Your PVA prefit experience

[bohem]

I must be the only one who hasnt had much luck with my Osprey - a 22GT prefit for my CDG.

I’ve tried 3 powders, 6 different projectiles (75, 80, 88 ELDms, 80 and 90SMKs, 85.5 Bergers), and cant get this thing to shoot with any consistency at all. .5” best group, 1.5” for next group – probably averaging out over 1moa for the 500+ rounds I’ve spent trying to get it to shoot so far. At this point I’ve nearly fired as much lead into the dirt as I’m willing to, in the aim of getting this shooting.

I’ve messaged a few of the lads on the Hide with the22gt pre-fits for the CDG who seem to be having better luck than me, but nothing that has worked for them has worked for me. Tried running her clean, fouled, jumped and jammed. No carbon ring. Hell I even bedded this Matrix Pro to try and get it to shoot. I’ve swapped the barrel over to the 6Dasher from my other CDG, and it shoots lights out on this setup too - so Ive eliminated every other variable. I cant really find anything else bar the barrel that I can point my finger at.

At this point Im pulling it off and sitting it on the shelf. If I was in the states Id offer it up for anyone to tinker with if they were up for the challenge. I think this is the first out of 30-something custom barrels Ive given up on.

At the end of the day though, shit happens, sometimes things dont work out - it is what it is.

Forward that email to me: josh (at) patriotvalleyarms.com and I'll take a look. The last 4 days have been very hectic for both @BenE and myself getting a bunch of things ready to go. I'll see what I can do to help from the other side of the globe. I'm not saying we didn't send you a dud, though it's statistically unlikely. Typically what you're describing is something to do with assembly and components rubbing, but we'll get you sorted out and the barrel replaced if that's what it takes to get your stuff shooting like it should.



On another note: Every couple of years we get enough odds and ends clogging up our shelves that I run a hugely discounted "get it out of here" sale. That time has come again. Here is the link to the Hide post about it. If you use "HideCleanUp24" and put your username in the order notes it will give you 5% off the item.

Clean Up Sale 2024

 

[TheOE800]

Fast hands on whomever snagged that CDG 6.5CM, lol.

 

[S3th]

Fast hands on whomever snagged that CDG 6.5CM, lol.

ME

 

[sierra2]

Dang! I saw this sale in Commercial Sales and jumped on that Nucleus barreled action immediately! Looks like I could have saved another 5% on an already great buy. Still happy to snag this one!!!

 

[Rob01]

I got a 223 barrel from the CDM prefit sale they had earlier this year. 24" M24 contour with no fluting or threading. After break-in according to their instructions, it shot a 0.320 MOA 4 round group at 100 yards (the fifth shot was off but I know that was me...last round of the day and I hurried the trigger pull). This was using Sierra 77gr "Competition" factory rounds. Ruger American action on an MDT Oryx chassis. Planning on shooting it out to 550 yards this week. Super happy with the results!

It should shoot well past the 550. You shooting it at Woody's?

 

[TheOE800]

ME

Little jelly, NGL.

 

[S3th]

Little jelly, NGL.

I just got my July 4th barrel and imagine this was ran in the same batch. I’m stoked about that.

 

[johnnyvw]

It should shoot well past the 550. You shooting it at Woody's?

Yes sir. Hoping to get out enough to shoot this one and my RPR in 6.5 CM to maybe qualify for the 1000 yard range. Just need to spend a little more time gathering dope on the 550 range and then see how well I can hit cold bore shots at various distance. From what he's been saying on his emails, I'm assuming that's what he wants to see, solid dope at varying distances. Been too blazing hot this summer to spend much time at the range.

 

[Rob01]

Yes sir. Hoping to get out enough to shoot this one and my RPR in 6.5 CM to maybe qualify for the 1000 yard range. Just need to spend a little more time gathering dope on the 550 range and then see how well I can hit cold bore shots at various distance. From what he's been saying on his emails, I'm assuming that's what he wants to see, solid dope at varying distances. Been too blazing hot this summer to spend much time at the range.

Yeah been too hot for me too. Only been out there a few times in the past couple months. Might try and head out this week though with the nicer weather coming.

 

[Estes640]

Dang! I saw this sale in Commercial Sales and jumped on that Nucleus barreled action immediately! Looks like I could have saved another 5% on an already great buy. Still happy to snag this one!!!

You and me both. I hopped on an origin 223 barrel early. Would have covered my shipping, dang

 

[bohem]

There doesn't seem to be a sidearms area on this place any longer, so this seems like the best spot to announce these.
PVA is using precision rifle grade blanks and leveraging the CNC capabilities that we have to bring high end, conventionally rifled, drop-in Glock barrels... "prefits" if you will.

Threaded 1/2-28 Class 3A, 416RR and DLC coated as standard. These are not just another white-label from the big house in Florida that makes most of the other Glock barrels on the market.

PVA's using precision rifle level blanks to make pistol barrels. Ready to ship, endorsed by Olympic Pistol Shooters.

Here's a 5% HIDE Member code for these too "GlockHIDE24" The intro price is 10% off retail and the HIDE code will give you another 5 until the first batch of production runs out. These are in stock and ship immediately. Other models are coming shortly, we're running them in batches by model and sending them to DLC.

https://patriotvalleyarms.com/glock-g19-match-barrel/

 

[Rob01]

Looks great Josh. Any other model Glock barrels in the works?

 

[NHPiper]

There doesn't seem to be a sidearms area on this place any longer, so this seems like the best spot to announce these.
PVA is using precision rifle grade blanks and leveraging the CNC capabilities that we have to bring high end, conventionally rifled, drop-in Glock barrels... "prefits" if you will.

Threaded 1/2-28 Class 3A, 416RR and DLC coated as standard. These are not just another white-label from the big house in Florida that makes most of the other Glock barrels on the market.

PVA's using precision rifle level blanks to make pistol barrels. Ready to ship, endorsed by Olympic Pistol Shooters.

Here's a 5% HIDE Member code for these too "GlockHIDE24" The intro price is 10% off retail and the HIDE code will give you another 5 until the first batch of production runs out. These are in stock and ship immediately. Other models are coming shortly, we're running them in batches by model and sending them to DLC.

https://patriotvalleyarms.com/glock-g19-match-barrel/

Well shit you have done several of my other barrels and I was thinking of a Glock 19.

 

[bohem]

Looks great Josh. Any other model Glock barrels in the works?

17's are at plating, we have 26's and 43/43x in surface prep now and those will go to plating as soon as the 17's come back. I have a small batch of 45 and 48 that just started in the machine. It's a pretty work and cash intense process so we decided to roll them out as soon as they're ready instead of waiting to do all the models at once.

Well shit you have done several of my other barrels and I was thinking of a Glock 19.

You know you need one... and you won't see a better price than the 10% at launch plus 5% for Hide members ;-)

 

[Hennig]

Forward that email to me: josh (at) patriotvalleyarms.com and I'll take a look. The last 4 days have been very hectic for both @BenE and myself getting a bunch of things ready to go. I'll see what I can do to help from the other side of the globe. I'm not saying we didn't send you a dud, though it's statistically unlikely. Typically what you're describing is something to do with assembly and components rubbing, but we'll get you sorted out and the barrel replaced if that's what it takes to get your stuff shooting like it should.

Heya Josh, I did flick that email through a few days back, let me know if you didn’t get it.

I appreciate the response

 

[bohem]

Heya Josh, I did flick that email through a few days back, let me know if you didn’t get it.

I appreciate the response

Yessir, I got it today. I haven't had a chance to digest it but I will get in with you shortly.

 

[Firestarter123]

@bohem


I have one of the oddball TL2’s with Remington threads on it. It currently has a 223Rem PVA barrel on it.

Will I need to ship you the action to get another barrel for it or can you spin up a barrel without it?

 

[bohem]

@bohem


I have one of the oddball TL2’s with Remington threads on it. It currently has a 223Rem PVA barrel on it.

Will I need to ship you the action to get another barrel for it or can you spin up a barrel without it?

It should come back to be sure. I'm 99% confident it won't have a problem but I would like to see it. We will provide our usual custom fit tag when it comes back then too.

 

[Cody S]

I finally got around to doing a real load dev with my prefit in 6 creedmoor standard freebore reamer from pva.
absolute hammer with 42.5 N555 and 109 hybrids, 60 thou off lands at 3012fps as accurate as I ever could have hoped for. I may even win competitions with this if I do my part.
I put 7 shots in 1 small hole with an SD of 6

 

[B_Reynolds_AK]

Hey Josh,
@bohem
I believe the 22 CM reamer you have is .100.

Is it possible to order a longer FB, such as .120? I believe some smiths are able to hand ream out further?

I know you don’t personally like the 88 ELD-M, but several people that I know are having great results with them, especially in a short barrel and sending them in the 3000-3100 range.

 

[bohem]

Hey Josh,
@bohem
I believe the 22 CM reamer you have is .100.

Is it possible to order a longer FB, such as .120? I believe some smiths are able to hand ream out further?

I know you don’t personally like the 88 ELD-M, but several people that I know are having great results with them, especially in a short barrel and sending them in the 3000-3100 range.

Yes, we offer custom throating to a dummy round. We require that you send in 3 dummy rounds so that we can measure the BTO length and confirm it's consistent. Load the dummy rounds where the bullet would touch in your ideal round: IE if you want to shoot them at 0.020" jump, send us dummy rounds at 0.020" longer than what you're planning to load for. This way we can work to the bullet touching the throat.

Above about 3050-3100 the 88's seem to get worse and worse the faster you push them. At 2900 they're pretty awesome typically. The problem I have is that warrantying a barrel only to shoot 88's sets us up to hold the bag for a known problem on the bullet when someone doesn't like how they shoot and it's not the barrel's fault that 88's have issues above a certain RPM. I've had barrels come back that were inconsistent with 88's at 3100 but when I slowed them down to 2900-2950 they shot incredible. Put another bullet in there and the barrel shot incredible too. But the customer was not satisfied because "I didn't spend the money on a 22 creedmoor that is speed limited"... It's happened enough that we warn people up front on the 88's specifically.

 

[Cody S]

glad I don't deal with the public.
you designed a shit rifle load, slow it down or deal lol

 

[kthomas]

~3,000+ fps seems to be the precipice where things can really go wrong with loads. This is typically the point where you are really putting a lot of stress on the projectile.

As a general rule, I try to keep all my loads below 3,000 fps.

 

[bohem]

glad I don't deal with the public.
you designed a shit rifle load, slow it down or deal lol

It's part of the deal. The long majority of our customers have been really great to work for and we have some business policies in place due to things that we learned the hard way with folks who weren't so great. The workload is generally high and the complaints are typically low around here. Ben and I must be doing something right.

 

[tacoman69]

On these osprey prefits what round count are you guys typically seeing these velocities stabilize?

 

[bohem]

On these osprey prefits what round count are you guys typically seeing these velocities stabilize?

Depends on the bore size, typically around 100-150 in the smaller, high speed stuff.

 

[sierracharlie338]

They hooked me with the overstock inventory sale. Looking forward to getting my hands on one.

 

[sierracharlie338]

Got my barrel in yesterday. Hope to get it installed soon and start shooting. Thanks for the opportunity to take advantage of a great sale @bohem

 

[bohem]

View attachment 8505213
Got my barrel in yesterday. Hope to get it installed soon and start shooting. Thanks for the opportunity to take advantage of a great sale @bohem

Always! Thank you, we appreciate the business.

 

[johnnyvw]

Took my 223 out to shoot steels at 200 to 550 today. Easily hitting targets under 2 MOA first rounds except for 550, where I had to adjust my dope a tiny bit. This was with factory, primarily FGMM 69 gr. Super happy with the performance!

 

[Rob01]

Took my 223 out to shoot steels at 200 to 550 today. Easily hitting targets under 2 MOA first rounds except for 550, where I had to adjust my dope a tiny bit. This was with factory, primarily FGMM 69 gr. Super happy with the performance!

At Woody's?

 

[johnnyvw]

Yep, was there this morning. Beautiful day.

 

[Rob01]

I was there too from about 920-1020 to get some data for my .22. I wish I had more time as it was a great morning.

 

[johnnyvw]

Then you were there the same time. Does your rifle have a red stock?

 

[Rob01]

That was me. You the guy down the far right end of the 550 range? I was the pain in the ass that asked to run out and paint the 200 and 300 yard targets LOL Thanks for letting me.

 

[Cody S]

took my pva barreled gun out today again, forgot to shoot the good ammo, the old, less good ammo was grouping so good at 120 yards I forgot to test anything else.
40.5 grains h4350 under a dtac shoots really good in this barrel. 2970fps.
this is a fairly fast 26" barrel. held really great at 800 yards, inside half moa for 3 shots on steel.
how do you prevent bore expansion on button rifled barrels when you thread them? clearly you have worked it out because it shouldn't shoot this good and forgiving without a choke.

 

[johnnyvw]

At Woody's?

That was me. You the guy down the far right end of the 550 range? I was the pain in the ass that asked to run out and paint the 200 and 300 yard targets LOL Thanks for letting me.

Yeah, that was me No problem! Always willing to take a break so I don't shoot so much ammo LOL. Besides, after you left I had nice, freshly painted targets.

 

[bohem]

took my pva barreled gun out today again, forgot to shoot the good ammo, the old, less good ammo was grouping so good at 120 yards I forgot to test anything else.
40.5 grains h4350 under a dtac shoots really good in this barrel. 2970fps.
this is a fairly fast 26" barrel. held really great at 800 yards, inside half moa for 3 shots on steel.
how do you prevent bore expansion on button rifled barrels when you thread them? clearly you have worked it out because it shouldn't shoot this good and forgiving without a choke.

I'm glad you're seeing excellent results, that's our goal!

Contrary to popular internet lore, button barrels that have been properly stress relieved don't have the problem you're discussing. A lot of the "proof" that cut rifled doesn't have the problem where button does comes from data gathered by cutting on factory Remington barrels and an article that was published about 15 years ago in a now-defunct magazine.

Exactly what we're doing we keep rather close to the shirt but intentionally putting a choke in the bore to account for muzzle threading isn't one of those things.

 

[Cody S]

I'm glad you're seeing excellent results, that's our goal!

Contrary to popular internet lore, button barrels that have been properly stress relieved don't have the problem you're discussing. A lot of the "proof" that cut rifled doesn't have the problem where button does comes from data gathered by cutting on factory Remington barrels and an article that was published about 15 years ago in a now-defunct magazine.

Exactly what we're doing we keep rather close to the shirt but intentionally putting a choke in the bore to account for muzzle threading isn't one of those things.

neat, yeah I'm not looking for specifics, I'm not a competitor nor do I desire to be lol.
just glad this barrel is everything I was hoping it would be. I'm too lazy to have my guy check straightness or slug or anything unless it just shot like shit, which it most certainly does not.

 

[Rob01]

Yeah, that was me No problem! Always willing to take a break so I don't shoot so much ammo LOL. Besides, after you left I had nice, freshly painted targets.

Yup those little .22 don't mark it up much so it's great for centerfire guys after I am done. LOL

 

[Lawnboi]

@bohem any plans for 7.5 or 8 twist 22 cal blanks?

22 creedmoor shooters want to know.

Also are you still chambering customer blanks? I came across a blank id like to send it to be prefit.

 

[ZY100]

Second this....LOVE the Osprey barrels....all shooters. But a 7.5 or 8 22 cal would be nice.

So I can shoot 88 ELDms and make Josh not sleep well at night...ha ha. Just kidding....mostly!

Serious about the slower twist thought.

ZY

 

[Black Greyhound]

It should shoot well past the 550. You shooting it at Woody's?

Darn it! I wanted that barrel, too. However, good for you also! Now I'm getting a custom 223 AI from PVA! Kind of a win for you and win for me situation! ;-)

 

[Black Greyhound]

P.S. What's good brass is out there these days to fireform? I like to shoot Lapua, Peterson or ADG, since these are the "easy button" for quality brass. However, none of these are available in .223 right now. I have 2 boxes of Norma "golden target match 69gr" to fireform to my chamber for now. Unfortunately, available Lapua .223 Rem cartidges are WAY too expensive these days.

 

[Baron85]

I’m switching to starline from lapua. So far it seems good but I’m on its first firing. Fire forming 223ai

 

[TheOE800]

Unfortunately, available Lapua .223 Rem cartidges are WAY too expensive these days.

Berger probably not much cheaper, but don’t they use Lapua brass?

 

[Black Greyhound]

Berger probably not much cheaper, but don’t they use Lapua brass?

Yep, Berger uses Lapua brass, but they are running $32-40/box.

 

[03machstock]

P.S. What's good brass is out there these days to fireform? I like to shoot Lapua, Peterson or ADG, since these are the "easy button" for quality brass. However, none of these are available in .223 right now. I have 2 boxes of Norma "golden target match 69gr" to fireform to my chamber for now. Unfortunately, available Lapua .223 Rem cartidges are WAY too expensive these days.

I’m in the same predicament. Iv been using pmc brass because I had it laying around but I believe it’s holding me back at this point. I haven’t found lapua in a few years, but I’ll be picking up some Norma and calling it good enough for my .223 barrel after reading this guys research.

Norma 223 Remington Brass Compared to Lapua, PPU and Lake City

 

[bohem]

@bohem any plans for 7.5 or 8 twist 22 cal blanks?

22 creedmoor shooters want to know.

Also are you still chambering customer blanks? I came across a blank id like to send it to be prefit.

I ordered the tooling for making some 8's to test, though it won't be here til very late 2024 (which means early 2025). The button dimensions are different depending on the blank stock size, otherwise we'd be running them off the buttons from the AR barrels.

 

[bohem]

Second this....LOVE the Osprey barrels....all shooters. But a 7.5 or 8 22 cal would be nice.

So I can shoot 88 ELDms and make Josh not sleep well at night...ha ha. Just kidding....mostly!

Serious about the slower twist thought.

ZY

Buttons surprised me and came in early, we will have some initial pilot parts running later this week on some 8 twists. With any luck I'll be testing one in a couple weeks after stress relief.