Brownells .308 Barrels by Satern

[Flabbergasted]

Has anyone had any experience with these barrels good or bad? The specs seem good.

http://www.brownells.com/rifle-parts/barrel-parts/rifle-barrels/308-ar-barrels-prod69784.aspx?avs%7cCartridge_1=CTT_308%2bWinchester

[Flabbergasted]

I went ahead and ordered one, what the heck. They're on sale and you get $20 off on top of that plus free shipping.

[VIP3R 237]

I do not have experience with the .308 barrels, however the AR15 barrels are fantastic. FYI Proof Research uses their barrels if that's an indication of their quality.

[Flabbergasted]

Thanks for the info. I'm ignorant as to who proof research is. I know the barrels that Brownells sells are mad by Satern, and they have a pretty good reputation, at least when it comes to their other calibers.

[Warg]

I do not have experience with the .308 barrels, however the AR15 barrels are fantastic. FYI Proof Research uses their barrels if that's an indication of their quality.

No, they don't. They make their own and do button and cut rifling in-house. I've done a tour of the facility, but see: http://proofresearch.com/the-products/barrels/steel-barrels/

I wouldn't touch Satern with a 10 ft pole after their Grendel debacle (had issues with two I purchased from Alexandar Arms that were manufactured for AA by Satern). Google if interested.

[VIP3R 237]

Good to know, I was under the impression that's who they were getting their blanks from.


No, they don't. They make their own and do button and cut rifling in-house. I've done a tour of the facility, but see: http://proofresearch.com/the-products/barrels/steel-barrels/

I wouldn't touch Satern with a 10 ft pole after their Grendel debacle (had issues with two I purchased from Alexandar Arms that were manufactured for AA by Satern). Google if interested.

[Flabbergasted]

I wouldn't touch Satern with a 10 ft pole after their Grendel debacle (had issues with two I purchased from Alexandar Arms that were manufactured for AA by Satern). Google if interested.

I'll test it out to see if it's worth touching with a pole. If it fails, Brownells has an unconditional return policy if I'm not satisfied.

[hk_shootr]

No, they don't. They make their own and do button and cut rifling in-house. I've done a tour of the facility, but see: http://proofresearch.com/the-products/barrels/steel-barrels/

I wouldn't touch Satern with a 10 ft pole after their Grendel debacle (had issues with two I purchased from Alexandar Arms that were manufactured for AA by Satern). Google if interested.

I wouldn't touch Alexander Arms with a ten foot pole. Why blame the parts supplier when the "assembler" is to blame.
Cheap barrels produce poor results on target

[AR-n-Ky]

Though I don't have any experience with the .308 and I never owned a Saturn barrel, there are afew running them in NRA Service Rifle, match rifle (in both AR15 platform and bolt action) and they seem to perform well.

To the extent that I was thinking of using one for a Precision build.

I use a Krieger Barrel on my service rifle. It is excellent. After seeing two of the Saturn's single point cut rifling perform, I thought that I would give them a try myself.

[Warg]

I wouldn't touch Alexander Arms with a ten foot pole. Why blame the parts supplier when the "assembler" is to blame.
Cheap barrels produce poor results on target

Fair point and AA should have caught this, but it is the case that Satern screwed up the chambering as well. I roll my own now and have had really good results with JP and Lilja barrels for the 6.5G FWIW.

[Warg]

Though I don't have any experience with the .308 and I never owned a Saturn barrel, there are a few running them in NRA Service Rifle, match rifle (in both AR15 platform and bolt action) and they seem to perform well.

To the extent that I was thinking of using one for a Precision build.

I use a Krieger Barrel on my service rifle. It is excellent. After seeing two of the Saturn's single point cut rifling perform, I thought that I would give them a try myself.

To be fair, lots of folks are having good results with the Satern 308s. I just had a couple of bad experiences in the Grendel and won't use them again. There are plenty of high end barrels to choose from: Bartlein, Kreiger, Rock Creek, Lilja, Proof, etc. I'd pick (and regularly do) any of those first, but again I'm biased at this point.

[Marlin 795]

To be fair, lots of folks are having good results with the Satern 308s. I just had a couple of bad experiences in the Grendel and won't use them again. There are plenty of high end barrels to choose from: Bartlein, Kreiger, Rock Creek, Lilja, Proof, etc. I'd pick (and regularly do) any of those first, but again I'm biased at this point.
What happened with your Grendel barrel? You mentioned you had issues with two of them, but what specifically?

[pinzgauer]

I wouldn't touch Alexander Arms with a ten foot pole. Why blame the parts supplier when the "assembler" is to blame.
Cheap barrels produce poor results on target
Which tells me you are unfamiliar with the grendel Satern barrel history.

Many people had issues that boiled down to short throats from either worn or out of spec tooling.

And many (most) experienced it direct from Satern. Granted, much of it was in their economy barrel brand, but it crossed over into their cut rifle barrels. A short/improper throat is a problem in any grade of barrel. Especially for Grendel where the compound throat is a big part of the cartridge's flexibility.

How Satern handled the situations, and their public communications was pretty bad.

I'd not buy a barrel from them now unless it was $200 or less with a sub moa warranty. And someone other than Satern was selling them, as they have a history of being very slow to ship.

My AA experiences, on the other hand have been nothing but great. I know of cases when they fixed another mfg product which was missold as an AA, gratis.

Many better options than Satern for the money.

[Marlin 795]

Many better options than Satern for the money.

What do you think are better at the same (or cheaper) price point?