Your PVA prefit experience
- Thread starter Lawnboi
- Start date
@bohem
When I spoke with Ben, he said that as long as you have the drawings, you guys could do the custom contour.
However I'm not 100 percent clear on what constitutes a drawing that is good enough to go off of.
Here is an example of a barrel profile that may work for some of us that are wanting something lighter, but without the worry of having 5/8 threads and enough shoulder. Would this be possible and does this constitute an acceptable drawing?
When I spoke with Ben, he said that as long as you have the drawings, you guys could do the custom contour.
However I'm not 100 percent clear on what constitutes a drawing that is good enough to go off of.
Here is an example of a barrel profile that may work for some of us that are wanting something lighter, but without the worry of having 5/8 threads and enough shoulder. Would this be possible and does this constitute an acceptable drawing?
Yeah, that's something I can work to. The question becomes what do we call it?
The neck diameter and shank diameter are different. It's pretty close to a #4 but with a dead straight section at 0.750 for about 22"
It's the Taperless 750 from Preferred Barrel Blanks. My weight goal for an 18" 6 CM barrel is 40 oz.
One particular example on Rokslide using this countour from PBB is the following:
.750 taperless, 24in, 6.5mm bore. straight flutes and chambered
43.25oz
That's pretty easy to call it. Sounds like we should just make a couple of taperless options in different size muzzles for the hunting community.
Make it easy and make one that is just big enough for 5/8 threads, one just big enough for 9/16 and honestly that’s probably good enough for most of us.
In my mind it could be a solution to avoid confusion on muzzle threads & shoulder size, while offering a lighter contour.
It wouldn’t be an ultralight pencil barrel, but certainly more in line of what mountain hunters are after, especially with the trend towards short and suppressed. While we could go for a more mass produced, botton rifled prefit such as those from PBB, I think there’s a good group of us that would rather use a premium barrel maker, such as PVA.
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That's probably a 0.680 and 0.750 taperless then.
I think this is a great idea. You would know better than us but I’d assume anyone getting a threaded barrel made for hunting now a days is looking for one of those two thread patterns at the lightest they can get.
Personally I don’t need super light but I could definitely see myself ordering either one of those contours in the future over say a 3B and calling you guys to make sure threads will work with what I’m looking for.
I think that's on point. The lack of taper makes things look a little strange and it's definitely not for everyone. Years ago I made some barrels that I had to recontour on a manual machine without the taper attachment. They shot fine but the guy who asked for it did notice that it was a somewhat funny looking hunting barrel.
It's not much different what the carbon barrel cores look like before being wrapped.
The good news is I think a lot of hunters are starting to shoot enough where they understand to buy a barrel channel big and not worry about the looks. Atleast that’s the boat I’m in.
A 22” .680 taperless 6.5 creed with 9/16 threads sounds about perfect for a nrl hunter/hunting rifle.
Have you seen the Rokstock (Unknown Munitions/Stocky’s Stock) that many of us would put a taperless steel barrel in?!
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No, though I've been told about it from 2 people and the opinions that were offered were polar opposites on the cosmeticsHave you seen the Rokstock (Unknown Munitions/Stocky’s Stock) that many of us would put a taperless steel barrel in?!
Give us short, light barrels to thread a suppressor onto, this beauty of a Rokstock to throw it in, a crap load of .243 projectiles and watch the carcasses stack up.
I did the break in process one rainy day last week on steel (or near it anyway lol).
Today were my first rounds on paper. 100yds. I fired four mismatched orphan left over mystery rounds to foul the barrel and zero it. Then shot these two 3 shot strings. (6.5cm)
Virgin brass, two different bullets I've never used before. A guessed at OAL for both and a rough "ladder" of loads.
I was having an awful day on the trigger. I made the mistake of shooting something else with it, with a completely different feel and heavier trigger. So I had lots of "oops" shots. I marked some of those, there were more of them but I couldn't remember for sure which they were.
I thought to myself... "Uh yeah, okay. If it never shoots any better than this, it's still a good deal better than what it replaced."
Today were my first rounds on paper. 100yds. I fired four mismatched orphan left over mystery rounds to foul the barrel and zero it. Then shot these two 3 shot strings. (6.5cm)
Virgin brass, two different bullets I've never used before. A guessed at OAL for both and a rough "ladder" of loads.
I was having an awful day on the trigger. I made the mistake of shooting something else with it, with a completely different feel and heavier trigger. So I had lots of "oops" shots. I marked some of those, there were more of them but I couldn't remember for sure which they were.
I thought to myself... "Uh yeah, okay. If it never shoots any better than this, it's still a good deal better than what it replaced."
I’m sure it does shoot good, as all of the PVA barrels seem to do.. but don’t try to deceive yourself with 3 shot groups and calling 33% of that tiny sample size an “oops”. We all know better than that and the only one you’ll hurt is yourself long term, especially when trying to get a true zero.
Not a "that was probably me."
But "oops" as in I didn't mean to shoot.
(ETA: Shooting one rifle with a <1lb trigger and another with a 6-8lb trigger. Not a great idea.)
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The thing with the “hybrid lite” contour that PBB does that makes it appealing is it tapers down quick to that .750. Most typical bartlein, krieger, brux,etc sporter contours are too damn heavy on the breech end and then taper pretty quick for the rest of the barrel length. I think not having unnecessary weight on the shank end is key to the taperless options being popular with hunters.
So I added the 0.680 and 0.750 Taperless options on the website. They're both 1.2 for 2.5" and a 2" taper down to the taperless size.
Most of the #(x) Brux and Bartleins have a 3.25 or 3.5" long taper from shank to the barrel acreage.
I have 6mm 100gr Solids that are absolute hammers on game. At Ryan from RokSlide's request I sent him a couple of bags of them to try on elk this past season but I didn't hear how they did. I know that they're nasty on mule deer and antelope from testing that @coldboremiracle did with his 6GT.
Awesome, thanks for listening. That .680 contour is going to be very light!
It looks like the site is updated to show those new taperless contours under the 6mm Osprey blanks, but not under the Osprey Custom Prefits. You may have to still check the “Other (Please contact us) “ box and then indicate those contours in the notes section of an order.
I’m going to be ordering an 18” .750 6 CM shortly, so noticed this while selecting options.
Edit to add that the contour is also under the Snipers Hide Group Buy 6mm that starts May 1st
I’m going to be ordering an 18” .750 6 CM shortly, so noticed this while selecting options.
Edit to add that the contour is also under the Snipers Hide Group Buy 6mm that starts May 1st
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Thanks for the heads up,It looks like the site is updated to show those new taperless contours under the 6mm Osprey blanks, but not under the Osprey Custom Prefits. You may have to still check the “Other (Please contact us) “ box and then indicate those contours in the notes section of an order.
I’m going to be ordering an 18” .750 6 CM shortly, so noticed this while selecting options.
Edit to add that the contour is also under the Snipers Hide Group Buy 6mm that starts May 1st
It should be fixed now.
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I don't have one but I'm not against getting one. I am not too familiar with the chamber, is there a certain generation of reamer that I need to look at or are they all the same? That was the curse of another wildcat company; was there was a revision coming out before I could even get the reamer I ordered in some cases.
We currently do them if you send the action in and you select "Customer Supplied Action". I'm tabulating data on the actions to make sure it can be done as a shouldered prefit but I haven't had enough of them to satisfy me that it's something safe to do sight unseen.
When we do them it automatically gets a little engraved card with all the dimensions on the tag for ordering replacements on that SN again in the future. This way the first time we have it is the only minor inconvenience.
Also, on the HIT, whatever you order will have a 1.20 shank on the barrel to use that little pressure foot setup they have on there. I'm not convinced it's really working as advertised but so far it seems to be passable.
There are two reamers that I'm aware of a Type I and a Type II. The Type I has a shorter freebore (.045"), set up for standard AICS .308 mags. The Type II has a longer freebore (.150"), better suited for AW mags or a Tikka on a LA mag, etc.
I'm pretty sure Manson makes both reamer types for West Texas Ordnance, who developed the wildcat. Alpha makes brass for it too, so maybe it will stick around.
OK, tell you what... if you're cool waiting while I get the reamer I'll buy both reamers if you place an order for a barrel and it will go on the list of chambers we cut..
Any chance you’ll get more of the rock creek .22 cal barrels for at the sale price? Bought one a few months back, stalled on buying another and now it looks like you’re out of stock!
That was a 1 time sale, they're gone.
Independence Day we always run our "Freedom from the Crown" sale. There will be a chance for a discount then.
You are working on my Remington 5R308 conversion to 65 Creedmoor right now. I really enjoyed speaking with you and you made everything easy. I'm glad I saw this because I'm going to have you do my 223 as well, but I think I'll wait till freedom from The Crown day.
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Ok. Working on a couple other projects this year, but considering one of you CF barrels to make it lose some weights.
What about the foot doesn’t have you convinced?
It’s my wife’s rifle and we do t have that many rounds through it but sucker hammers!
Considering that, still have time. My tikka has a 5.5, I really wants the .75 taperless but it wasn’t available. I was going to get a PBB .75 but didn’t want to chance it with the mixed reviews I saw.
The foot doesn't give a lot of preload into the joint. It looks pretty good, definitely better than some other solutions that are on the market for QC barrel changes though. What I haven't been convinced of is the day to day repeatability of the zero, and if the zero moves when the barrel gets bumped on a barricade.
It may be fine but I don't have enough first hand data to enthusiastically endorse it.
If you want to send it back in I'll recontour it for $75 and round trip shipping.
I bet the taperless 0.750 would be lighter than a proof sendero at that length.
Edit: Using pac-nor's barrel weight calculator, with a 20" 308 bore, it gave me a barrel weight of just under 2# 11 ounces for the 750 taperless. Proof's 20" tikka 308 prefit says 2# 7 ounces. Assuming the pac-nor calc is just the blank, once the material is removed cutting tennon threads, chamber, and muzzle threads they should be very close.
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I think @wind gypsy is right, it's going to be really close. The carbon cores are pretty light but the taperless barrels give them a run.
I’ll have to keep an eye on that. I’m not sure how it would be any more of an issue than other systems but you would know better than me.
I would take you up on the re-contour but it shoots good (sample of only one ammo type so far) and the weight balance with the suppressor is just forward of the mag well where I place it if I use a bag…..
Oh, crap. Wait! I didn’t have an impact shift from suppressed to non suppressed. If that stays consistent I’m keeping it the way it is!!
