Bartlein Rifle Barrels

Iowa 409 Guy

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Supporting Member 15
Made the annual 4.5 hour trip to Jackson, Wi to pick up our order. Toured the plant again, very interesting. One of the barrel drills went to England on the lend lease program during WW11, then came back to New Jersey, then Bartlein acquired it.IMG_20181212_111211543.jpg
 
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59K9

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they gotta be using some kind of exotic drill bit to cut so precisely...interesting, not something I would think about in a normal day...
 

Iowa 409 Guy

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 15
they gotta be using some kind of exotic drill bit to cut so precisely...interesting, not something I would think about in a normal day...

Old and exotic gun drills(big lathe) These are cut rifled bbls. I believe they said each groove is cut .0001 at a time. 2 bbls on each machine. Lots of cutting fluid. The old machines have been adapted to be CNC. When making a cut the full length you can put a dime on edge of the head and it doesn't tip over.

I asked about taking pics of equipment and they weren't too hot on that.
 

oleblu72

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 5
Made the annual 4.5 hour trip to Jackson, Wi to pick up our order. Toured the plant again, very interesting. One of the barrel drills went to England on the lend lease program during WW11, then came back to New Jersey, then Bartlein acquired it.View attachment 66756


What kinda barrel did you pick up Dave did you just buy a barrel or a blank and are you in the barrel business?

Mark
 

Iowa 409 Guy

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 15
Mark

I go through several barrels a year in competition shooting. Usually don't get over a thousand rounds on a bbl. Some of us Iowa shooters get together and place an order. My shooting buddy/gunsmith friend Dean and I are the ringleaders. I believe you get a discount after 20 barrels. We picked up 33 blanks the other day. All 6mm 4 Groove, .237 diameter, 13.75 twist, and made from 416 stainless. Shipping would have been around $660 so a 4.5 hour drive each way pays off. Along with getting a free lunch from Bartlein and a tour it makes a full day. I think that envelope full of Franklins gets us a tad better deal also. Tracy Bartlein started with very little resources 15 years ago, and today is THE premium cut rifled Benchrest bbl maker. He has contracts with the military also. He actually was coming back to the plant from a deer hunt in SW Iowa the day we were there. Tracy also collects GTO's.

PS for Floyd. You spoke about the dirty rotten business owners in this country on another thread taking advantage of the employees. Each year we pick up our order and pay cash in December. This dirty rotten business owner gives it to his employees for a Christmas bonus. This year over 9 grand. Maybe this is one of the reasons they have very little employee turnover.
 
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oleblu72

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Supporting Member 5
That's pretty darn cool Dave it sounds like you're pretty serious about what you do. Do you have better luck with the 416 stainless barrels Dave instead of steel? I was just curious as to what you were doing with the blanks. Where its not anything in the class of what you guys are doing I put together a couple of AR's in 6.8 both are 3 groove barrels the ones a 22" barrel and the other is a 18". I bought the barrels off of AR Performance he buys blanks and does the rest himself there pretty accurate barrels he has a good following.

Mark
 

Iowa 409 Guy

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 15
In the Benchrest game everyone shoots 416. All I do with the blanks is have my friend chamber them with my reamer. If your 5 shot groups at 100 yards are much larger than your little fingernail and thumbnail size at 200 your sucking hind teat. Are your barrels steel and more than likely hammer forged Mark?
 
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oleblu72

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 5
That's some pretty impressive shooting. They weren't advertised as CHF Dave they were close to $300 a barrel though. I have a couple spare AR receivers and I'm trying to decide what I ant to put together, I have the 6'8's and two 300 BO's shorty's a 10.5" and a 8.5" for home protection and a couple of 5.56 so I'm trying to decide what to make. I need to get the brush hog out next year I'd like to make a place to shoot over in the old hay field.

Mark
 
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