I ordered a Select Match, full blank,308 in 1/12 twist in June. I was told 6 to 8 weeks waiting...O.K. not a problem. October 26th and still NO barrel for my customer. A phone call into it about 10 weeks I was told if one comes out of the next batch it would be delivered. Don't want to rush them as I want the best barrel I can get for this customer. It's possiable that they said 6 to 8 months, my wife says I have selective hearing =). Is there that much rebarreling that one has to wait this long on an order? Thought I'd ask...

I order a lot of barrels. 308 and 284 barrels are hot right now. I think Bartlein and Kreiger are up to 6 month wait. Shilen is about 3-4 months and Rock Creek a little bit less.
Butch

Thanks Butch, I had no idea that barrels are in that much demand. I'll relay the message to my customer. I have a couple of other project for myself, might be best to order now!

Bruno's Shooters Supply has them in stock.
http://www.brunoshooters.com

Mark

Bruno normally has very few hunting taper barrels, normally only BR barrels in stock.
Butch

One reason I always have a few blanks in the safe!

hey - i've been using balnks for years - OOPS - wrong barrel

I'm 4 months into the wait for a Bartlein right now with no delivery date yet. Krieger's even worse. But I order ahead and have two more blanks to shoot out before I need these two.

I wonder if maybe it is more of a domino affect in Steel production being slow with standing purchases going to China.
Frank

Frank,
It has always been this way pretty much. Crucible had problems. Seems like reorganization they went through. I don't think steel is the problem, sales are just good.
Butch

At least that is a good thing with aggressive sales.
Frank

I took a trip down to the Grizzly showroom in Williamsport, PA last Friday. They list Bartlien barrels in their catalog.

Grizzly has really expanded their line! They have a lot of gunsmithing equipment/tools. This is the first time I have stopped in the new facility, although I have been past it 100's of times. The old showroom on Reach Rd is about the size of one display area in the new place.

American steel production is up and China has actually been exporting steel the last few years.

The Chinese steel rush is long since over.

If there is a shortage of specialty steels then the problem is (Last I checked) we only have two US companies producing specialty steels and three if you consider uddeholm but they are a Swedish based company. Everyone else buys steel from these guys and distributes it under there own name or sell as a distributor for the parent company.

All the Big steel shops like Nucor make structural steels, and rebar they don't produce tool steels.

I just received a Shilen that I ordered in the middle of May.

I don't get hung up on one barrel manufacture. Most of my customers want a quality barrel and are not to concerned who made it, Shilen, Hart, Krieger, Brux, Montana, Douglas, Lilja, Pac-nor and one's I forgot. I can almost always get what I need in a timely manner, somewhere. I build mostly hunting and long range guns, no bench guns, so I don't have the nit picking problems, as much. If I had my way I would just use Krieger's. However I have had some good luck with Montana's lately. I also usually buy straight blanks and conture them myself.........Tom

See if BERGARA has what you need. I've used several and they SHOOT !

My customer asked for this Shilen barrel because that is what I put on his other rifle. He is a very capable shooter and may not know one brand from another, but was very happy with his last rebarrel. He at first took it personaly, so I told him I would post this question here for him. I didnt know it would be this kind of wait, but now he knows its not pointed directly at him or me. I told him (good things come to thoes who wait)...and that this manufacture has never let me down in the past and will not this time also.
Hey, he's a customer, he nor I had a clue until you all chimed in and for that I THANK YOU! I'm getting back at this slowly and, well you have to keep the customer informed and happy.
Again thanks for your responces!