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Ballistics Advantage barrels question... warranty issue approaching epic fail

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pangris

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Minuteman
    • Feb 25, 2006
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    Greetings all. I'm hoping I learn something here.

    I bought a couple barrels from a company that shall remain nameless at this point. We'll leave it at - over $500 barrels and the ad copy would lead you to believe that after Hephaestus forged them, he shipped them to NASA who polished every surface to within .00001 microns of true, and then they went to the ninth level of Hell where they were cryogenically treated until they wouldn't shoot groups but rather a single black hole into another dimension.

    That turned out to be less than perfectly true. After some disappointing results, I sent them to the manufacturer for T&E and they confirmed they didn't meet spec. That wasn't last week or last month, this has now been a hot minute and suffice to say I have an email chain that has reached the owner of the company who said some time ago they would make this right.

    With that said, I found out today that the replacements are coming to me from... Ballistic Advantage.

    **I'm not mad at Ballistic Advantage.** I can shoot, do shoot, and tend to shoot barrels that are higher quality and I've paid for the privilege. As the saying goes, I'm not rich enough to buy cheap shit and do it twice, or whatever the saying is. With that said, I've never had Ballistic Arms recommended to me by the shooters I know who own/build sub MOA rifles. I've stuck with Krieger, Noveske, Craddock, etc in the past and never had an issue with any of those.

    If you have a BA and are happy with it - super cool - I ain't mad at you.

    With that said I feel like I was shopping for say a Corvette, got something that couldn't hit zero to 60 in 10 seconds, and am being told the warranty replacement is a V6 Charger.

    Does Ballistic Advantage have any true premium barrels or am I getting shined on?

    Someone, please tell me there is a skunkworks or proven premium line at BA I've never heard of.
     
    Last edited:
    Do you mean Ballistic Advantage? Usually the more you pay the higher the chances are it will be a good barrel. From a cost/value perspective, if I paid $500+ for a barrel then the vendor offered to replace it with one that retails for 50% of that I'd be kind of miffed.

    The BA barrels I've used excluding one were acceptable for what I paid for them. The problem barrel BA did replace. But I'd expect more performance if I paid more.
     
    Yes, Ballistic Advantage. And I've yet to find any evidence of a line of barrels they offer that would be comparable to the claim or cost of the barrels I bought.
     
    I’m more interested in what the original barrel was and who you bought it from.
    No experience with BA barrels, can’t help there.
     
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    We'll get there. Let's see what the deliver.
     
    It's likely the barrels are made for them by ballistic advantage. Several years ago I dealt with one who was exactly like that. A whole bunch of noise and smoke about how awesome his barrels were and they were dogshit.
     
    Are you sure BA didn’t provide the original barrels to the folks you bought them from? The situation is a bit confusing. Who was the original seller?
     
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    tucaz made a very good point. I don't quite get where a BA barrel can be a replacement for "over $500 barrels". That would be the C- for story flow. Just so I can better understand, you bought a couple barrels at $500 each from a vendor who stated in their advertising said barrels were the best of the best bestest but did not list who made the barrels?

    I could use Rainier Arms with their Ultra Match barrels as an example. However with little research it can be found these barrels are either Shilen Ratchet (old) or Criterion (new) and chambered/finished by Craddock (most likely). I believe a few other vendors will list barrels as cut rifled but don't list the blank makers but are likely to be Vorkat or whatever they are called.

    Not sure how BA came into the picture or could possibly be a replacement for $500 barrels. I don't think any amount of lapping, polishing, fluting, chambering, praying over by a Super Preacher would turn a BA barrel into anything but a BA barrel.

    I'm not being a smart-ass here, just the information flow fell off a rocky cliff with horny ugly fatties at the bottom.
     
    Last edited:
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    The originals were supposed in house, however now discontinued - so they are "sourcing replacements".

    IE yeah its horse shit. I'm going to voice my concerns and will follow up when it is actually "resolved".
     
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    Reactions: DHDeal
    I figured you were voicing your frustration and I get it. There have been more than a few times I've done something and hoped other people's experiences wouldn't happen to me too. Been lucky a few times and have been another example other times.

    One place I've learned the hard way to not gamble on is barrels. Hell, just buying a barrel, regardless of who makes the blank, is a gamble. I'm gonna stack the deck in my favor from the start. I've still pulled the damn Joker a time or two. My shooting partner said it better than I could some years back. He said if he wanted an easy hobby, he would go back to golf.....
     
    I don't believe they're selling these barrels as stand alone any longer, so the public isn't at risk and I'll be a bitch as long as I please. My primary goal here was to see if this wise community had information to the contrary of my cursory understanding of BA's lines and capabilities.

    I'm giving them one more chance to get this right next week. If the answer is they are going to use BA barrels in lieu of what I supposedly bought, I'm at the point of saying they can just ship me back my uppers without barrels, I'll take the hit and chalk it up to experience.

    Once I have word from them as to the course of action, I'll fill in the blanks... Which were "not 3rd party sourced".
     
    Making a conscious decision to use BA barrels is akin to playing Russian roulette; sometimes you win, sometimes you lose at about a 50% rate.

    They don't make a premium barrel in the typical sense that most have a vision of here as coming from people like WOA, Criterion, what was CLE, Craddock, etc., who all use recognized name blanks.

    I have used exactly 2 BA barrels, both what they describe as their "premium" fluted SS version, knowing full well what they were, but were for knock around guns, not intended to be high precision.

    One shot patterns until I recrowned it & turned off half the MB threads & chased what was left. Now it shoots nice round groups of about an inch very consistently.

    The other one is an 18" of the same version & it has shot 5 shot groups of also about an inch since the get go, even with my wife shooting it.

    But if they are trying to give you any BA barrel as a sub for any $500 barrel, I'd say no to that on principle.

    I paid $150 for each of the 2 that I have & in the end, I got about what I paid for.

    FWIW

    MM
     
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    pangris said:
    I don't believe they're selling these barrels as stand alone any longer, so the public isn't at risk and I'll be a bitch as long as I please. My primary goal here was to see if this wise community had information to the contrary of my cursory understanding of BA's lines and capabilities.

    I'm giving them one more chance to get this right next week. If the answer is they are going to use BA barrels in lieu of what I supposedly bought, I'm at the point of saying they can just ship me back my uppers without barrels, I'll take the hit and chalk it up to experience.

    Once I have word from them as to the course of action, I'll fill in the blanks... Which were "not 3rd party sourced".
    Click to expand...


    so at this point, your thread could have just been....


    Does Ballistic Advantage have any true premium barrels?
     
    I have experience with exactly 2 BA barrels.

    The first is a 6.5 creedmoor that is an honest sub-moa barrel with match ammo. It was in a stash of gun parts when my uncle passed, and I built it into a rifle for my dad.

    The second is a 16” mid length gas 308 that is a 2 moa barrel with everything I’ve shot through it. I bought it cheap, as a “mule” for the concept of a short, light weight 308AR. It does what I need, the price was right, and I had set my expectations appropriately before purchasing. It might get replaced, but I don’t need to impress anyone with it, and it works. So, yeah.

    Anyway, you mostly get what you pay for. I wouldn’t expect a match quality barrel, but it could happen…
     
    The only acceptable solution is monetary reimbursement. Refund. Ballistic Advantage barrels go on sale so frequently that you could've picked one up on one of their 40% off sales for low $100s. Not even close to $500.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: RTH1800 and BCP
    pangris said:
    I don't believe they're selling these barrels as stand alone any longer, so the public isn't at risk and I'll be a bitch as long as I please. My primary goal here was to see if this wise community had information to the contrary of my cursory understanding of BA's lines and capabilities.

    I'm giving them one more chance to get this right next week. If the answer is they are going to use BA barrels in lieu of what I supposedly bought, I'm at the point of saying they can just ship me back my uppers without barrels, I'll take the hit and chalk it up to experience.

    Once I have word from them as to the course of action, I'll fill in the blanks... Which were "not 3rd party sourced".
    Click to expand...
    Saying “they don’t sell these standalone” implies they’re still including them in uppers and/or rifles that are presumably similarly priced. That could be a problem. Don’t post cagey shit about companies you refuse to name. It’s annoying.
     
    • Like
    Reactions: GhostFace and RTH1800
    Um that was a joke. But just think, if it was ever proven that KAC barrels were actually made by Ballistic Advantage, the resulting thread would likely be the most epic of all time 😂
     
    • Like
    Reactions: DHDeal and BCP
    I’ve used ballistic advantage on a plinker and was very happy and think their barrels are a bargain, but it costed less than $80, I can’t fathom they would have a separate special line competing in the price range and with the companies you mentioned, yes if I were you I would be livid.
     
    All 8 of my BA barrels shoot 1MOA or better. Most are right around .7. Not bad for a 165.00 stainless nitrided barrel
     
    I have BCA barrels that shoot better than the 4 BA barrels I had. I have only one left. It shoots ok at best. BA sells a lot of barrels to other companies to put in their uppers.

    See this line across what is supposed to be the leade? It went all around each land. This was on their 18"Black SS match SPR barrel. There were a bunch of these that they let out. It was not only the Black SS ones. It was also the SS fluted ones. All 4 of the barrels I had were replaced by them then sold except for this one 18" I now have that they replaced. It looks very good but is just ok for groups.

    PyvcSPi.jpg
     
    I’ve had a few a couple were white oak accurate, others ok, couple duds. However you cut it they’re cheap. The last couple green mountains I’ve bought have been better. Not as overgassed and more accurate. Nicer crown.
     
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