Question - Bartlein 400MOD Experience 18 Months After Launch

@Frank Green
I have 5 400modbb barrels, the first two gotten in 2022 were serials starting 2BB017xx, and the last three are 2BB316xx gotten this January.

I have 400 in the barrel of one of the 2BB017xx. It started speeding up around 168 and has somewhat settled at rounds 257. If anything, the cleaning is fast as hell. Instead of relying on iosso / chameleon gel, I can get away with C4 copper remover, a brush, and some patches in a 30 minute session and get my bore similar to my new barrels. It may be worth noting that I do see more copper on this barrel at 400 rounds than my burned out 416R barrel,

Barrels are currently planned to all be Alpha dashers, with the first two running 115gr with a 0.185 freebore.

I wish I took pictures of the current barrel, but I figured I had the second barrel as a comparison. So far… I haven’t had anything to note. I should be around 1500 rounds by June.

I’ll chime back in with a few pictures at that time with the current 400modBB 2BB017xx and the new 2BB017xx, and my last 416R Bartlein.


My last Bartlein 416r 6 dasher that that primarily ran 105 match burners at 2790** until at 1600 rounds, I had a significant drop in velocity. I fired that barrel until 1870 rounds. At that point, the barrel that constantly held 0.3 inch 5 shot groups had 5 shot groups that would have 3 shots at 0.3 inches, and the last two literally 2 inches away from the 0.3 inch group.

Edit: Fat fingered 2790 into 2890

I am in the process of testing the life of a BB barrel chambered in 6 dasher. I’m running 109ht at 2800. Currently I’m just under 800 rnds and it shoots very well. It’s not a hummer, but it’s very respectable.

I am treating it the same way I treat every barrel. Cleaning, cooling etc. I’ve got 2000+ on 416 of a different barrel manufacturer.

I am not a bartlien fan by any means. They definitely have some winning barrels, but in my limited experience with them, they don’t stand behind the ones that are junk. It’s the fault of the user. I’m not going to go into detail on my personal experience.

I purchased a BB barrel just to test and review for financial reasons. If you can get 1.5-2x the barrel life as advertised, I am money ahead. If this holds true, I may be a bartlien fan. If not, I’ll keep shooting what has been working for me.

jimbob_walker said:

I am not a bartlien fan by any means. They definitely have some winning barrels, but in my limited experience with them, they don’t stand behind the ones that are junk. It’s the fault of the user. I’m not going to go into detail on my personal experience.

Click to expand...

OK so you’re not a fan but your personal experience…. Ummm o.k.?

So you don’t accept that the user can’t wreck the barrel and we should stand behind anything even if it’s not our fault?

Just like when a shooter blames the bullet maker for the bullets not shooting but it could have nothing to do with the bullets. So the bullet maker should always just replace the bullets?

The list can go on.

I just wish I could find a 400modbb blank in 6mm heavy MTU or better.

I thought I said enough good stuff to equal out the bad, but I guess since I offended you I’ll explain my personal situation.

I purchased my first barrel blank several years ago for a shooting sport I was starting out in. My very first one. Went to a reputable smith that is very well know. Did everything right. Not the first built rifle, but the 1st one I was building.

Same smith, same freebore, same reamer as my previous barrel. The previous barrel shot amazing. This new bartlien was lucky to hold a 3/4” group at a 100 yards sd was high 20s. I have. 980 yrs range here at home so you can image what that does when you stretch it out.

I sent the barrel to a different smith, they inspected the chamber and slugged the bore. I’m no smith, but even I could tell the bore wasn’t anywhere close to being right from the videos sent to me. Smith said it was a bad barrel.

I agree with you that some things are out of the manufacturers control, but I also have a business. If someone calls me and has an issue, I resolve it. It’s just good business.

So I thought, the barrel was bad so I’ll call the manufacturer. I did. By the end of the conversation, I got. the smith didn’t know what he was doing, and there was no way a barrel I was describing left your doors. The one that was in my hand. The best start would have been not to down grade the customer and a smith that is a big supporter of your barrels.

So yes, user error was the conclusion of my experience with bartlien barrels.

I will still give a honest review of your mod400bb barrel when I have it. So far, I’m very pleased with it.

I’ll tell you what in my own professional life, I am pretty much at the top of my game.

But I still fuck up every now and again. Probably a lot more than I realize.

How you handle your fuck ups is where you earn respect. We are all guilty of it

I’ll keep buying Bartlein, but like it or not they absolutely have a reputation of disparaging their customers, and issues are NEVER their fault. This thread is proof enough of that.

Megalodong said:

I’ll keep buying Bartlein, but like it or not they absolutely have a reputation of disparaging their customers, and issues are NEVER their fault. This thread is proof enough of that.

Click to expand...

All I see here are a couple of whiners getting called out by a stand up supporter of the sport. But yeah I am a Bartlein fan.

frost1235 said:

@Frank Green
I have 5 400modbb barrels, the first two gotten in 2022 were serials starting 2BB017xx, and the last three are 2BB316xx gotten this January.

I have 400 in the barrel of one of the 2BB017xx. It started speeding up around 168 and has somewhat settled at rounds 257. If anything, the cleaning is fast as hell. Instead of relying on iosso / chameleon gel, I can get away with C4 copper remover, a brush, and some patches in a 30 minute session and get my bore similar to my new barrels. It may be worth noting that I do see more copper on this barrel at 400 rounds than my burned out 416R barrel,

Barrels are currently planned to all be Alpha dashers, with the first two running 115gr with a 0.185 freebore.

I wish I took pictures of the current barrel, but I figured I had the second barrel as a comparison. So far… I haven’t had anything to note. I should be around 1500 rounds by June.

I’ll chime back in with a few pictures at that time with the current 400modBB 2BB017xx and the new 2BB017xx, and my last 416R Bartlein.


My last Bartlein 416r 6 dasher that that primarily ran 105 match burners at 2790** until at 1600 rounds, I had a significant drop in velocity. I fired that barrel until 1870 rounds. At that point, the barrel that constantly held 0.3 inch 5 shot groups had 5 shot groups that would have 3 shots at 0.3 inches, and the last two literally 2 inches away from the 0.3 inch group.

Edit: Fat fingered 2790 into 2890

Click to expand...

A bit late on the update!

@Frank Green

But I had some issues with my firing pin & firing pin spring being rusted that affected my groups and SD’s. Changed both out and I’m back to shooting 1/2 or less MOA groups. (I just threw in the same load and seating depth is 20 thou off the lands when the barrel was new.) I went through everything and did not want to post bad information. At this point, I’m all set.

My first MODBB barrel is sitting at 1407 rounds. And using the same bullet / method I used to measure the throat erosion, it’s only increased by ~20 thou. Outside of that, the barrel is sitting clean in oil waiting for more.

I have put my second MODBB barrel on, just to break it in. The second currently has 836 rounds on it with maybe 10 thou of throat erosion that could be attributed to error.

I’ll be putting the first barrel back on to shoot in the Peterson match coming up. But from my findings and what others have found, both of my MODBB barrels have sped up around the 180 and 550 round count. The greatest speed increase is around the first 180 rounds where I’ll see around 100+ FPS increase. Around the 550 round count, I’ll see my velocity jump around 50 fps consistent in both in my clean / cold bore and fouled bore.

I have 2 more MODBB barrels already chambered and one more not chambered that I don’t know where I put. So far, the barrels are holding well. I’m shooting around 2730 fps for both barrels with a 115gr Nosler at 30.7 grains of Varget in Alpha brass.

On my last barrel, shooting 30.6 grains of Varget going 2800 using 105 Match Burners:
- SD over 547 rounds (spread through out the barrel life after load development )was 6.8

- Around 1300 rounds on a dasher I see my SD go from single digits to 15-20 on a non-MODBB.

- At 1800 rounds on my last barrel, I could not keep my groups smaller than 4”, with my SD on the same load I had being around 70.

If my match life on a MODBB barrel goes around 2400 rounds or 5 pro matches with the majority of the life being shot in 80 degree weather with 90 second 8+ shot strings… I’d be ordering 6 - 8 barrels at a time, sticking with MODBB barrels. So far it’s looking pretty good. I’ll run these two barrels until I encounter the same issues as I did with my first barrel.

On break at work, but I’ll put current barrel life pictures and a new barrel for comparison soon.

Hardness has little to do with it. Glass is hard, makes shitty barrels. Oxy torch cuts 62rc D2 as fast or faster than 1018 at full soft. Stainless is almost always softer than carbon steel, yet the best stainless steels hold a edge longer than the best carbon(eliminating super alloy tool steels). It's about heat and abrasion resistance. Case in point, inconel 718 has a hardness of around 36 hrc.