Has anyone had experience with Blackstar barrels or their accurizing process?Looking for good and bad experiences please. Thank you Guy

There was a thread on the Target Shooting forum a week or so ago on Blackstar. Pretty much covered the usual FAQ's

Redial

Last fall I asked this same question on HA, as one local gunsmith recommended Blackstar for a Whelen project. The gist of the responses was to stay away from them, as fouling tends be a problem, and there appear to be other issues as well.These comments came from Jack Belk and Chic Worthing, who certainly know what's what.

I also checked with another 'smith who I found out is the "top dog" in my part of the state for this sort of project and he dissed Black Star also.

[ 03-08-2003, 18:17: Message edited by: Borealis Bob ]

There is a reason why those that rent reamers state not to use their reamers in a Blackstar barrel; they are awfully hard on reamers. I had a customer who had very bad luck with a Blackstar, mostly fouling excessively and then not able to get his money back. They offered him two new barrels instead and he did not want them.

I have a couple of them. One in a 300 Weatherby. The first one they sent fouled badly from rough spots along the bore. They replaced it with a good one tht shoots under a half inch. The second one is a 358 that I've never shot. It was installed by Mr. Belk.
At least the witness is marked with his name.

The barrel stock is Lothar Walther I believe

I have a Blackstar Accumax II barrel. Basically they order Lothar barrels do some sort of polishing to the bore and cryo the barrel. At leat this is what I understand.

I wouldn't know why Chic or Jack would not use them and use Lothar barrels. They are the same.

This is directly from the Blackstar site:

"AccuMax II rifle barrels are button-rifled by Lothar Walther to BlackStar specifications. All AccuMax II bores are electropolished & tapered for superior accuracy, interior ballistics and reduced fouling.
Lands are .0035" to .005", depending on caliber."

Comments from Dave Tooley:

"My customers have had very good success with BlackStar barrels in 1,000 yard competition. In my opinion, they are equal in accuracy and performance to anyone else's barrels that I have used, and they seem to clean up easier. I have installed quite a few of the AccuMax II barrels now, and we have become good friends. In fact, I am starting the 1998 1,000-yard season with a 6mm AccuMax II, and I am looking forward to a very successful year.

David Tooley
Tooley Custom Rifles
Gastonia, North Carolina"

Comments from Bruce Baer:

"At first, I was a skeptic about BlackStar. But then, in 1997, I started shooting an AccuMax II in registered 1,000-yard competition at Williamsport. To make a long story short, I finished in the Top Five in the Grand Aggregate, and shooting a BlackStar barrel definitely helped to put me there. As a competitor and a gunsmith, I have found BlackStar's AccuMax II barrels to be very consistent and very competitive barrels. In addition to being a real shooter, the throat on my personal AccuMax II barrel looks almost new after more than 750 rounds of .308 Baer. By comparison, there would usually be a lot of erosion and cracking in a 416R barrel by this point. Based on what I'm seeing now, I estimate that a 1,000-yard competitor that shoots the AccuMax II will be able to virtually double his competitive barrel life, and that is a BIG deal. There's another thing I want to mention. I have found that BlackStar is one of the few companies in the firearms business that really listens to their customers. This is not just my experience, but that of many other people I know. BlackStar is always asking questions and looking for suggestions on how to make their barrels even better. And if I have a question, they take it seriously and get me an answer. This is rare in my experience, and it is one reason why I like to deal with them.

These are some of the reasons why I shoot a BlackStar AccuMax II barrel.
Many of my usual customers shoot them as well, and more and more new
customers are asking for the AccuMax II. The question is, why don't you?

Bruce Baer
Baer's Gun Shop
Newburg, Pennsylvania"



Anyway, I like mine and haven't had any problems. I won mine in a shooting match and had a 7 STW built, very accurate and one of my favorite rifles.

Just my opinion, FWIW.

Jim

[ 03-10-2003, 17:36: Message edited by: 338Lapua ]

On behalf of Guy (who is busy working this week), I thank you gentlemen for the information. - dan

Gentlemen,as Dan mentioned I got called away for work and just now finished reading your responses.
Thank you for your input. I look forward to this exchange of ideas and experiences. Guy

A lot of barrel manufactures claim that there better than others. Since I worked for a gunsmith for about 10 years and still do stuff on the side occasionally, I have used several types of barrels from different barrel manufactures. Most barrels are good. A lot depends on the shooter and the contour of the barrel. More barrel equals less barrel vibration but skinny barrels do not always shoot less accurate. It also depends on the load your shooting. Most of you all know that there are different variances which cause good accuracy. I am sure that blackstar barrels shoot just fine. If you take a Weatherby barrel and look down the barrel you will see that it looks like a washboard yet they shoot fairly accurate. And with all barrel manufactures they can't always produce good barrels no matter how good the quality control is. I have a Remington 700 with a Shilen barrel that shoots 3 inch groups and I know that I can shoot a lot better than that. So most likely you will get outstanding accuracy with most any barrel you choose. Just takes time and patience.

There dealing over the years have been questioned to say the least...I, like several others here will not use them...

I prefer Lothar Walther barrels these days, but Douglas, Pacnor, Lilja, and Krieger are great barrels also....

Blackstar Barrels, like many other names in the gun trade, has not always been under the same ownership.

It was sold by the original owner to some folk that began "producing" the barrels in Idaho...

Then, about two years or so ago, it was taken back by the original owner in a legal dispute of some sort.

I suspect the passing of the company from one set of hands to another and back negatively affected customer service at various times. The same happened over the years with other firms, such as NEI Moulds, but it doesn't mean the product is necessarily a poor one...

I have three Blackstar barrels, of the 700-series stainless steel. (One each in .24, .25, and 6.5)All are hard, but that is not a bad thing per se.

If you want to cut many, many barrels without re-sharpening a shop reamer, then it is not the steel for you. However, if you want good wear characteristics from the barrel itself, and are using your own reamers for just your own barrels, then I think they are very good indeed.

338 Lapua, they are not the same. They are made by LW but with different steel for Blackstar. The LW barrels are not hard to chamber. There is a lot more to the circumstnaces to the sale of the buiness in Idaho that is coming out. I don't know all of the fine details but I did hear the purchaser was suing them over the sale in very short order and would not put them on any rifles. The purchaser was not "producing" barrels in Idaho.

If you got a Blackstar that shoots well you have a very good barrel with long life. If you got one of the others and that was more common, you had a terrible barrel and nothing would fix it. It may have been some quality control issues and hopefully they have fixed whatever it was. There were more horror stories than praise. Hopefully that is over.

Chic,
I went through and inspected all the barrels and equipment that BlackStar delivered to the Idaho person...I assure you what they sent must have come out of the junk pile and would have only made good tent stakes and scrap metal..I know the purchaser as you do, and I know that he would have never purchased what was delivered to him...I also know him to be about the most honest person I have ever known...

I believe Lother Walther, quite doing business with them because they were making some claims about how they were doing extra processing to LW barrels when in fact they were ruining the barrels with the process...

The fact that the barrels were not produced in Idaho is why I put "producing" in quotes.