Rock Creek Barrels

diggler1833 · Apr 21, 2024

Kocher said:
That’s what I was thinking too that the issue is really what you’re looking for irregular lands different sizes, Squished, large cuts out of the rifling itself, and I don’t see that.

From what it sounds like you’re saying that from that sort of rifling process you will get those marks not to mention the process for this barrel takes like 10 seconds where a top tier barrel will be like 30 minutes to an hour per barrel blank plus they stop and lap between..

So is mine a superior rock Creek barrel because it sure don’t look that shiny to me.?

The flagship of Rock Creek Barrels’ product line is the single point cut rifled barrel. These barrels are manufactured on twin spindle hydraulic Pratt & Whitney rifling machines and are available in 4H, 5R, or 8R rifling profiles. All barrels are hand lapped to superb interior finishes with compounds mixed in house. By the very nature of the way we modified these Pratt and Whitney machines, twist rates from 1:5 to 1:35+ are available and have a slight gain twist.

I

I really only use my borescope to check my cleaning. Otherwise you'll start second guessing the manufacturer (and yourself) on everything. There is really no reason why any premium barrel should have dinged up lands leaving the factory anyway.

A good button rifled barrel is going to be just as accurate as a good cut rifled barrel. There are differences obviously, but that will take quite a lot of long posts to get there.

MontanaMan · Apr 21, 2024

diggler1833 said:
A good button rifled barrel is going to be just as accurate as a good cut rifled barrel. There are differences obviously, but that will take quite a lot of long posts to get ththere.

I've had that discussion with Paul Craddock a couple of times.

He agrees with your statement regarding accuracy & says that the accuracy life will be shorter though.

I've borescoped the RC button barrels that I have & they look fine to my eyes
Don't foul & shoot fine. Hard to ask for more.

MM

Cascade Hemi · Apr 21, 2024

MontanaMan said:
I've had that discussion with Paul Craddock a couple of times.

He agrees with your statement regarding accuracy & says that the accuracy life will be shorter though.

I've borescoped the RC button barrels that I have & they look fine to my eyes
Don't foul & shoot fine. Hard to ask for more.

MM

What about the rest of the work? Does "looks fine to my eyes" apply to the fucked up gas port?

Top tier 6mm ARC barrels

Against my better judgement I want to put together a 6mm ARC. I’ll be rebarreling one of my Larue Match uppers that has a 13” HG and will be running a Superlative GB that likely won’t fit in the rail so it needs to be a rifle +1 gas system to sit out in front of the HG. I’d like to stick to an...

www.snipershide.com

MontanaMan · Apr 21, 2024

AleksanderSuave said:
Craddock looks to have scrubbed all references to Rock Creek barrels on their website.

Anyone in the know as to why?

4 months from this post & RC barrels are pretty prominently referred to there now.

Prior to the introduction of the RTR series, RC was never referred to as prominently as Bartlien & Criterion, but he always seemed to have them available, IME.

MM

wade2big · Apr 21, 2024

Cascade Hemi said:
What about the rest of the work? Does "looks fine to my eyes" apply to the fucked up gas port?

Top tier 6mm ARC barrels

Against my better judgement I want to put together a 6mm ARC. I’ll be rebarreling one of my Larue Match uppers that has a 13” HG and will be running a Superlative GB that likely won’t fit in the rail so it needs to be a rifle +1 gas system to sit out in front of the HG. I’d like to stick to an...

www.snipershide.com

“Looks fine to my eyes” has nothing to do with what you mentioned or linked. The man you quoted was referencing his own barrels.

MontanaMan · Apr 21, 2024

Cascade Hemi said:
What about the rest of the work? Does "looks fine to my eyes" apply to the fucked up gas port?

Top tier 6mm ARC barrels

Against my better judgement I want to put together a 6mm ARC. I’ll be rebarreling one of my Larue Match uppers that has a 13” HG and will be running a Superlative GB that likely won’t fit in the rail so it needs to be a rifle +1 gas system to sit out in front of the HG. I’d like to stick to an...

www.snipershide.com

The gas ports on mine are clean, even after a few hundred rounds.

MM

Cascade Hemi · Apr 21, 2024

wade2big said:
“Looks fine to my eyes” has nothing to do with what you mentioned or linked. The man you quoted was referencing his own barrels.

I'm aware but it's part of the discussion chain. The excuse making because Craddock is a preferred vendor is incredible.

Here is the finish inside of a hand lapped, button rifled, Criterion after 200 rounds. Notice the absence of tooling marks.

wade2big · Apr 21, 2024

Cascade Hemi said:
I'm aware but it's part of the discussion chain. The excuse making because Craddock is a preferred vendor is incredible.

Here is the finish inside of a hand lapped, button rifled, Criterion after 200 rounds. Notice the absence of tooling marks.

View attachment 8401783

That’s a pretty picture and if the barrel shoots, even more the better. I’ve had many button rifled RC barrels on bolt guns that shot as good as anything. Only my factory DT Lother Walther barrels have done better and I’ve had had Bartlein and the lot that also shot well. To be fair, I’ve not bore scoped any of them. My RC barrels may very well had tooling marks, but I couldn’t see them by looking at the target.

MontanaMan · Apr 21, 2024

Ok.

As you said........hand lapped.

Looks fine as expected.

So what?

You can also get a Criterion from Craddock at a premium over an RC button.

So what's your point?

Other than wanting to be a Dick with a hard on for Craddock.

MM

Cascade Hemi · Apr 21, 2024

wade2big said:
That’s a pretty picture and if the barrel shoots, even more the better. I’ve had many button rifled RC barrels on bolt guns that shot as good as anything. Only my factory DT Lother Walther barrels have done better and I’ve had had Bartlein and the lot that also shot well. To be fair, I’ve not bore scoped any of them. My RC barrels may very well had tooling marks, but I couldn’t see them by looking at the target.

Welcome to the future, where customers can look inside the final product and see exactly what they bought. Or, what they didn't receive.

wade2big · Apr 21, 2024

Cascade Hemi said:
Welcome to the future, where customers can look inside the final product and see exactly what they bought. Or, what they didn't receive.

I get what you are saying and somewhat agree, but I’m paying for performance. My factory Seekins SP10 also has a Rock Creek barrel. This rifle shoots like a bolt gun which is what matters. I don’t give a dang what it looks like on the inside as long as problems aren’t created because of it. I care only about the effect the barrel has on the bullet once outside the barrel.

Cascade Hemi · Apr 21, 2024

MontanaMan said:
Ok.

As you said........hand lapped.

Looks fine as expected.

So what?

You can also get a Criterion from Craddock at a premium over an RC button.

So what's your point?

Other than wanting to be a Dick with a hard on for Craddock.

MM

I paid $300 for the barrel in the picture. I didn't have to pay extra. By all accounts Craddock makes some of the best custom barrels in the AR world. The RTRs do not appear to live up to that reputation.

MontanaMan · Apr 21, 2024

I've seen more than a few factory Rem 700 barrels that looked like the rifling was cut with a chainsaw, but they shot lights out, didn't clean so easily thought.

Beauty is great for sure, but that doesn't always reflect or guarantee accuracy.

The problem with borescopes is that too many people are convinced that a barrel must be perfect, end to end in order to shoot well, & that' not always the case.

Do I prefer a pretty barrel, sure, but performance overrides beauty; best case you get both.

MM

MontanaMan · Apr 21, 2024

Cascade Hemi said:
I paid $300 for the barrel in the picture. I didn't have to pay extra. By all accounts Craddocks makes some of the best custom barrels in the AR world. The RTRs do not appear to live up to that reputation.

That's possible & things change.

I don't have any RTR barrels. My RC barrels are before he introduced the RTR Series.

But let's be clear, Craddock is buying rifled blanks & finishing them.

But if they are wanting, then that's on Craddock to know that & address it.

He's gotten a LOT bigger with a lot more OEM work. Wouldn't be the 1st time that attention to detail has suffered on custom or semi- custom stuff as a result.

MM

Cascade Hemi · Apr 21, 2024

MontanaMan said:
I've seen more than a few factory Rem 700 barrels that looked like the rifling was cut with a chainsaw, but they shot lights out, didn't clean so easily thought.

Beauty is great for sure, but that doesn't always reflect or guarantee accuracy.

The problem with borescopes is that too many people are convinced that a barrel must be perfect, end to end in order to shoot well, & that' not always the case.

Do I prefer a pretty barrel, sure, but performance overrides beauty; best case you get both.

MM

Faxxon sells $150 barrels. Some shoot really well. Most look like the inside of those RTR barrels.

MontanaMan said:
That's possible & things change.

I don't have any RTR barrels. My RC barrels are before he introduced the RTR Series.

But let's be clear, Craddock is buying rifled blanks & finishing them.

But if they are wanting, then that's on Craddock to know that & address it.

He's gotten a LOT bigger with a lot more OEM work. Wouldn't be the 1st time that attention to detail has suffered on custom or semi- custom stuff as a result.

MM

That's the point. Craddock is trading on their name. From the pictures, those barrels are no better than any other lower end AR barrel, except for the limited customization available from Craddock. Do they shoot? Do BA and Faxxon shoot? Yeah, a lot of them do.

Kocher · Apr 21, 2024

2days off will shoot’em and let you know
I concerned that gas port is going g to fuck of the bullet and cause the consistency to suck…

Kocher · Apr 21, 2024

kthomas said:
IMO, this is the best course of action.

If you have a regular gunsmith that you trust, I would weigh their opinion more heavily then one from a random on the internet. See what they use and recommend. And if you have any issues, your gunsmith should take care of you.

Being I built my own guns, I guess I am the gunsmith? I have no other outside gun smith source.

I have no “gun smith schooling”
I am a self taught mig/tig welder, a mechanic, carpenter, plumber, electrician, and a RN ( I actually went to school for that) thinking about going to gun smith course though…..

Perhaps I need the right friends

tomme boy · Apr 23, 2024

The marks are from the reamer before the barrel is rifled. It shows what the feed rate the reamer was fed in. Most times the marks are swaged out smooth but not always. One thing they can tell you is if there is loose spots in the barrel. That is where there will be more marks as the button passed over them without much force.

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