I Ordered an Arken EP5 and an outlier 7mm-08 26" Nitrided Howa prefit on Memorial Day for $630 shipped.
I did not receive a shipping notice for the barrel or scope. The scope arrived in about 7 days and the barrel 10 days.
Initial impressions of the barrel were it was packed in a hard cardboard tube with adequate protection. It had a thin layer of oil on it but there was still some very light surface rust on a 2 inch section of the barrel. The first thread on the barrels tenon was a little rough but all of the rest were very nice. The barrel is a straight 1.2" and has a CNC zippy surface texture (it was machined quickly with a single pass). Barrel weight is about 7.5 lbs.
I loaded up about 60 rounds of various bullets and powders just to kinda see what the barrel liked and do some break in. The first 20 shots were with 139 gr Hornady SP and 140 gr Sierra BTHP loaded with A2520. It would only hold a 2-3" group with these rounds and had me pretty worried tbh. The next 10 were with 130 gr Sierra BTHP and Varget these produced a 3/4" and 1/2" 5 shot group at 95 yards. 168gr sierras and 180gr sierras grouped around 1 MOA. It is advertised as a hand lapped barrel and I 100% believe this because it cleaned up about 3 times faster than a factory barrel and had very little copper fouling.
The next day I loaded up 15 shots of 162gr ELDMs with 3 different powders to do some velocity and accuracy testing.
The pictures below are 2 best groups from the first day and all 3 groups from the second day. The varget group had an obvious called flier where my morning coffee got the better of me. The picture with the barrels is the outlier barrel on top, 27" heavy palma about 0.9" at muzzle, and a factory 20" heavy barrel about 0.785" at muzzle.
Overall, I am happy with the barrel especially since I got the $350 off for the sale. I would say it will be a pretty consistent 0.5-0.75 MOA barrel after I get a load dialed in for it.
I did not receive a shipping notice for the barrel or scope. The scope arrived in about 7 days and the barrel 10 days.
Initial impressions of the barrel were it was packed in a hard cardboard tube with adequate protection. It had a thin layer of oil on it but there was still some very light surface rust on a 2 inch section of the barrel. The first thread on the barrels tenon was a little rough but all of the rest were very nice. The barrel is a straight 1.2" and has a CNC zippy surface texture (it was machined quickly with a single pass). Barrel weight is about 7.5 lbs.
I loaded up about 60 rounds of various bullets and powders just to kinda see what the barrel liked and do some break in. The first 20 shots were with 139 gr Hornady SP and 140 gr Sierra BTHP loaded with A2520. It would only hold a 2-3" group with these rounds and had me pretty worried tbh. The next 10 were with 130 gr Sierra BTHP and Varget these produced a 3/4" and 1/2" 5 shot group at 95 yards. 168gr sierras and 180gr sierras grouped around 1 MOA. It is advertised as a hand lapped barrel and I 100% believe this because it cleaned up about 3 times faster than a factory barrel and had very little copper fouling.
The next day I loaded up 15 shots of 162gr ELDMs with 3 different powders to do some velocity and accuracy testing.
The pictures below are 2 best groups from the first day and all 3 groups from the second day. The varget group had an obvious called flier where my morning coffee got the better of me. The picture with the barrels is the outlier barrel on top, 27" heavy palma about 0.9" at muzzle, and a factory 20" heavy barrel about 0.785" at muzzle.
Overall, I am happy with the barrel especially since I got the $350 off for the sale. I would say it will be a pretty consistent 0.5-0.75 MOA barrel after I get a load dialed in for it.
