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https://www.rainierarms.com/shooting-inn...barrel-18/
Mine arrived today. Tried to research the maker but found very limited info. Apparently a new upstart.
Am not very fond of the 'shot-peened oxide finish' as it tends to rub off. Heavier than expected, also. At least it is a rifle length gas port which I much prefer and difficult to find in an 18 inch barrel. @ $95 it was hard to pass up.
Will report when the upper is finished as to how well it performs.
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hope it works for you, but barrels that cheap scare me
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Here is "their story"
https://shootinginnovationsllc.com/about
Phone number for them comes out of Washington State.
On the web page they have "high end" barrels starting at around $275 bucks. No budget barrels for sale on the site.
Can you give us a pic of the barrel markings?
Post how it does for you and I hope it's not an expensive tomato stake or boundary marker!
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Rosecrans1 Wrote:Here is "their story"
https://shootinginnovationsllc.com/about
Phone number for them comes out of Washington State.
On the web page they have "high end" barrels starting at around $275 bucks. No budget barrels for sale on the site.
Can you give us a pic of the barrel markings?
Post how it does for you and I hope it's not an expensive tomato stake or boundary marker!
$275.00 is about as budget a barrel as you can find.
No address in web page. An indicator. Looked at their Facebook page and they claim to be in Moses Lake, Wa. Looked up the address on Google Earth and they may be in one of the buildings off the main street that seems to be a semi-industrial sort of place. Too far off of street view to tell for sure.
Another indicator of something I would avoid is if the barrel is not stamped with the name of the manufacturer.
Anyway -- if you spent the money for sure put it on and shoot it. Am sure it will be safe to shoot but most likely will be a service grade blaster.
LR55
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SnuffySmiff Wrote:$95 it was hard to pass up. Will report when the upper is finished as to how well it performs.
Back when a couple of Horde members began with the Moscow Match experiment, I thought is sounded fun. I purchased a collet bullet puller, some Wolf steel case and some TNT 90gr bullets just to see if I could develop a pig load. Do I hunt pigs? No, I live in Oregon, one of the few states in the union that doesn't even have pigs (or so few they can't be counted). I spent the dough for fun. It was something to do that involved my favorite caliber.
I hope your barrel shoots. Whatever you do, have fun. Let us know.
Paul Peloquin
Did government credibility die of Covid or with Covid?
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Moses Lake is where BHW/Columbia River Arms is. Polygonal rifling on the "high end" barrels and shot peened finish. Sounds like an employee struck out on his own.
Let's go Brandon!
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mdram Wrote:hope it works for you, but barrels that cheap scare me
Me too, but it was more of an impulse buy. Finding any 6.5G barrel the last year or so has been beyond frustrating...
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LR1955 Wrote:$275.00 is about as budget a barrel as you can find.
No address in web page. An indicator. Looked at their Facebook page and they claim to be in Moses Lake, Wa. Looked up the address on Google Earth and they may be in one of the buildings off the main street that seems to be a semi-industrial sort of place. Too far off of street view to tell for sure.
Another indicator of something I would avoid is if the barrel is not stamped with the name of the manufacturer.
Anyway -- if you spent the money for sure put it on and shoot it. Am sure it will be safe to shoot but most likely will be a service grade blaster.
LR55
Nope, no manufactuer name-at all. All it shows is a light 'stamp' saying "6.5T2 1X8" and nothing else. Also FWIW, the gas port looks to be quite large!
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StoneHendge Wrote:Moses Lake is where BHW/Columbia River Arms is. Polygonal rifling on the "high end" barrels and shot peened finish. Sounds like an employee struck out on his own.
Looks that way. Being as heavy as it is I expect it to be more of a plinker and/or cheap ammo blaster. Got 1k of Wolf steel case on backorder since January @SG. Maybe someday...
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If the picture is correct, make sure your upper doesn't have M-4 feed ramps or you will could have feeding problems..
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From what has been posted a 18 6.5 Grendel with rifle length gas system gas port diameter should .094.
For 18 mid length gas 6.5 Grendel barrel gas port diameter .076 seem to work well.
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VASCAR2 Wrote:From what has been posted a 18 6.5 Grendel with rifle length gas system gas port diameter should .094.
For 18 mid length gas 6.5 Grendel barrel gas port diameter .076 seem to work well.
Thanks VASCAR2. Some good news. Pulled out my calipers and the gas port diameter appears to be correct. It just looked huge in comparison to my also brand new (and with a sparkling clean bore) Faxon 16" mid-length barrel which has the correct sized gas port.
But... (always a but, right?) now I'm somewhat disappointed. Not only does this 'brand new' barrel have the filthiest bore I've ever seen, I just read the thread about certain chambers not matching specs. So I thought I'd do a quickie check and dropped a Hornady SST 123 gr. round into the chamber. Of course, it stuck. Would not fall out. Tried to pull it out with a pick. Nope, not happening. I then had to go find my Dewey cleaning rod to push it out. It didn't take a particular great effort but it wouldn't just shake out. I then cleaned and oiled the chamber (which was also filthy) with some Hoppe's cleaner then a drop or two of oil. Tried it again. It stuck again. Tried using a PPU 110 gr FMJ and had the same results, tho it did not take near as much of an effort to push out.
For comparison purposes I also tried this on my brand new Faxon barrel. Oh yeah, did I mention just how sparkling clean it is? One could practically eat off the clean and shiny bore of this thing! Both cartridges fell right out as expected...
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WOW!!!!
Well, that is what 95 bucks buys SS.
I had asked you for a pic of the barrel markings to see if they ID'ed themselves and or if the markings had any similarities to a BCA barrel. Guess we don't need that info. Depending on the barrel's make up, it could be turned into another caliber but I seriously doubt that the barrel's steel is any good either.
This is why the majority of the horde here cautions everyone about buying barrels of dubious quality. It is just far far better to spend the money right up front on a quality barrel if you want any chance of an accurate firearm.
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Snuffy, the good news is that you bought it from Rainier. You can send it back if you like. Their policy is as good as it gets.
Let's go Brandon!
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It's too bad the supply issues are so bad these days, otherwise I'd suggest picking up the group-buy barrels. I always recommend BFT's SixFiveArms barrels as the best barrel under $250. With those being months out, what's the go-to budget Grendel barrel right now?
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07-24-2021, 07:16 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-24-2021, 07:25 AM by VASCAR2.)
Brownells house brand are currently manufactured by Faxon. I have a couple Group Buy Faxon and the chamber dimensions are very close and have been gtg. If I couldnt get a Group Buy Green Mountain barrel Id get an Alexander Arms or Faxon.
In the current market I wouldnt buy anything cheaper, ramped up production has a tendency to adversely affect quality. It really depends on what your willing to spend but rarely do you read on this forum of people complaining about higher end barrels. My best shooting barrel is a Shilen and it did cost the most. If I were looking for a quality barrel Id look at Lilja, JP or maybe Criterion for readily available barrels. Odin works get pretty good reviews on this forum.
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StoneHendge Wrote:Moses Lake is where BHW/Columbia River Arms is. Polygonal rifling on the "high end" barrels and shot peened finish. Sounds like an employee struck out on his own.
I was just going to say, it looked a lot like a BHW 6.5G barrel I had. 20 v 18 though. I might still have pictures of it floating around.
Would be interesting to know if it was a run of barrels "disposed of" or as you say a group of former employees that struck out on their own.
I seem to recall that after the BHW/CRA 'merger' they quit making 6.5G barrels and were only offering .264LBC barrels. But I could be wrong and often are.
