Outlier Chassis and barrel

Maggot

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood"
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Minuteman
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  • Jul 27, 2007
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    The chassis seem about what you'd expect for a budget unit but wondering about the barrels. I expect its about like everything else, you get what you pay for, but its nice to dream of that elusive silver bullet.

    Anyone have experience?
     
    Here is a review about it on the hide this should help
     
    Here is a review about it on the hide this should help
    @Maggot That’s my review, let me know if you have any questions. The barrel still shoots and the PVA has been sidelined ever since.

    I also have the chassis but never got around to doing a review. I’ll get on it one day. I need a buttstock.
     
    I got a couple of Outlier unchambered .30 cal blanks to play with. They have some quirks but the one I chambered in 308 shoots really well. I have about 500 rounds on it now and it's averaging about .5" for a 10 shot group. When my new reamer gets here I'll chamber the second one and see if it shoots as good. If so, I'll probably buy a few more of them.
    So far they seem like a good value if you’re looking for a cheap blank to experiment with a new cartridge or something. Probably a good option for a fireforming barrel if you’re in one of those niches. Verdict is still out on consistency. Do they all shoot good or did I get lucky? Time will tell. I wouldn't feel great about buying a $140 blank and paying a smith $300-$400 to chamber it. Probably better to pony up for a more proven supplier in that case.

    Quirks:
    • They had threaded muzzles out of the box... never seen that before on a "blank" Threads are in spec and concentric, shoulder is square, crown looks good.
    • They have a very course finish, almost looks like the finish I get when roughing 6061, never really seen this type of surface finish on 416 but I've also never run a CNC lathe.
    • The OD of the first inch on the chamber end is not concentric with the rest of the barrel's OD. So they turned the OD of the chamber end in a different setup from the rest of the barrel. The difference is probably only about .005" but it's visible (see the picture). This caused some head scratching since I wanted to fix this but I also didn't want to lose any barrel length. The tenon I was planning to machine is only ~.800" long so the transition would still be visible. I ended up cutting .210" off the chamber end so that the tenon ended up cleaning this up.
     

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