BSF CF Barrels

Solid308 · Feb 1, 2021

Looking for opinions on BSF carbon fiber sleeved barrels. Most of what Ive been able to find are claims that they walk after 5-10 repetitive shots and come back in once they cool down. I believe most of these claims pertain to the AR barrels however.

Does anyone have experience with BSF on a bolt setup with length over 20”?

b6graham · Feb 1, 2021

there was a thread recently but it didnt gain much traction

i believe they make the new springfield barrels though

if i was spending money on a carbon it'd be a bartlein then proof or carbon6

bohem · Feb 1, 2021

The barrels are a pre-tensioned design with a sleeve over the barrel. The CTE of Carbon Fiber laminate is much different than the 416 steel that the rest of the barrel is made from. This has been an issue with carbon wrapped barrels of all types in the past.

The tensioned sleeve setup is susceptible because the barrel steel grows faster than the CF and therefore the tension on the barrel changes as the temperature changes.

I have cut a few chambers for customers on the sleeved barrels for hunting rifles. They shot well enough that the clients who sent the blanks were satisfied with the accuracy. All of them were done for hunting rifles. I have only seen 1 company make a barrel that has retained match-grade performance for a long string of fire. Right now I haven't been able to get a blank from them for 5+ months though, so it's not much good to mention who it is.

Solid308 · Feb 1, 2021

Thanks for the information, I agree with the other options and the order of choice. Just exploring other options vs lead times if there are any. Springfield and Weatherby utilizing their barrels I think says something, but that does not mean they are fault free I don't believe.

What company makes the barrel that holds POI after a string of fire? Waiting on the pieces to the build now, barrel quality is an important piece to the puzzle. I'd rather not take a gamble on the barrel if it can be avoided. This will be my first CF barrel/lightweight hunting rifle, Tired of lugging a boat anchor around.

308Gunner · Feb 2, 2021

If I was going to go carbon it would be a Bartlein, I believe that Frank stated he is way behind and has a 5-6 month lead time.

celltech · Feb 2, 2021

If you are wanting to make a lightweight hunting rifle, then why do you even need a carbon wrapped barrel? Just get a thin one in the first place.

BuildingConceptsllc · Feb 2, 2021

For a hunting rig, the bsf barrels are perfect. They shoot really well and only supposedly walk when they get hot, but they cool down pretty quickly. Ive not ever heated mine up to the point that it walks I guess, and it's on a gas gun. I don't rip off rounds, even in a gasser so, there could be something to it I guess, and I just haven't heated up the barrel enough with the way I shoot. Been happy with mine and it doesn't seem to heat up all that easily.

b6graham · Feb 2, 2021

celltech said:
If you are wanting to make a lightweight hunting rifle, then why do you even need a carbon wrapped barrel? Just get a thin one in the first place.

because we like thick barrels and brake/cans

308Gunner · Feb 2, 2021

I guess I should clarify my statement above, if I was going to put a carbon barrel on a rifle it would be a Bartlein with the new steel to hopefully offset the additional cost of the carbon as you get better life.

Solid308 · Feb 2, 2021

I will be running a Hybrid can on it majority of the time. Current "long range" rifle is heavy fluted, and its a boat anchor. They look better, weight is kept minimal, even in stainless, and the barrel can still have a large O.D.

Will be my first CF barrel, just time to try one out and thought I'd see about a little input on this specific manufacturer. Just hard to believe Springfield and Weatherby would use them exclusively if they had consistent POI shift after 5-10 rounds of fire.

BuildingConceptsllc · Feb 2, 2021

Solid308 said:
I will be running a Hybrid can on it majority of the time. Current "long range" rifle is heavy fluted, and its a boat anchor. They look better, weight is kept minimal, even in stainless, and the barrel can still have a large O.D.

Will be my first CF barrel, just time to try one out and thought I'd see about a little input on this specific manufacturer. Just hard to believe Springfield and Weatherby would use them exclusively if they had consistent POI shift after 5-10 rounds of fire.

Yeah I don't buy that either unless we are talking about super hot barrels and any barrel will do that if it's on fire

Solid308 · Feb 2, 2021

Doesn't make sense but that's what you come up with using Google. Pops up various forums with the same claims. Believe these are all AR platforms however. Shouldn't make that much difference what platform, granted they'll likely be shorter barrels in AR configuration. I think those big box manufacturers using them speaks volumes for quality and accuracy. I can say customer service seems to be top notch, email communication all through the weekend with those guys.

BuildingConceptsllc · Feb 2, 2021

Solid308 said:
Doesn't make sense but that's what you come up with using Google. Pops up various forums with the same claims. Believe these are all AR platforms however. Shouldn't make that much difference what platform, granted they'll likely be shorter barrels in AR configuration. I think those big box manufacturers using them speaks volumes for quality and accuracy. I can say customer service seems to be top notch, email communication all through the weekend with those guys.

I had a rather extensive email exchange with them as well and I came away very impressed with their customer service.

BuildingConceptsllc · Feb 3, 2021

I've been looking at getting another bsf barrel and so this topic is important to me also. I contacted the same rep that I had spoken with at length previously and just gave him the run down. He told me that they did have some small issues with some "walking" after their barrels got hot (of course any barrel does that when it gets very hot, I don't care who makes it).

BUT- they addressed this issue a few years ago and have eliminated that issue. He also sent me a target of a 5 round group, which was done after a 10 shot dialing in the glass. This was done at 100yds with a 6.5C, and it's probably 1/4 MOA. Pretty damn good and the barrel would have to be pretty warm to do it.

Here's the target

Solid308 · Feb 4, 2021

Makes sense. The info I found seemed just a little dated. There’s not much info out there on them and what was out there pretty much 75% of it spoke of POI shift after a short string of rounds.

Thanks for the additional information, and clearing up the issue. Looks like all green lights to me.

JKGTR · Mar 7, 2022

I have a 24” barrel in 6 Arc on the way. Interested to see how these perform.

Smith1 · Mar 7, 2022

BuildingConceptsllc said:
I had a rather extensive email exchange with them as well and I came away very impressed with their customer service.

Their service is great before the sale. When your 2 months over your estimated lead time and they mess up two batches with no updates, report back on their service. And that’s coming from a guy that is using two of their barrels.

They do look nice though

BuildingConceptsllc · Mar 7, 2022

Smid. said:
Their service is great before the sale. When your 2 months over your estimated lead time and they mess up two batches with no updates, report back on their service. And that’s coming from a guy that is using two of their barrels.

They do look nice though

View attachment 7822922

Wow, I'm sorry to hear that. I had a great experience with them and liked the barrel a lot too. These days a lot of formerly solid outfits seem to be having that same issue. I will say that as a business owner, it's extremely difficult to get things these days in every category, as well as very hard to get people. I'm not excusing it though and definitely or the poor communication. I can relate quite well myself, accept I'm about 6 months past, it's very frustrating.

Smith1 · Mar 8, 2022

BuildingConceptsllc said:
Wow, I'm sorry to hear that. I had a great experience with them and liked the barrel a lot too. These days a lot of formerly solid outfits seem to be having that same issue. I will say that as a business owner, it's extremely difficult to get things these days in every category, as well as very hard to get people. I'm not excusing it though and definitely or the poor communication. I can relate quite well myself, accept I'm about 6 months past, it's very frustrating.

I definitely get it. I’m not so much mad about the time it took to get, but the communication after the sale was rough at best. I had to follow up to see the status, and was told 3 different times “they’re going out next week” only to not have it ship and be wondering what happened.

I also referred a buddy who placed an order a full month after did, call in February to order a second barrel and had both in hand before I got mine.

Maybe it was a one off scenario though, but I wouldn’t order directly from them again, especially if it’s not sitting on the shelf in stock

Stoogey · Mar 8, 2022

They are great barrels. I built a 22 nosler on a 22" barrel and it shoots the factory nosler 55gr ammo great. They have a 20% law enforcement discount as well and great to talk with over the phone.

BuildingConceptsllc · Mar 8, 2022

Stoogey said:
They are great barrels. I built a 22 nosler on a 22" barrel and it shoots the factory nosler 55gr ammo great. They have a 20% law enforcement discount as well and great to talk with over the phone.

Yeah, the barrels are very good. Early on they had an issue with them walking really bad when they warmed up, more so than other barrels, and that reputation stayed with them for a good while I think. They fixed that issue with their wrapping technology and it's not an issue anymore, but that reputation stuck for a while. I was very happy with my barrel and I would buy another.

JKGTR · Mar 9, 2022

Here is the build. Took the picture before I mounted the scope.

Will be back in the future to update how it shoots.

JKGTR · Mar 28, 2022

Update- In short, the build was a bust.
I ended up sending the barrel back and ordered a custom spec barrel from X-Caliber.

Smith1 · Mar 28, 2022

JKGTR said:
Update- In short, the build was a bust.
I ended up sending the barrel back and ordered a custom spec barrel from X-Caliber.

It didn’t happen to have issues with brass expansion did it?

JKGTR · Mar 28, 2022

Smid. said:
It didn’t happen to have issues with brass expansion did it?

Actually that was one of the things I noticed as well.

sleev-les · Nov 7, 2022

BuildingConceptsllc said:
Yeah, the barrels are very good. Early on they had an issue with them walking really bad when they warmed up, more so than other barrels, and that reputation stayed with them for a good while I think. They fixed that issue with their wrapping technology and it's not an issue anymore, but that reputation stuck for a while. I was very happy with my barrel and I would buy another.

May be an older thread, but I have a newer build that still walks after it warms up. 6.5 Grendel, 20" with a Suppressor. It will shoot great for a good bit, but if you speed up the frequency between shots it walks. I thought I was losing my mind and latest was last weekend. Would be spot on at 200, then consistent 5 inches right. Cool down, back to dead nuts center.

BuildingConceptsllc · Nov 7, 2022

sleev-les said:
May be an older thread, but I have a newer build that still walks after it warms up. 6.5 Grendel, 22" with a Suppressor. It will shoot great for a good bit, but if you speed up the frequency between shots it walks. I thought I was losing my mind and latest was last weekend. Would be spot on at 200, then consistent 5 inches right. Cool down, back to dead nuts center.

That sounds exactly like the issue they had before but they changed something about how they wrap it and I didn't have that issue but apparently you do. How many rounds are we talking about when this starts happening and how old is the barrel? Might want to give them a call. I talked to them quite a bit for a while there and found their reps to be pretty knowledgeable and very willing to help.

sleev-les · Nov 8, 2022

BuildingConceptsllc said:
That sounds exactly like the issue they had before but they changed something about how they wrap it and I didn't have that issue but apparently you do. How many rounds are we talking about when this starts happening and how old is the barrel? Might want to give them a call. I talked to them quite a bit for a while there and found their reps to be pretty knowledgeable and very willing to help.

The barrel has 80 rounds through it at most. Bought it July of 21. Edit to my other post is it's the 20". Fat fingered a 22 at first.

I went to look at my target from last weekend and I've got 5 shots center, an inch high at .5 MOA group (200yds). The next 5 were scattered 2 to 3 inch low and roughly 5 to 7 inches right. It has been driving me nuts to the point where I was about to toss the barrel. Then I found this threadd.

BuildingConceptsllc · Nov 8, 2022

sleev-les said:
The barrel has 80 rounds through it at most. Bought it July of 21. Edit to my other post is it's the 20". Fat fingered a 22 at first.

I went to look at my target from last weekend and I've got 5 shots center, an inch high at .5 MOA group (200yds). The next 5 were scattered 2 to 3 inch low and roughly 5 to 7 inches right. It has been driving me nuts to the point where I was about to toss the barrel. Then I found this threadd.

That sounds like what they had a problem with for sure. Not sure exactly when they changed how they did the wrap and all but I would definitely call them cause that sucks. Call them and update the thread with what the result is.

sleev-les · Nov 8, 2022

BuildingConceptsllc said:
That sounds like what they had a problem with for sure. Not sure exactly when they changed how they did the wrap and all but I would definitely call them cause that sucks. Call them and update the thread with what the result is.

For sure. I'll get something back in here when I get a chance to call.

sleev-les · Nov 9, 2022

BuildingConceptsllc said:
That sounds like what they had a problem with for sure. Not sure exactly when they changed how they did the wrap and all but I would definitely call them cause that sucks. Call them and update the thread with what the result is.

Just got off the phone with them. They owned up to the walk issue and mentioned they corrected it. It sounded like it was definitely a fix after the time I bought mine. Bottom line. They are issuing me a RMA and sending me out a new barrel.

Bottom Bottom line: They have a customer for life now. Great customer service and no questions asked.

BuildingConceptsllc · Nov 9, 2022

sleev-les said:
Just got off the phone with them. They owned up to the walk issue and mentioned they corrected it. It sounded like it was definitely a fix after the time I bought mine. Bottom line. They are issuing me a RMA and sending me out a new barrel.

Bottom Bottom line: They have a customer for life now. Great customer service and no questions asked.

That's good to hear. I also had a very good experience with them which is why I encouraged you to call. I'm so glad to hear this.

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