Who is your new ar15 barrel builder?

[mheimer_45]

Since CLE is no longer building for the community who is your ar barrel builder. I’ve had WOA, Criterion, Douglas, Wilson Combat. Looking for someone to spin me a custom Bartlein or Krieger. I’ve viewed craddocks website and seems you can only order what they offer at 6-8month lead time. Looking to be in the $500-700 range and not a stupid lead time.

 

[TimK]

Good luck. I mean that with no sarcasm. Paul Craddock is the bomb. Worth the wait if you can stand it.

 

[mheimer_45]

Can I order custom profiles and gas block lengths from craddock? I’m not against spending money. I know what I want. Usually keystone is my go to but he told I had to supply the blank and reamer and wasn’t responsible if it didn’t shoot well.

 

[Bigjake83]

Can I order custom profiles and gas block lengths from craddock? I’m not against spending money. I know what I want. Usually keystone is my go to but he told I had to supply the blank and reamer and wasn’t responsible if it didn’t shoot well.

Paul who was the head Barrel Smith at CLE is opening his own business soon.

As from Craddock he's not a huge fan of custom one off orders, he'll do it but expect a 6-9 month wait of longer.

And as for keystone, He may be able to turn a nice barrel but honestly seems like a complete shit show.

 

[jpjulian]

John Holliger has been my barrel guy since before he started WOA. Ask any of the Illinois team guys, or maybe better yet, look up the names of the guys on the trophies they've won at Camp Perry and elsewhere, and ask them who their barrel guy is.

 

[Pappasniper]

Colt, LMT, DD, SIONICS, SOLGW but there are many decent places. I had terrible experience with Faxon but other than that, good luck.

PB

 

[Stavey]

Paul who was the head Barrel Smith at CLE is opening his own business soon.

As from Craddock he's not a huge fan of custom one off orders, he'll do it but expect a 6-9 month wait of longer.

And as for keystone, He may be able to turn a nice barrel but honestly seems like a complete shit show.

You are 100% correct . I will never order from that shit show again… Go elsewhere even if it’s a wait .

 

[JS8588]

Mark at Precision Firearms, soon to be rebranded as Samurai Firearms.

 

[RTH1800]

Paul who was the head Barrel Smith at CLE is opening his own business soon.

As from Craddock he's not a huge fan of custom one off orders, he'll do it but expect a 6-9 month wait of longer.

And as for keystone, He may be able to turn a nice barrel but honestly seems like a complete shit show.

I don’t know Jake personally.
I will say that after reading his post for many years I trust his information and opinions regarding AR builds completely.
I would pay attention to what he advises.

 

[simonp]

John Holliger has been my barrel guy since before he started WOA. Ask any of the Illinois team guys, or maybe better yet, look up the names of the guys on the trophies they've won at Camp Perry and elsewhere, and ask them who their barrel guy is.

I am a fan of John and WOA barrels, his customer service has never lacked or dissapointed and his barrels have always exceeded expectations based on price but not sure that he will spin up individual barrels per request, if he does Id be interested to know.

 

[Charmingmander]

There's so many makers doing barrels that shoot well now I'd say it's a wash. All up to how much time you're willing to wait and how much you want to shell out.

 

[owtlaw]

I pretty much only use White Oak Armament anymore. I've never had a bad barrel from them and I've used over 100 of their barrels on different builds.

 

[B Man]

What about Mark Chanlynn? Rarely see him mentioned but it seems to be good when he his.

 

[jpjulian]

I am a fan of John and WOA barrels, his customer service has never lacked or dissapointed and his barrels have always exceeded expectations based on price but not sure that he will spin up individual barrels per request, if he does Id be interested to know.

Look at his sister web page, White Oak Precision. Or just give them a call and see what they say.

 

[LRRPF52]

Mark at Precision Firearms, soon to be rebranded as Samurai Firearms.

I’ve used PF and GAP as my go-to barrel-turners/profilers dating back to 2007 for GAP, and maybe 2014 for PF.

Got my last 2 Criterion pipes from PF, both Grendels.

My Obermeyer and Bartlein pipe’d AR-10s built by GAP have been lasers, as have the PF pipes.

There was a PF Bartlein Grendel was the most accurate AR-15 I’ve ever shot. Mark sent me one to independently test for a customer who was complaining it wouldn't shoot. I took photos of the 8rd groups and told Mark to tell the customer if he didn’t want it, I would pay all his costs for it plus some.

It was a 20” Grendel that shot 8rd bugholes with ease. He quickly said to send it back once he saw the photos. It was just a case of not knowing how to shoot gas guns. I think he was free-recoiling it without strict fundamentals. I wanted that upper pretty bad.

 

[JS8588]

I’ve used PF and GAP as my go-to barrel-turners/profilers dating back to 2007 for GAP, and maybe 2014 for PF.

Got my last 2 Criterion pipes from PF, both Grendels.

My Obermeyer and Bartlein pipe’d AR-10s built by GAP have been lasers, as have the PF pipes.

There was a PF Bartlein Grendel was the most accurate AR-15 I’ve ever shot. Mark sent me one to independently test for a customer who was complaining it wouldn't shoot. I took photos of the 8rd groups and told Mark to tell the customer if he didn’t want it, I would pay all his costs for it plus some.

It was a 20” Grendel that shot 8rd bugholes with ease. He quickly said to send it back once he saw the photos. It was just a case of not knowing how to shoot gas guns. I think he was free-recoiling it without strict fundamentals. I wanted that upper pretty bad.

Yeah, some have complained about Mark being a bit surly or having long lead times, but I've always found him very communicative and his wait times are no worse than any of the other custom shops.

 

[brutus1776]

I emailed WOA a while back and they told me they only do 20” .223 bartlein barrels, no other lengths.