How long have you waited on your new barrel?

V

VaniB

New member
What wait time are you guys now being subjectd to this year when ordering your Krieger, Shilen, Hart, Lilja, or Broughton, etc. custom barrel? (Brushing aside orders placed in 2009 which likely got caught up in the Obama panic buying backlog)


I'll soon be needing a custom 20 cal barrel. I will not be buying again from Bartlein who now perpetually states an 8month back log. I can only assume that this is caused by filling quantity commercial orders, and is not the norm with most other barrel makers. (...or is it?)
 
2-3 months or so is what I'm figuring and is fine with me.

I haven't decided yet on the contour and length while I'm still making a final stock choice. But I will likely order a custom contour barrel which will not be an off the shelf barrel.

Thanks for the input.
 
I've been getting barrels from Hart about the quickest usually less than a month. I ordered some Kriegers the other day and they said August delivery. Lilja has been running about 6 weeks and Shilen about the same.
 
How long have you waited for your new barrel

Grizzly stocks bartlein barrels in standard twists.
Frank told me he had one company buying 800 barrels at a time.{ just a guess}

it's grizzly. Grizzly also stock s kiff reamers .
Harts delivery is usually the best . I learned a long time ago not to fool around with one barrel at a time. I usually order 4 to 6 at a time. so i don't have to wait on an order. I feel it's good investment having them ready when i need one. Then all i have to do is get it chambered.
 
GerryM said:
Grizzly stocks bartlein barrels in standard twists.
Frank told me he had one company buying 800 barrels at a time.{ just a guess}

it's grizzly. Grizzly also stock s kiff reamers .
Harts delivery is usually the best . I learned a long time ago not to fool around with one barrel at a time. I usually order 4 to 6 at a time. so i don't have to wait on an order. I feel it's good investment having them ready when i need one. Then all i have to do is get it chambered.
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Who's Grizzly? .....the people that make the .45 LAR Grizzly? I googled it and I still couldn't be sure who you're referring to. But, it really doesn't matter anyway as I guess I don't much care as long as Frank at Bartlein has this attitude that I can just patiently wait in line for 8 months in back of Jim Bob's order for 1 barrel, and then John Doe's order for 400 barrels. (to have to wait in line in that order is pretty much what he emailed and told me I can do!) I'm glad Hart, Shilen, Lilja, PacNor, and Krieger decided to serve their retail fraternity of precision shooters in a more efficient and considerate manner. Nobody is going to wait 8 months for a Bartlein barrel, when a Krieger or Shilen can be had in half or less time. So he might as well post that he is no longer accepting retail sales because his main focus is with supplying contractors and distributors. This way I don't have to be confused and wonder if I'm just misunderstanding something, or that I'm reading outadated print from the Obama post election rush.

Thanks for the information guys. I now know that this is a Bartlein specific disorder. I just wanted to make sure that this was not a industry wide problem.
 
I would say to give Benchmark barrels a try. Those benchmark barrels are as good as any on the market, if not better. It seems to me the wait time is right at 4 weeks. Dam good barrels, Foe sho!!! Lee
 
Oredered 2 Barrels Sept 26, recieved early April. These Barrels were non typical twist and contour for customers. Which you can never plan for.

Just like bullets Powder Primers and Brass Barrels are expendable. Don't order one when you need one, Order when you can so you'll have it on hand should you need one. It's never Bad to have a couple 14 twist 6mms or a few 18 twist .30's on hand... worse case scenario, you forget where you put them?
 
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I have never been in competition shooting. While I dream and talk about taking my two heavy custom rifles PD shooting, I haven't done it yet, and so in reality all I have need for is one custom barrel at a time. What I liked about Bartlein (besides their friendly customer service), was that I could order any non standard twist I desired. But, I think this time I will not need anything other then a standard 1-11 twist. I believe that one or two other barrel makers would do the same custom twist at a nominal charge anyway.

Pbike and toryj....you're reporting on the wait for a Bartlein?....or what brand?
skeetlee....I'm unfamiliar with "benchmark" though I seem to recall hearing the name in the last couple of years. I'll need to check into it.
 
"Barrel time"

It's been my experience that Hart will quote a 6 week wait and deliver in 4, at least that's what happened with the last 3 or 4. Got a Krieger 6mm 1-14 heavy varmint contour in 3 days from Sinclair, and just recently had a Krieger Remington Varmint contour 6mm 1-8 in one week from Lester Bruno. I also wanted to try a Bartlein (last Fall), would have been my first, and the waiting times were out-of-sight! Sorry Bartlein, if you cannot supply a quality barrel ( which I understand they are), in a reasonable time, others can.
 
Most of you guys will live until next year. Order your barrel now for next year and quit bitching. If you waited too late or will accept anything because you can get it now, do it. These folks are behind for a reason.
Butch
 
Butch Lambert said:
...... These folks are behind for a reason.
Butch
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Butch, I respond here to you respectfully; But that reason might simply be that Bartlein would prefer to run their machines non-stop, filling huge volume orders for a single customer at highly discounted prices and a BIG FAT CHECK. Shaw and Douglas barrels cater to major gun manufacturers too, and it has nothing to do with how great a barrel being produced. Why should I order a barrel now and wait until next year, when guys here are saying I can order a Hart, Benchmark, or Lilja now, and get it next month?


I won't argue with you if don't see a problem in waiting 8 months for a Bartlein barrel. Everything is relative.....and this is out of whack with the industry.


Ok guys. I'm beating a dead horse to death. Thanks for the input. GOT IT! ......a Benchmark, Hart, or Krieger it will be.
 
vanib,
I'm saying that if something is that desirible, you need to get on the list. If it doesn't matter, order whatever. I'm not saying that any barrel is better than another. A barrel maker can only make a certain amount of barrels and be able to control quality. They probably understand that the barrel makers are not on top for ever. If you have been around a day or 3 you will understand. The better you stay on top of it the longer you stay on top. If you fall off the wagon, you will have to make several years of premium quality barrels to get on the equip. list.
Butch
 
I probably like most riflesmiths have a rack of barrels and it's pretty nice when you can go over to that rack and pull a barrel off for a customer's build. Very seldom does that happen. If all you barreled were 6mm-14 LV contour barrels, then it would be pretty easy to keep barrels in stock for personal and customer benchrest rifles. If a gunsmith had to rely on benchrest barrel work to keep bread on the table, he'd probably be eating pretty slim. Varmint rifles and hunting rifles are the bread and butter of the custom gunsmith and the thing is that you can't stock every contour, caliber and twist rate combination that someone would want for a build. I normally keep a few 6mm -14 twist LV contour barrels of various makes in stock in case I want to put a new barrel on one of my benchrest rifles or a customer needs a new barrel installed. I ordered a few Bartlein 6mm gain twist barrels a few weeks ago. When they are ready, I'll either put them on rifles or put them in my barrel rack. When I go to the barrel rack for a barrel on one of my personal rifles, I'll first look for the caliber, twist rate and contour that I want in the barrel rack. Then, I'll make my choice on the barrel maker last. The last 5 Bartlein barrels that I had come in, one of them went on my son's rifle which he shot very well at the St. Louis nationals, two were shipped to a friend of mine and one was installed on a customer's benchrest rifle who'll be shooting it this year. I have one left that will go on my benchrest rifle, just have to figure out which one I want to put it on.


If I wanted a Bartlein, Krieger, Hart, Shilen or whoever's barrel and didn't have the time to wait on a barrel from the maker, I'd call Bruno's, Ron Hoehn, Sinclair or whoever might have a barrel of the make, caliber, twist and contour of the barrel that I wanted and would expect to pay a premium for the barrel over ordering it straight from the manufacturer. Lots of barrel makers get barrel orders from the military now days and barrel delivery can be shorter or longer depending upon their orders.

If you want to use a certain barrel make on a build, then plan ahead and order the barrel in plenty of time to get it for the build. I personally don't mind at all if a customer supplies all the components for a build. He can do the waiting on the components instead of me and he'll usually get his rifle quicker than if I have to wait for the components to come in or at least his components will be in my shop less time waiting for them to be assembled than if I have part of them come in from him and then have to order the rest of the components and then wait on the rest of them to come in before proceeding on the build.
 
Thanks for the input. Mike, you are explaining things from a very qualified gunsmith's point of view, and Butch you are describing the facts of life as experienced in the champions circle. What you both had to say is valid and makes sense to me. Mike, I will be needing a one of a kind contour barrel so that I was never able to consider it as possibly being a stock item to be found somewhere.

In between my last post and yours, I checked the barrel maker websights to discover that unlike the 224 cal, the 20 cal is still too limited with many makers still not offering a 1-11 twist. So, I can eliminate Hart, Lilja, & Shilen. Benchmark doesn't even make a 20. Krieger, Pacnor, and Bartlein are my only choice. And Butch, I checked the Bartlein sight again to read it more carefully; OOps...I erred.....No, they are not saying "up to an 8 months wait". They ARE saying "up to 8 moths to a year wait. " Uhhh...Yea...right. :rolleyes:

I have not been treating Pac-Nor fairly. My current 20 cal pac-nor barrel has made some incredibly tight groups. I'm talking about my last trip to the range in which I fired 4 shots practically into 1 hole and a pulled 5th shot flier to 3/8". I was just on the Saubier websight checking the archives going back 18-24 months to see what our precision small caliber shooter friends there had to say; Different guys had good things to say about Hart, Lilja, Shilen, Bartlein and Krieger. Yet, the name which almost without fail came up unanamously as the tightest shooting 20 cal barrel was the pac-nor SuperMatch 3 groove. And it was described as less fouling and easier to clean too. A couple of guys said that they had owned all the above mentioned names, with a couple that were problems and made right by the manufacturers..... but the pac-nor always worked wthout problems and was super accurate.

It was because pac-nor has not been a staple of the benchrest fraternity guys found here, being the main reason for which I refused to acknowledge my own positive experience with my pac-nor barrel. I still don't know for sure what the problem is that pac-nor hasn't made inroads into benchrest shooting. And not being a benchrest shooter and talking daily with them, perhaps there is a valid reason I'm not hearing. (?) But then again Tubbs uses them. Yes, I remeber having read of a problem with one pac-nor barrel reported to have washed out lands....but so too have I heard at least one problem being reported with every other barrel maker out there as well....from rough galling surfaces to machine markings. But that I can tell, if ever a problem creeps up with a pac-nor it's NOT with a 20 cal barrel...... Because their 20 cal barrel DO SHOOT! Mine sure does!
It took 6 weeks last time to get my pac-nor barrel. Pac-nor is announcing it may take 8-10 weeks this time. That sounds pretty good to me.


Anyway, maybe somebody else new to all this stuff will have learned something useful here from all my rambling..... mainly that a great 20 cal barrel can be had from Pac-Nor..... and at much lesser a wait.

Randall
 
VaniB, I don't do anything below .22 cal. It requires too much extra stuff, rods, rod guide inserts, funnels, not to mention there just isn't much life in that small a barrel.

For what I do, I call Rock Creek. They do have waits, just like everyone else. But we have never had a bad barrrel from them, They do custom contours, and twists, and they return stuff to the BR community (they often contribute barrels at larger shoots). Paul Tolvstad, and James Leaderer are Benchrest shooters too, so they know our needs, and work with that knowledge.

Paul
 
Good things come to those who wait

Randall,

By stating that our backlog is approximately 8 months is an attempt to give the most accurate assessment of the situation as possible to our customers. We understand that this may cause some people to order from other manufacturers, but we would rather be as honest as possible than take business under false pretenses. However, for those who demand the quality of Bartlein Barrels CNC, Single Point, Cut-Rifled barrels, this information will provide them as much help in planning and forecasting their personal and/or business needs. While our lead times may seem excessive to some, we feel that it is not out of line with premium actions/stocks/gunsmithing.

Tracy Bartlein founded Bartlein Barrels less than 5 years ago. Since then, the response to the quality of our product has been overwhelmingly positive and demand has skyrocketed. The number of records we set last year alone speaks to this (and this years Super Shoot looks very promising). We have, and will continue to, expand aggressively, but demand has continued to outpace our abilities. Also, growth is not cheap and any successful business owner must balance costs/debts with assets/earnings (especially in these times). We could have chosen to radically increase prices to help curb demand and finance faster growth, but as shooters ourselves we thought it better to extend lead times. Next month, we are increasing our shop space by 50% and will begin building more CNC rifling machines. We hand build these machines ourselves, they cannot be ordered from a catalog. The amount of time and technology that goes into them is substantial. Add into that, the search and training of a Craftsman to run the machine and make barrels to our quality standard.
As far a filling “quantity commercial orders” – All of our customers wait in line just like everybody else. Just ask any Benchrest Gunsmith or competitive shooter on this forum. Many of them place orders far in advance and in much larger quantities than the need at the time. Others place orders for “X” barrels a month for an entire year at a time and then add orders to meet special request/overruns.
For us, .20 caliber barrels (.257’s and .270’s as well) take an exceptionally long time. Demand is not that great for that caliber, so we don’t make them that often. Due to the almost infinite combinations of caliber/ twist/contour, every barrel is made to order. We cannot make anything for inventory (and if we did, lead times would be even longer and prices even higher).

While we may lose some customers due to our lead times, the customers that we do have will continue to return based on our Quality.


Thanks from the crew at Bartlein Barrels.

Tracy Bartlein
Frank Green
Brian Birutas
 
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