Olympic Arms Stainless Ultra Match AR Cut Rifled Barrels

[anschuter2013]

Does anyone know what manufacturer made the barrels for Olympic Arms Stainless Ultra Match Cut Rifled barrels? I've owned 2. Both were 1 in 10 twist, 20" post ban, 4 lands and grooves and were black in color. Both were purchased from Brownells in the late 90's. Both were, and are just astoundingly accurate barrels. Any info would be appreciated.

 

[bpd459]

Greetings,
Olympic Arms made their own barrels, in house. They were a pretty busy place in the 90's.
Good luck
John

 

[mauser284]

In the 1990's they made a great product. I do not think they were technically cut rifled. I think they used the broaching process which is a lot like "cut rifled" but instead of a cutter box making multiple passes imagine a cutting tool a foot long with multiple cutters progressively taller like a bunch of musical notes on a scale each one one line higher than the last. Now imagine many like that in a spiral so just like a button making one pass and done you only need one pass to make what is essentially identical to a "cut rifled" barrel but in one pass. As long as the broaches are maintained you would be hard pressed to tell the difference. Broaches are expensive and usually today only used for pistol barrels but I think CMF is all but replacing it. They used to make bolt action barrels too with the broaching method. Fantastic barrels! Like any method the devil is in the details!

 

[gme]

I had one of those 10 twist broach cut barrels, really surprising how good it was, didn't live real long but it was a shooter

 

[pdog2225]

I had one of those 10 twist broach cut barrels, really surprising how good it was, didn't live real long but it was a shooter

In 2006 I went on a tour of their facility. They did use a broach to cut the SUM barrels (had 5 gal buchets full of them near the lathes. They were 10T and were not lapped. Mine was the best 55gr shooter I've owned.

 

[anschuter2013]

Excellent description using the musical note analogy! I totally get it. The mental picture is worth a thousand words. Good stuff!!!