@Rset touched on this with staffing and demand but one thing to also consider is that it's easy for us to say 'just add a machine' to increase production and reduce lead times but that isn't as easy as it sounds. Even IF they wanted to, I can tell you in watching interviews with both Ken from Brux and Frank from Bartlein that because making a barrel takes so many steps to produce, that adding a machine means also finding a way to prevent truncating the flow anywhere else in the production line and this usually means adding staff at every position along the way. That adds additional overhead, headaches and not to mention each of those positions requires considerable training on top of the fact that this isn't exactly a world where people are beating down the doors to work hard labor jobs anymore so it's tough to even staff those new position.
6-12 month barrels has been a thing for a few years now, especially for the good ones. On my channels I always recommend people order barrels before they need them based on how much they shoot. Especially for those who compete and shoot a lot, it's easy to figure out how many barrels you need and once you get past that initial order it's easier to stay ahead of it.
From my perspective I can at least be thankful that when I've dealt with Brux or Bartlein they are almost always dead on with their lead time estimates instead of giving people false hope it'll be sooner which helps plan as well. In many cases you may be surprised and get a barrel sooner.
Lastly, this is also where having a good relationship with a gunsmith comes in handy as well. As an example, I know a couple local smiths orders 50+ barrels at a time so they have them ready to go for their customers. Some smiths only use those barrels for complete builds, some reserve them for existing customer and other just chamber them.
You may try contacting Jeremy Smith www.jtsprecision.com or Jay Christopherson www.jrcprecision.com as I believe both often have barrels in stock (mostly for F Class) and do almost nothing but barrel work so turn around is pretty quick, but you can't just buy barrels from them, you have to use them for the chambering as well.
Here's a quick list of places I'm aware of to look including some previously listed above:
6-12 month barrels has been a thing for a few years now, especially for the good ones. On my channels I always recommend people order barrels before they need them based on how much they shoot. Especially for those who compete and shoot a lot, it's easy to figure out how many barrels you need and once you get past that initial order it's easier to stay ahead of it.
From my perspective I can at least be thankful that when I've dealt with Brux or Bartlein they are almost always dead on with their lead time estimates instead of giving people false hope it'll be sooner which helps plan as well. In many cases you may be surprised and get a barrel sooner.
Lastly, this is also where having a good relationship with a gunsmith comes in handy as well. As an example, I know a couple local smiths orders 50+ barrels at a time so they have them ready to go for their customers. Some smiths only use those barrels for complete builds, some reserve them for existing customer and other just chamber them.
You may try contacting Jeremy Smith www.jtsprecision.com or Jay Christopherson www.jrcprecision.com as I believe both often have barrels in stock (mostly for F Class) and do almost nothing but barrel work so turn around is pretty quick, but you can't just buy barrels from them, you have to use them for the chambering as well.
Here's a quick list of places I'm aware of to look including some previously listed above:
- Brux bruxbarrels.com
- Bartlein bartleinbarrels.com
- Krieger Kriegerbarrels.com
- Blake Barrels (fclassproducts.com)
- Bugholes.com
- Bulletcentral.com
- Riflebarrels.com (lilja barrels)
- Benchmark-barrels.com
- Shilen.com
- Hartbarrels.com
- Mcgowenbarrel.com
- Proofresearch.com
- Acebarrels.com
- Criterionbarrels.com
- www.theurbanriflemanstore.com
- @Greg Taylor (forum member and good guy to deal with)
- www.jtsprecision.com (must also have them do the chambering)
- www.jrcprecision.com (must also have them do the chambering)
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