FN barrel article from Truth About Guns

Has some background on the process for making barrels. PSA uses FN barrels on a lot of their complete uppers.

Enjoy: http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2013/08/foghorn/a-look-inside-fnms-south-carolina-barrel-shop/

Seagrave1963 said:

PSA uses FN barrels on a lot of their complete uppers.

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That's what my PSA upper has. Nice barrel.

I don't know all that much about ARs, but mine has an FN barrel on a PSA upper and it's a lot more accurate than I expected it to be.

There is also a good entry about other barrel manufacturers in the comments section almost toward the bottom.

Dyspeptic Gunsmith says:
August 16, 2013 at 13:25

The most accurate barrels are made with the single-point cutting tool method. Krieger, Bartlein, etc make single-point barrels. The reason why single point cutting produces a better barrel is that the cutting doesn’t produce stresses in the barrel, because the single point cutter cuts only one groove at a time, and then in very small increments to the depth of cut. There’s a reason why the top accuracy competitors are willing to wait up to nine months for a barrel from John Krieger, and it isn’t because his barrels are cheaper than the competition. They’re not. They’re expensive and you have to wait a long time. People interested in the putting the best possible barrel on their rifle pay up and wait. And wait. And then they wait some more.

Most custom rifle barrel makers use button rifling. Up until the rifling is put into the bore, the preparation of the barrel is the same: deep hole drill a hole, check for straightness, then ream, then (optionally) lap, then on to rifling.

Dragging a rifling button through the barrel imparts stresses, and these need to be relieved post-rifling (or) post-lapping. Most rifling buttons are pulled, not pushed, through the bore, and the machine used for this can be as simple as an old hydraulic broaching machine with some additional setup.

Cold hammer forging produces even more stresses in the barrel. Stressed steel tends to wander as temperatures change. Hammer forged barrels aren’t better, they’re just cheaper. Like many other things in the firearms industry, the gun companies have spent a lot of money marketing inferior results as the “new hotness” to gun buyers. This is sort of like marketing parkerized finishes as better than blueing. Park’ed gun finishes aren’t better, but they’re way cheaper than polishing before blueing. When I buy barrels, my first preference for accuracy is a single-point cut barrel, then button-cut, and hammer forged barrels are last on my list of preference. They work, but I’ve yet to see one that shoots as well as the prior two.

As for who makes their own barrels, your list is rather short. HS Precision makes their own barrels in Rapid City, SD. Been there, seen that, they’re using old sine-bar Pratt & Whitney barrel machines. Ruger makes their own barrels. Savage makes their own barrels. Browning makes their own barrels, as far as I know, for both rifles and shotguns. Last I knew, Weatherby made their own.

Right there, I’ve run out of fingers on one hand. I know of two small, custom rifle makers who make their own barrels as well, whom I won’t mention here.

Here’s all the outfits I know who I know make cut-rifled barrels:

Bartlein, Benchmark, Brux, Broughton, Krieger, Obermeyer, Satern, Rock Creek, HS-Precision.

Here’s the outfits I know that do button-cut rifling:

Hart, Shilen, Douglas, Green Mountain, Pac-Nor, Lilja, Criterion.

I’m sure I’m missing some names off either list. That was pulled out of my head as I was typing, not as a result of an exhaustive search. In button-cut barrels, I like Pac-Nor and Lilja. Both have excellent customer service. In cut-rifled barrels, I’ve used several Bartleins, because my customers can’t wait for Krieger.

Making barrels isn’t as difficult as some would make it out to be. Drilling deep holes is a challenge, to be sure, and the downside to the error rate is that one might need to scrap a barrel because the hole drifted too far off-center. Once a reasonably straight hole has been drilled the length of the blank, the rest of the process is pretty straightforward.

Harry Pope[*] used to make some of the most accurate rifle barrels in the country on a converted lathe, and they were rifled with a single-point cutter and a sine-bar rifling adjustment cobbed onto the side of the lathe. With this setup, Pope even was able to make gain twist barrels. Sine bar rifling machines, while seemingly ancient, are very slick for the custom rifle barrel maker. Want a slightly different twist rate? Just shove the sine bar a little further this way or that. Do a little trig, and there you go. Want gain twist rifling? Just add a second slope to the sine bar.

[*] I’m sure a whole bunch of youngsters here just said “Harry who?” Well, maybe you should google Harry’s name and learn a little bit. His work in the gunsmithing world 100 years ago is the stuff of legend.

Seagrave1963 said:

"This is sort of like marketing parkerized finishes as better than blueing. Park’ed gun finishes aren’t better, but they’re way cheaper than polishing before blueing."

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This article seems to contradict the FN article. Saying that Parking is not a better finish than bluing... makes me wonder about what he is saying. Parking seems to me to stand up much better than bluing. Sure Bluing is better looking however I think Parkerizing is clearly a better finish if you wish to put heavy use on the firearm.

Maybe its the difference in a target shooter vs a MG guy... sometimes they are looking for different things. Also for MGs, durability after lots of shooting means more accuracy as they are never looking for target shooter accuracy. At the point were target shooters think the barrel is worn out, MG guys thing its just broken in... not really but you get the idea. How many Stainless MG barrels have you guys ever seen? However they are very common in target guns.

I have a FN CHF barrel on my AR, and I ABSOLUTLEY LOVE IT! Rated for 35k rounds, will likely last longer since I am not running it hard. Accurate as anything I've shot!

IMBLITZVT said:

This article seems to contradict the FN article. Saying that Parking is not a better finish than bluing... makes me wonder about what he is saying. Parking seems to me to stand up much better than bluing. Sure Bluing is better looking however I think Parkerizing is clearly a better finish if you wish to put heavy use on the firearm.

Maybe its the difference in a target shooter vs a MG guy... sometimes they are looking for different things. Also for MGs, durability after lots of shooting means more accuracy as they are never looking for target shooter accuracy. At the point were target shooters think the barrel is worn out, MG guys thing its just broken in... not really but you get the idea. How many Stainless MG barrels have you guys ever seen? However they are very common in target guns.

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Sorry - I should have clarified that entry. It was from a commenter at the bottom of the original article. I added it as it seemed to have some good info regarding other manufacturers. OAN - I picked up a Satern barrel from a member on MDS and consider myself lucky to have gotten a great barrel at a great price.

Seagrave1963 said:

...Cold hammer forging produces even more stresses in the barrel...

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It does, but the writer of that comment leaves out that the barrels are stress relieved, usually multiple times, after buttoning or forging. What makes a cut vs other type of barrel shoot better than one or the other is more than just what he is talking about.

BTW - I stumbled on this while looking for info on my next project - AR15 with HBAR (post 10/1/13 lower build). If anyone has some pointers, I'd appreciate it and I will continue searching the many, many threads here on MDS too!

I wonder if White Oak is one of the two small shops he wouldn't mention. I've got 2 rifles with WOA barrels and they're hands down the most accurate of the group.

vector03 said:

I wonder if White Oak is one of the two small shops he wouldn't mention. I've got 2 rifles with WOA barrels and they're hands down the most accurate of the group.

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I doubt it as they only produce hammer forged barrels; White Oak shares their facility and production equipment with Noveske.

I think the gem in the rough he over looked on his list is Kreiger Criterion. Very accurate button cut barrels for the money.

Cut vs Button has been a Ford vs Chevy argument since forever. The dimentional consistancy and bore smoothness is more important to actual accuraccy than the method.

And yes, extreme accuraccy guys and gals ( benchrest , 1000yd, etc) have totally different criteria from machine guns, high volume shooting, or even all around guns.

vector03 said:

I wonder if White Oak is one of the two small shops he wouldn't mention. I've got 2 rifles with WOA barrels and they're hands down the most accurate of the group.

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I was thinking les baer

IMBLITZVT said:

This article seems to contradict the FN article. Saying that Parking is not a better finish than bluing... makes me wonder about what he is saying. Parking seems to me to stand up much better than bluing. Sure Bluing is better looking however I think Parkerizing is clearly a better finish if you wish to put heavy use on the firearm.

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I'm with you. I'll take a manganese phosphate finish any day of the week over bluing on a black rifle. Bluing is for gentleman guns.

smokey0118 said:

I was thinking les baer

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Les Baer, or Wilson? Never heard of Les Baer making rifle barrels.

vector03 said:

Les Baer, or Wilson? Never heard of Les Baer making rifle barrels.

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I think you're right. My brain convinced me Baer bought up some barrel making machines a while ago, but upon further review, I think he uses kreiger.

sailskidrive said:

I doubt it as they only produce hammer forged barrels; White Oak shares their facility and production equipment with Noveske.

I think the gem in the rough he over looked on his list is Kreiger Criterion. Very accurate button cut barrels for the money.

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Leaning toward a WOA barrel - will see what happens this coming weekend and Cyber Monday.

Unless I missed it somewhere, Daniel Defense is noted for their cold hammer forged barrels also. I would take a FN or a DD, as well as a Lothar Walther or a WOA for stainless steel.....for the money of course :-)