Kudos to the Krieger QA team!

[lrgoodger]

Some of you might remember the post about the 1071 yard prairie dog kill last spring. That gun had a Krieger barrel and it shot so well I wanted to try one for myself. Well, I guess it can happen to anyone and it happened to me. I got a Krieger barrel that would not group like it should have, so I sent it back to Krieger. They identified a problem with it that my gunsmith could not have detected, so they replaced the barrel. They even chambered the new barrel for me with my reamer when I complained that I would have to pay my gunsmith again to get it chambered. There was a problem with the reamer, too, and I had to get that replaced by the mfg. as well.

There were issues with the new barrel also, and the reamer still was not right, so I had to get both replaced again. I just wanted to publicly thank the quality assurance guys at Krieger for their outstanding response to my concerns and not giving up on me until I had a barrel that was exactly the way I wanted it, and at no extra charge to me! They even went as far as to shoot a few groups with the final barrel to make sure it was grouping before they sent it to me. I loaded up 20 rounds and sent them. The Krieger guys broke in the barrel with them and sent me the targets to prove that this barrel was doing the job. Now, that's what I call above and beyond!

It's good to know that the barrel and reamer companies are standing behind their products 100%.

Thanks guys!

 

[glo]

Well I'm not so proactive as you. I didn't bother sending my barrel back. I want every one to see the products Kreiger makes. I got a Palma barrel with all the same specs as the guys on the team use. Kreiger supplies the U.S. Palma Team members with barrels. I paid $411.00. Got the barrel and its not polished. Looks and feels like an axle off my Ford 1Ton Dully. Thank god they remembered to turn the muzzle end down for a front sight band.

No... I'm never going to buy a Kreiger barrel again. I'll stick with PacNor. I can get the same barrel for $358.00 and get it in about 8 weeks instead of the 6 months it took. Nice and polished too.

 

[jonbearman]

After all the slamming kreiger took on a 20 cal barrel,this is remarkable that they took the time to fix the problem. How long have you been a customer of kreiger and how many barrels do you buy each year? Just curious to see if you are a long time customer or a first timer that got really good service.

 

[butchlambert]

glo,
I haven't bought a barrel from any supplier that was polished. Maybe Pac Nor hasn't the backlog that Kreiger has for some reason. Probably the lack of listing on the winners or equip. list. Not using a Kreiger now, but have had absolutely no troubles with them.
Butch

 

[Scott Harris]

Well I'm not so proactive as you. I didn't bother sending my barrel back. I want every one to see the products Kreiger makes. I got a Palma barrel with all the same specs as the guys on the team use. Kreiger supplies the U.S. Palma Team members with barrels. I paid $411.00. Got the barrel and its not polished. Looks and feels like an axle off my Ford 1Ton Dully. Thank god they remembered to turn the muzzle end down for a front sight band.

No... I'm never going to buy a Kreiger barrel again. I'll stick with PacNor. I can get the same barrel for $358.00 and get it in about 8 weeks instead of the 6 months it took. Nice and polished too.

I'm guessing Krieger intentionally does not polish the exterior because some believe it provides extra surface area for cooling versus a polished barrel. Feel free to post your crappy blanks for sale: plenty of us schmucks will buy them

 

[tjtjwdad]

Well I'm not so proactive as you. I didn't bother sending my barrel back. I want every one to see the products Kreiger makes. I got a Palma barrel with all the same specs as the guys on the team use. Kreiger supplies the U.S. Palma Team members with barrels. I paid $411.00. Got the barrel and its not polished. Looks and feels like an axle off my Ford 1Ton Dully. Thank god they remembered to turn the muzzle end down for a front sight band.

No... I'm never going to buy a Kreiger barrel again. I'll stick with PacNor. I can get the same barrel for $358.00 and get it in about 8 weeks instead of the 6 months it took. Nice and polished too.

How did it shoot? Seems to me the hand lapped interior is more important than the exterior finish.

 

[glo]

glo,
I haven't bought a barrel from any supplier that was polished. Maybe Pac Nor hasn't the backlog that Kreiger has for some reason. Probably the lack of listing on the winners or equip. list. Not using a Kreiger now, but have had absolutely no troubles with them.
Butch

All Pac Nor barrels come Polished See http://www.pac-nor.com/pricelist/

Well I'm not so proactive as you. I didn't bother sending my barrel back. I want every one to see the products Kreiger makes. I got a Palma barrel with all the same specs as the guys on the team use. Kreiger supplies the U.S. Palma Team members with barrels. I paid $411.00. Got the barrel and its not polished. Looks and feels like an axle off my Ford 1Ton Dully. Thank god they remembered to turn the muzzle end down for a front sight band.

No... I'm never going to buy a Kreiger barrel again. I'll stick with PacNor. I can get the same barrel for $358.00 and get it in about 8 weeks instead of the 6 months it took. Nice and polished too.

How did it shoot? Seems to me the hand lapped interior is more important than the exterior finish.

Haven't rebarreled yet. I'm deciding what gunsmith to do the work: James Hoag (done all most all the rifle work I've ever had done); Doan Trevor in NM or Ozzie Suarez of STR. Maybe Mr. Lambert would like to do the work. Rebarrle a factory M700, cambered for .308 Palma 2011?

 

[Frankr]

I'm glad that kreiger took care of it the way they did. I had one that did not shoot well once and sold the rifle with a non shooting barrel,recovered the cost of the action and stock work,I called kreiger and they told me send it back, well i could not. but they said the would love to have the barrel.
I have had several pac-nor's started out as i wanted a 25/06AI in a certain countor and pac nor delivered that barrel unpolished to my door for like $280.00(several years back) and man did it shoot, so i bought another barrel and it shot..I mean hey its a top of the line buttoned barrel. so i came up with a contour in 6mm,3 grove,fluted that i wanted to try and it worked as i wanted , it shot in a hole and i do mean a hole. so i decided you have to stick with whats working for you, so i ordered two more pac nor's , one the exact same spec's as the one that shot in a hole and one .030 smaller.. to see if lighter it would shoot, now understand these are $450.00 dollar blanks $650.00 dollar barrel after cambering work done. well the little barrel shoots in a hole, the barrel to the same spec's as my old barrel that shot in a hole..Is BuckShot..yea that's what the target looks like Buckshot.
so i have sent it back and have not heard anything yet..so am i out $650.00 buck's or just out the $250.00 in cambering and shipping..I don't know yet, but bad barrels do happen.I really like the pac nor's. but this could sour me and i do have a kreiger coming for a 6ppc..I been singing the old HEE Haw song around the house.

 

[glo]

Well maybe polishing the barrel is an extra. Seem so by all the posts. I know James won't work on an unpolished barrel. He's been very busy anyway. I would like to get my barrel done by spring for competition.

I know I specified a polishe barrel when I orderd. Got a letter with all the specs. and costing. Can't find it now. Maybe I forgot to make sure it said polished on the confermation letter. I'm used to PacNor sending them polished. I guess I've been spoild :-[.

So for now I'm going to watch what happens. I'll have the gunsmith polish the barrel and just eat the cost. Cant be too much? I'll reserve judgment till I break in the barrel some time next summer. ;D

 

[tjtjwdad]

I've never tried a Pac-Nor barrel but from all of those I know that have them...they love em'. As far as barrel finishes (exterior) it's getting harder to find some one to put a polished blue job on them these days.

 

[Frankr]

Yea all the pac nor barrel's do come polished, but you can ask them not to polish it, as i had done at one time to save $20.. I have been very happy with the few pac nor's i have had, I have had a few good shooting shilen barrel's some years back. I have had two kreigers that did not shoot that well...but i'm going to try another one.
I think you can get a good shooting barrel from any of the top makers, but it is possible to get a buckshot one to.

 

[lrgoodger]

After all the slamming kreiger took on a 20 cal barrel,this is remarkable that they took the time to fix the problem. How long have you been a customer of kreiger and how many barrels do you buy each year? Just curious to see if you are a long time customer or a first timer that got really good service.

I'm definitely a first timer with Krieger. I put one on the gun for my customer that killed the 1071 yard PD, and then I decided to get one for myself. I thought it was going to be a shooter like the one I put on my customer's gun (I could hardly find a load that would NOT shoot in that barrel) when the first group out of it was five shots in .28", but I'm having trouble since then. I'm not so sure it isn't something in my setup, though. Most of the fliers are vertical.

 

[mikecr]

I think it's madness to expect that your barrel will perform just like someone else's -because they're the same brand.
In my experience, it's a crapshoot.

If you think I'm crazy, then ask Krieger why the first barrel didn't shoot as well as your last, & why they let the first barrel leave the shop to begin with..
Then consider that the TRUTH is they don't know anymore than you do how & why all the combinations of components and finishing of them, cause a gun to shoot great, or poorly..
It was merely local trial & error in the end that solved your problem.

 

[glo]

An update on my Palma barrel. The wife and I were talking about what to do. She wanted to see the barrel. I pulled it out and she inspected it. She noticed it had been polished at the chambered end but was stain and showed signs of oxidization. She also showed me two crescent shaped pings about a quarter inch in diameter on the chamber end.

We decided not to send the barrel back. At the end of January I'll rebarrel the rifle. At least I'm not in the “dog house” for not seeing the ping marks.

 

[bozo699]

glo,
I haven't bought a barrel from any supplier that was polished. Maybe Pac Nor hasn't the backlog that Kreiger has for some reason. Probably the lack of listing on the winners or equip. list. Not using a Kreiger now, but have had absolutely no troubles with them.
Butch

Absolutely spot on Butch.
Wayne.

 

[glo]

It looks like the cost of making barrels has gone up. Everything is going up in cost. So maybe they just polish the chamber end and in my case also the last 4” at the muzzle which is turned down from .925” to .800” to accommodate the front sight barrel band diameter. By not polishing the main barrel section they are keeping costs down and still selling the barrels at the same price. Or at least that what I think.

And who knows. I'm a real cluts. I may have banged the box up against something in my hobby and made the crescent shape pings my self. Anyway its my barrel and it reflects my personality. Not quit perfect with a few blemishes.