Carbon six barrel review and issues.

[Ffjmoore]

Got a new barrel. Shot fine, until I tried to extract an unfired round. It was jammed! It took me a bit to figure it out. But the bullet is getting jammed and sticking the round.

As you can see the round is rubbing pretty bad. These are factory rounds in a barrel with 2 trips to the range to break it in. I have emailed the barrel manufacture and am waiting for a reply. I'll see if they remedy the situation before I flame them but I will say I don't have faith that they even know what they are doing at this point based on past interactions.

 

[Wannashootit]

Obviously an issue there, what chambering?
Some chamberings are zero freebore.

That aside, I doubt that's the issue. No production barrel manufacturer will use anything other than a "standard" type reamer that cuts the neck and freebore with the chamber, making it impossible for it to not cut the freebore (assuming the reamer is not defective).

You didn't feel a lot of resistance in the last bit of bolt travel/putting it into battery?
If you have a go gauge I would confirm headspace is correct- I think more likely it's short-chambered.

 

[Ffjmoore]

There was a little resistance the last bit.
I agree there is probably some freebore but it's a bit tight.
Chambered in 6.5 creedmoor
I double checked head space and it's good. Both go and nogo gauges.
It is a remage barrel.
Chambers empty brass fine.
It gets jammed when there is a bullet but then when I fire the round it extracts smooth as it normally should.

 

[Im2bent]

What weight bullet?

 

[Ffjmoore]

140 hornady American gunner
I did a hornady eld match and it also rubbed but not as bad.

 

[Im2bent]

You could try lighter but then why have a barrel that won't chamber what you want to shoot? Where there any pressure signs? If not and it shoots good..............?

 

[spife7980]

Is it only scratched on one side?
Clean your barrel recently?

 

[Ffjmoore]

It's scratched all the way around. I just cleaned the barrel.
I could shoot it as is. It shoot "ok" but I didn't pay good money for a carbon fiber barrel for it to arrive not chambered correctly.
My buddy has a remer for it so Im sure I can get him to fix it.

 

[Elite_KG]

Man, those rub marks don’t even look like lands ans grooves unless you have a 9 or 10 groove barrel on that thing. I can see 4-5 “land” marks on the one side. Plus those are the scratchiest looking lands marks Ive ever seen. I don’t think those are land marks, but who knows these days.

Looks liked ragged tool chatter to me, but I’m not a machinist. I know enough to be dangerous.
I’ve check a ton of rifles for lands that way and never had anything look close to that.

 

[Tokay444]

Could be a tight freebore, but not zero. It’s touching the bearing surface. Not the ogive. That’s not the leade or lands.

 

[Ffjmoore]

So tight free bore. How does that happen?...worn out remer? Would that be caught by a competent gunsmith?

 

[jdodd]

Just had this same thing on a brand new shillen prefit in 6cm. Turned out to be a reamer issue per shillen.

 

[Ffjmoore]

Just had this same thing on a brand new shillen prefit in 6cm. Turned out to be a reamer issue per shillen.

What did you end up doing?

 

[jdodd]

What did you end up doing?

Sent back to shillen. Northland swapped out to a criterion as I had a match to make.

 

[jzerfoss]

Could be a tight freebore, but not zero. It’s touching the bearing surface. Not the ogive. That’s not the leade or lands.

This.... Could be multiple reasons like overly worn reamer, too much material taken when having it reground/sharpened, new reamer out of spec, etc.

 

[4thandbleek]

Sending it back is cool but you could have drilled a new hole on it, Easy.

 

[Steel head]

This.... Could be multiple reasons like overly worn reamer, too much material taken when having it reground/sharpened, new reamer out of spec, etc.

What are the odds PTG is involved?

 

[Elite_KG]

Honestly it looks like the “freebore” area is not machined enough. Similar to the above suggested cause. I can see lands and grooves in the freebore area and it is interrupted like the marks in the bullet. I mean the 1 land is machined back to make 2 marks as it was not completely machined to the tolerance for the freebore outer diameter. This seems to be the case for each land for each all the way around making what appears told be 9-10 contact points.

 

[Elite_KG]

AkA- shitty reamer???? Probably.

 

[Ffjmoore]

Got an Email back:

Mr. Jason,

It is likely due to a slightly wore reamer. We rotate them out every 12-20 chambers (varies on wear). It's hard to tell at that moment if the reamer is wore slightly. I can have the barrel sent back to touched up with a new reamer. If everything is shooting fine and only issue is extracting a loaded cartridge, I would say use it for hunting and send it in when you have free time.


Thank You,

Gene Gordon
Director of Sales
Carbon Six LLC

I guess ill run it through deer season. I doubt they could fix it and get it back to me in a timely manner. Currently shooting 1.26 moa with my best reload.

 

[Bugholes]

Your freebore dia is too small, probably because of chatter in the throat area. This is probably why your picture looks like a 9 or 10 groove barrel. Chatter is over cutting in one place and undercutting right next to that, creating peaks and valleys, and therefore making your freebore dia too tight. That is difficult to remove...
You will burn it out to the correct dia after a while if you keep shooting it as is

 

[Steel head]

Your freebore dia is too small, probably because of chatter in the throat area. This is probably why your picture looks like a 9 or 10 groove barrel. Chatter is over cutting in one place and undercutting right next to that, creating peaks and valleys, and therefore making your freebore dia too tight. That is difficult to remove...
You will burn it out to the correct dia after a while if you keep shooting it as is

That makes sense.

 

[AllenOne1]

Your freebore dia is too small, probably because of chatter in the throat area. This is probably why your picture looks like a 9 or 10 groove barrel. Chatter is over cutting in one place and undercutting right next to that, creating peaks and valleys, and therefore making your freebore dia too tight. That is difficult to remove...
You will burn it out to the correct dia after a while if you keep shooting it as is

Fire honed to final size. It's a final finishing step to get a custom sized freebore diameter.

Someone will grab that and use it as a marketing tool to sell their barrels.

 

[Elite_KG]

Your freebore dia is too small, probably because of chatter in the throat area. This is probably why your picture looks like a 9 or 10 groove barrel. Chatter is over cutting in one place and undercutting right next to that, creating peaks and valleys, and therefore making your freebore dia too tight. That is difficult to remove...
You will burn it out to the correct dia after a while if you keep shooting it as is

I guess every squirrel finds a nut from time to time. I’m pattimg myself on the back over here a little. I respect Bugholes tremendously. No one can cut that many barrels and not learn a great deal through refining skills and experience.

 

[Ffjmoore]

Update: Well, I waited through deer season and sent the barrel back last month. I emailed them when it arrived and did not receive a reply. It was close to Christmas and new years so I waited. I have emailed and called the last couple of days with no reply. I hope I didn't just ship my barrel into oblivion.

 

[Ffjmoore]

They finally answered an email. Covid, shot show ECT etc.. but I received a shipping notice that my barrel is on the way back. Fingers crossed it shoots. Stand by.

 

[Bendigo78]

Any resolution? I'm also having issues with a c6 barrel.

 

[Ffjmoore]

It showed up and the chamber looks much better. So far it doesn't shoot very impressive. I am shooting solid copper Barnes so maybe that is why, but it's shooting 1.5" at best. I'm going to put some eldm through it and see if those group well.

 

[D̷e̷v̷i̷l̷D̷o̷c̷A̷Z̷]

It showed up and the chamber looks much better. So far it doesn't shoot very impressive. I am shooting solid copper Barnes so maybe that is why, but it's shooting 1.5" at best. I'm going to put some eldm through it and see if those group well.

Damn. This is disappointing to read.

Please keep us updated on the factory loads.

 

[Bendigo78]

That's what my first barrel was doing. If you can, look at it with a borescope. I won't get into the whole story yet but I don't have a good feeling about the second barrel and the response I've gotten from them.

 

[Ffjmoore]

You can see at the beginning of the thread what it looked like. This is what it looked like when it came back.