I could see down. Since I was already here, I went ahead and hit the teeth all the way across, all the way around. Better now than later, as I was already here. Then, I used a foam ear plug and some (1800? -label has been long missing) polishing rouge, moistened with some SeaFoam, and went into the chamber up to - but not beyond - the shoulder. I washed the barrel bore and chamber with copious amounts of SeaFoam, oiled her up, and am hoping to get back out to further test the results today.

It was late last night when I was finally putting things up, and I didn't get any pics of the extension after, but here are a few shots of the actual burrs I found and removed.


Extension burr by ., on Flickr
Untitled by ., on Flickr

My brass initially. This is after I had de-primed on a lee universal de-capping die, and a 1.5hr wet tumble.

Untitled by ., on Flickr

My brass last night. Much smaller scratches, but still present. I put 10 BLACK and 20 rounds of steel case, thinking that the steel cases could help do some work for me...

Untitled by ., on Flickr

I will report back this afternoon or evening after I get back out to re-fire the weapon to get a more definite diagnosis of my issues. I will be surprised of this doesn't fix it, and I'll be up and running. I know BFT is already on it.

P.S. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a good pic of the extension with a flashlight and an Iphone? Fail-sauce, KS, just -fail.

[GjGary]

This is a easy fix to my barrel and definitely sub moa. It was worth it and would buy another even with the issue. My major struggle was the lost barrel and took a little longer to resolve. Communication could have been better on Faxons end.
I had the barrel out of the upper, took thousand grit quality sand paper with 1 drop of oil. The paper was rolled tightly and just big enough to fit the chamber slightly lose. Twist the paper in the direction of the roll, if you want it tighter then twist in the other direction until desired effect. You can alternate twists until the little particles are gone. I would not go any coarser with the sand paper.
As a match barrel a little more attention should be taken by Faxon. I had a 308 barrel for a ar10 and 556 and no issues from Faxon.
I own a Balstic Advantage 6.5 grendel and creedmoor which are both very good.

[Sticks]

Starting to sound like a combination of rough barrel extensions - which I suspect they purchase somewhere, and the nitriding - maybe contaminated batch?

[Kswhitetails]

Life happens, I haven't been able to get back out to the range and send my next batch yet. Hopefully tomorrow. I will report back when I do.

[Mrgreen73]

Well i did the 1000 grit paper on the chamber, and it has made a big improvement. When i 1st got the barrel a bullet would not seat at all, it just got stuck, now the bullet goes in and out nice and smooth, I am kicking myself now for not watching Kswhitetails post in time to address burs on the extension. If you look close at his 1st picture you will see those tiny brass flakes all around rim of chamber, looks like panning for gold LOL. Mine is doing that exact same thing. i should have spent more time smoothing out those burs, because it is still leaving tiny scratches. If some of that brass falls into chamber its probably gonna lock up again. Im thinking like wire brush type wheel on a drill just something to round over any sharp edges. I cant thank all yall enough for all the advice, if i had sent it back to faxon, with my luck i wouldnt get it back for weeks.

[GjGary]

MrGreen try a needle file to clean up the sharp edges.

[Kswhitetails]

So, having the second round completed, and still getting small scratches close to the outer shoulder, I stripped things down and this time I worked the barrel out of the tunnel in order to more closely inspect the chamber itself visually. I discovered some things. First, take the barrel out of the upper to attempt any of this stuff. It's worth the extra work and time to gain more access to the extension teeth. Second, go ahead and polish your extension while you're here. It's too easy, and too worthwhile to allow things to go on as they are, polish the ramps folks, polish the extension teeth folks. So much better than a rough file job in the long run, and you'll feel really good about yourself at the range. I will be taking all my extensions out and hitting them this week, except for the LaRue. I'm not letting the pixie dust out of that upper yet.

So here's the long and short of my thinking at the moment. I believe the extension was rough, sharp edged, and that caused the bolt to be able to raise a burr during initial firing and chambering on the bench. There is no way I can prove this, but common sense says that this was the case. After finding the burrs all seemingly coinciding with the location of the bolt lugs when spun into lock position, I think I'm right here. The raised burr was making the deep gouges you see in my above pic. After I knocked the burrs off with the stone in my dremel, no more of the horrific gashes.

Since this step, I've also begun to realize that the chamber seems rough, and is the real cause of the scratches we are seeing. So while I had it down and exposed, (and knowing now that the foam ear plug with some polishing paste didn't take care of it completely), I realized it was going to take more aggression to clear it. I took a ProShot 45 cal copper brush, chucked it into my cordless, dipped it into my SeaFoam, and went low speed slowly in and out for around 3 mins, which made some nasty oil. After cleaning the chamber and bore, I went back and ran another two mins slowly in and out, and cleaned the chamber and bore again.

At this point, I put a cotton rag into the chamber to prevent unwanted contamination, and got out the dremel again. Back to work on the extension teeth, and the feed ramps. (reference above).

Untitled by ., on Flickr

You can still see the tool marks in the feed ramp, but they aren't anything like they were before. After a good cleaning of the entire thing inside and out, and another few swabs with a slip2000 patch, it came pretty clean.

Untitled by ., on Flickr

You can see the remaining copper off the brush at the forward section toward the shoulder inside the chamber, which still indicates a roughness exists, but rounds drop in and out so smooth it didn't seem like it would be much of an issue. I put it all back together, re-torqued, loktited, and let set up. I went to the range with 10 rounds of new BLACK ammo, and lo and behold, the magic happened. 4-430 ejection, 13 feet away. Standing. And the bcg travel seems quick, and MUCH smoother. Almost too quick. I probably need an H2 or similar buffer now. I can tell you, it's smooth like the Larue, or my 5.56 BCM. Not quite the same, but much bettah Grettah.

As for the brass, there is still some scratching, but it's so hard to get a good picture of it it's hardly concerning. The function and brass condition has been rendered better off than "usable", and I can't believe there would be any accuracy issues with what remains. My gun works like it should, and my brass is nigh on perfect. The only scratches that remain are hard to find, hard to capture a picture of.

Untitled by ., on Flickr

I do believe this is a manufacturing issue, although I have enjoyed what I've learned by taking the actions I have to attempt to fix it. There has been no skin off my nose, and I know my build is better for it. The finish of the bore is night and day from the chamber, it was mirror like when new, and still has that sheen. The nitrided surface of the barrel is indeed hard folks, my GB is a steel set screw type that was so tight I've had to wrench on it to get it on and off. I was thrilled it was tight, but thought surely it was going to mar up the barrel finish. No such worries. This things tank like. The gas block was leaving steel behind, and a quick wire brush cleaned that up. An oil rag, and it looks new. (keep in mind, I've now done this three times)

I'm now confident to the point that I will put my optic on, a target up, and see what it'll do.

And by the way, it's not just our group buy barrels. I peruse FB groups I'm in every day, and one about Grendel I'm in had an interesting post. Aparently, there are Faxon match fluted barrels doing the same thing.

I took a screen shot of the guys post from FaceBook; he bought a 20" Faxon Match fluted for himself posted this picture there:
Screenshot from FB by ., on Flickr

This is in no way a bash on Faxon, they make top shelf stuff as far as I'm concerned. They do seem to have an issue starting however, one that should seriously be addressed before it makes any larger a stain on their stellar reputation. I will also say that any manufacturer, when tasked with making a drastic increase in their part output, tends to have a few groans and pains as things get up to speed.

I would buy another of these barrels without hesitation. But I would do some things before I assembled and went to the range. First, I would polish the feed ramps and round off the corners of the extension. Second, I would polish the chamber with some 1000 grit plus compound and a 20 ga mop. I would then clean things up, assemble it into my upper and snug things only. No loktite yet. I would then go fire 30-50 rounds of ammunition, observing feeding/ejection/brass condition; and bring it home and take it apart. Clean it well, then inspect the brass, chamber, and extension to see what things looked like. If it isn't scratching the brass deeply, and is operating as you would expect, then re-assemble with your final build list.

Is it more work? Yep. Worth it? I think so. Should we have to? Nope. Send your upper to me, and I'll do it all for you. I'm looking for a job anyway. <Grass roots smiley face>

[12Bravo]

Yep, I will agree same issue I am having. My problem getting some sort of response is from Faxon. I was given an email to Patrick at Faxon and emailed him with my issues and concerns about how many times I have attempted to continue someone to find out about the barrel I sent back. Yesterday morning I received an email from Patrick saying he would have the customer service person contact me that day.

So here it is Tuesday evening and still waiting for that contact. I generally a nice person and I work in the medical field and have times where I am busy and I may be delayed a little but in getting back to someone BUT NOTHING LIKE THIS.

I've posted a negative review on optics planet, this thread and a thread on AR15.com. It seems like that really hasn't got anyone at Faxon attention. I am not going to give them the time of day by calling them. There's also no way really track or prove a phone call unlike an email or post and with my exp so far I could see them saying, no one called us or whatever.

So I think I will start posting on their Facebook page, they seem to have all kinds of time promoting all of their products on FB. I just can't understand why it's so hard just to send an email saying something like "we did receive the your barrel and are _____ fill in the blank.
Right now... I see myself out $300 and will be checking with PayPal and my bank to see what my options are. I now wish I would have just kept the barrel and fixed it myself. WORD TO THE WISE...... AVOID FAXON!

[12Bravo]

Yep, I will agree same issue I am having. My problem getting some sort of response is from Faxon. I was given an email to Patrick at Faxon and emailed him with my issues and concerns about how many times I have attempted to continue someone to find out about the barrel I sent back. Yesterday morning I received an email from Patrick saying he would have the customer service person contact me that day.

So here it is Tuesday evening and still waiting for that contact. I generally a nice person and I work in the medical field and have times where I am busy and I may be delayed a little but in getting back to someone BUT NOTHING LIKE THIS.

I've posted a negative review on optics planet, this thread and a thread on AR15.com. It seems like that really hasn't got anyone at Faxon attention. I am not going to give them the time of day by calling them. There's also no way really track or prove a phone call unlike an email or post and with my exp so far I could see them saying, no one called us or whatever.

So I think I will start posting on their Facebook page, they seem to have all kinds of time promoting all of their products on FB. I just can't understand why it's so hard just to send an email saying something like "we did receive the your barrel and are _____ fill in the blank.
Right now... I see myself out $300 and will be checking with PayPal and my bank to see what my options are. I now wish I would have just kept the barrel and fixed it myself. WORD TO THE WISE...... AVOID FAXON!

So I wanted to add an update with my Faxon barrel. Today I finally received an email from Mark in customer service service. He first let me know that the barrel I sent back could not be located, FedEx tracking showed it delivered on 4/4. This was my biggest concern, that the barrel would be lost and then what delays and issues that would bring up. Would I have to get into a long drawn out battle and ultimately be out my $300? To my surprise, Mark said that is their issue (losing the barrel) and offered that as a reason why I hadn't been contacted.

I will say it is nice to have someone to take ownership of the problem, explain what went wrong and not make up all sorts of excuses. That goes along way with me and improved my opinion of Faxon. He also told me that the barrels are coming back from nitriding and should be finished within a week.

On top of that Mark is going to get me a grendel BCG and also check the headspace with the bolt. This is something I didn't expect and of course is pretty nice gesture. I only have a bolt that I bought from group buy and I was going to use a bolt carrier from another AR I have until I got around to getting one.

We are all human and are all subject to making mistakes. It's so easy these days to just pass the buck, make excuses, and blame someone else for the problem. Way to be a stand up people and company, Patrick, Mark, and Faxon.

[GjGary]

Big sigh of relief, ah communication.
It is nice that Faxon is taking the extra step.
Wish my was lost at the factory instead of FedEx.
I am glad everything is working out

[Lastrites]

Good for you that they finally made contact, as my experience was very good with Mark and Pat.

[rabiddawg]

We are all human and are all subject to making mistakes. It's so easy these days to just pass the buck, make excuses, and blame someone else for the problem. Way to be a stand up people and company, Patrick, Mark, and Faxon.

Glad it worked out for you.

However, it never should have gone down the way it did. Sure Faxon stepped up Finally! Just like they did on the first group buy barrels. I for one will never buy from them again. They sent us first rounders some kind of discount email; never used it.

If I were the boss at Faxon, I would be making some changes.

They remind me of an insurance adjuster I recently worked with. He knit picked my estimate for $19 on oem vs Napa tie rod ends, used vs aftermarket upper cap and told me $100 for transport “ain’t happening”. We discussed it further and I asked for his boss’ contact info. An hour later he called to say his estimate came to $4669. Mine was $4528. He knew what I was asking for was legit yet he just had to piss me off.

[Kswhitetails]

Horde: In my opinion (I know, everyone's got one...) this is all a very good illustration of how life isn't always right, fair, and square. Faxon knows about the issue, they are working to fix it, and are actively taking steps to correct the hurt done to their reputation. Here's my take.

Faxon is a rather large barrel maker that has a nominally positive track record of making good barrels. As with any company, Faxon will have the occasional misstep in their ability/process in sending properly finished product to the end users. Trust in this: no one want's this fixed more than Faxon. While I agree that this issue is Faxon's problem, as has been stated before, they have compounded the issue by a weaker than necessary customer service response. However, as has also been stated above, people are human. No one is perfect, and I dare say that anyone of us if put in the situation of fielding dozens, hundreds, thousands of calls from customers who had an "issue" would likely only do only as well as the other human on the line.

Look for the silver lining here, folks. We got match grade barrels, with a custom profile designed by one of the folks that know Grendel, how Grendel should be done. We got QPQ treated barrels, which are tank armor hard, with a rather awesome custom laser engraved logo making our purchase even more unique. We got barrels that should out last most other similar grade barrels that are not similarly machined or finished. All for the rather measly price of a buck and a half to our door.

I'm not telling anyone to ignore the negatives; But if the negatives are all we see, or choose to see, then we always get exactly what we are looking for. These are great barrels. The hiccups are rather easily dealt with on the bench, and if we don't want to deal with that, then we can send it to Faxon, and let them. What are we really out? Time? I am chief among us when discussing waiting for a barrel, but if my barrel doens't shoot as well as I think it will, then I will be among those waiting on Faxon, with full confidence that any further issue will be made right by them.

My build is better off now than it would have been if I'd just slapped the pieces together and things had worked. The minor flaws would have been left - and I would have run past them toward the range/field never coming back to discover/address them. No build is ever perfect, as evidenced by the myriad of changes we all make to our weapons almost every time we buy a new light, flash hider, stock, sight set, etc,... It's a rare thing for we builders to "finish" a build, and remain satisfied for the "life" if that firearm.

A large part of the draw for building a firearm is winding up with a "made by me, my way" gun in hand; That when we take our position at the range we can proudly announce to the world - "This is my rifle, there is no other like it, because this one is mine." silently every time we pull the trigger. Watching our tool perform, yet again, and see the expected tiny dot appear exactly where it was supposed to.

I guess I'm just more willing to give others the benefit of the doubt. Usually, to my detriment. But, I'm able to live with that, and know that someday, the cycle will be complete with me on the end of the stick that gets that benefit too.

[bj139]

I remember when all these problems were posted about Bear Creek Arsenal. These seem to have died down.

Faxon must be having some QC problems at this time. It is nice to see these can be fixed easily at home.

[12Bravo]

Horde: In my opinion (I know, everyone's got one...) this is all a very good illustration of how life isn't always right, fair, and square. Faxon knows about the issue, they are working to fix it, and are actively taking steps to correct the hurt done to their reputation. Here's my take.

Faxon is a rather large barrel maker that has a nominally positive track record of making good barrels. As with any company, Faxon will have the occasional misstep in their ability/process in sending properly finished product to the end users. Trust in this: no one want's this fixed more than Faxon. While I agree that this issue is Faxon's problem, as has been stated before, they have compounded the issue by a weaker than necessary customer service response. However, as has also been stated above, people are human. No one is perfect, and I dare say that anyone of us if put in the situation of fielding dozens, hundreds, thousands of calls from customers who had an "issue" would likely only do only as well as the other human on the line.

Look for the silver lining here, folks. We got match grade barrels, with a custom profile designed by one of the folks that know Grendel, how Grendel should be done. We got QPQ treated barrels, which are tank armor hard, with a rather awesome custom laser engraved logo making our purchase even more unique. We got barrels that should out last most other similar grade barrels that are not similarly machined or finished. All for the rather measly price of a buck and a half to our door.

I'm not telling anyone to ignore the negatives; But if the negatives are all we see, or choose to see, then we always get exactly what we are looking for. These are great barrels. The hiccups are rather easily dealt with on the bench, and if we don't want to deal with that, then we can send it to Faxon, and let them. What are we really out? Time? I am chief among us when discussing waiting for a barrel, but if my barrel doens't shoot as well as I think it will, then I will be among those waiting on Faxon, with full confidence that any further issue will be made right by them.

My build is better off now than it would have been if I'd just slapped the pieces together and things had worked. The minor flaws would have been left - and I would have run past them toward the range/field never coming back to discover/address them. No build is ever perfect, as evidenced by the myriad of changes we all make to our weapons almost every time we buy a new light, flash hider, stock, sight set, etc,... It's a rare thing for we builders to "finish" a build, and remain satisfied for the "life" if that firearm.

A large part of the draw for building a firearm is winding up with a "made by me, my way" gun in hand; That when we take our position at the range we can proudly announce to the world - "This is my rifle, there is no other like it, because this one is mine." silently every time we pull the trigger. Watching our tool perform, yet again, and see the expected tiny dot appear exactly where it was supposed to.

I guess I'm just more willing to give others the benefit of the doubt. Usually, to my detriment. But, I'm able to live with that, and know that someday, the cycle will be complete with me on the end of the stick that gets that benefit too.

I will stand up and say I agree with you 100 percent. We, myself included get hooked on the negatives and don't want to look at it any other way.

I've been burned in the past and when it seems like that is happening again emotions take over. it is hard to separate the two and understand that was a different company and issue.

My company founder always said we have a vote as consumers, by voting with our dollars. Needless to say, we I have some companies that will never receive my vote and others who will. Faxon Firearms earned my vote too.

[Schrambo]

Well crap, I just shot my 12.7" GB barrel and it's scratching the cases the same way. I also shot the 18" GB and my 20" Heavy Match barrels and the cases were fine in both of those...

Too bad, it's a shooter...

[BluteEhre]

Hi folks, came across this thread yesterday after looking for some answers to why my brass looks the way it does. 3 shots through a new Grendel build with a faxxon 18" gunner barrel. I thought I cleaned the chamber well enough but perhaps not. That was the first thing that came to my mind. Also the neck of the all three cases have an identical dent.
This barrel was from Brownells.
Hornady Match 123 amax ammo.

Any thoughts on my issues would be appreciated.

https://imageshack.com/a/img922/8885/4OIMQS.jpg

https://imageshack.com/a/img924/3630/LE5TJj.jpg

[Sticks]

The dent is normal. Put some loop side Velcro on your shell deflector, or tune your gas.

Scratches look like a dirty chamber. Happening during bolt unlock before the brass shrinks back. Give it a good cleaning, then take an unfired round, use a marker to put a witness mark on the case, safely chamber and eject that round, noting where the witness mark is at when chambered, and look for marks, scratches on the brass.

[12Bravo]

It's a wonderful day! I finally got my replacement barrel from Faxon today and I have the next 5 days off.
So needless to say I am going to be building a Grendel and then shooting it. Whoo hoo