I recently had the opportunity to have a barrel blank turned into two barrels by Paul Craddock at Craddock Precision. It was a quick and painless process that slightly saved me money over buying two ready-made barrels.
Most of the components for these two builds were acquired over a few years, with the blank coming last. The blank was a 1.25” thick Bartlein 7.7 twist .224 of the 5R variety.
Mr. Craddock requests the blanks leave one inch over the desired barrel length and must be 1.25” thick. This would have left me waiting five to six months for a freshly made blank from Bartlein, but I lucked out and found one with exactly the specs I wanted from Butch’s Reloading. It was just under $390 shipped and made it to my door in a few days.
Communicating with Mr. Craddock was painless and very prompt. He was receptive to what I wanted and gave great advice when it was needed. I spec’d a 16.25” mid gas, medium contour barrel with a .063” gas port. As well as a 10.5” carbine gas barrel with a similar contour and a .071” gas port. I sent the blank, as well as the gas blocks and bolts to Mr. Craddock. I paid the $125 per barrel and had it all back right at his quoted four weeks.
Pardon my bad name hiding...
The uppers all went together with no issues. Both sport BCM receivers, gas blocks, charging handles, and bolts riding in Wilson bolt carriers. The only difference being the hand guards and muzzle devices. The DD RIS is a beauty, if not a bit wide. I had reservations about the Troy Alpha but figured I've been watching it in my closet for two years and threw it on. It went on without trouble and locks up tight.
As a fairly new shooter with admittedly little guidance I am still getting to learn this whole precision rifle shooting thing. My first outing with no kind of break in resulted in groups hovering around one inch with the best group of the day right around .75” with 69 grain Gold Medal Match. I was satisfied with this for my first time trying to shoot any kind of respectable group and was confident it would only get better from here.
A few weeks of working on trigger control and breathing techniques have helped me cut the groups even more with my best of today’s range trip getting me this…
The other groups of the day were not exactly close to my best but I am glad to see the great accuracy potential of this carbine and can’t wait to stretch it out to 600 yards when that range opens up here. All groups were shot with the 16" upper with an SF 212 suppressor and a 10x SWFA scope. I have not shot any groups with the 10.5" upper. It shoots great with the Vortex 1-4x and is used more for ringing steel. I am very happy with these and cannot recommend Mr. Craddock’s services more.
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