Colt's response to my complaint about Brownell's 14.5 and 11.5 barrels...

**artoter** · 10-17-21, 16:22

I checked out the feed ramps on my (not top tier) Diamondback AR, and they look nice and smooth, and seem to be milled evenly. If a company like Diamondback can manage this, then I am sure that Colt, with all their years of manufacture, can manage it too.

Like said above, I have no dog in this fight, but from being a machinist for 27 years now, cutting those feed ramp slots should not be that difficult. I would not have been that happy to see that sort of work, and I can't imagine anyone else being that happy with a purchase of a couple of new barrels, and see that either....but, without seeing any close up pictures of what the OP is talking about, it is hard to determine if there really is a problem.

From some of the pics others posted up, I would have had no issues with the light grinding marks where I saw them. Like I said, mine look clean on my rifle, but maybe I just got lucky.

**17K** · 10-17-21, 16:57

Colt calls it a secondary feedramp.

It’s not that everyone else does it smoother, they don’t do it.

Why does Colt do it? I don’t know.

**georgeib** · 10-17-21, 17:11

Just don't understand why Colt can't purchase the extensions the way they want them. If the spec calls for a "secondary feed ramp" (what I strongly suspect is a fancy term for deburring a poorly made extension), then why, oh why, don't they buy them that way in the first place?

**Stickman** · 10-17-21, 17:18

I will point out that there are companies who go the extra mile like Rainier Arms with some of their barrels. If you have ever checked out their titanium nitrate barrel extensions, they are beautiful.

https://www.rainierarms.com/rainier-...blk-barrel-10/

Scroll down to the TiN pic, click on it, then click it again or open in a new tab. The larger size should show how nice they are.

**Evil Black Rifle** · 10-17-21, 17:31

Nearly all machine shop customer specifications allow secondary work, hand work, or process completion to make non-conforming parts conform. I was a machinist for 20 years, and now work in Quality Assurance. Rejects are required to be rendered unusable by physical damage, and then to be scrapped.

Numerous Colt owners have posted something similar to " Ya, my Colt barrel looks like that."

I have access to a 2013 6920 complete rifle, a 2020 6920CK complete upper, and a 2015 HBar barrel assembly. All three have feed ramp work done by hand. The 6920's look kinda like Bubba dun it, and the Hbar looks like a gunsmith worked on it. Not pretty, but functional, and probably they are checked in a function test fixture.

None of the above will be returned.

.

**georgeib** · 10-17-21, 18:40

Originally Posted by Evil Black Rifle

Nearly all machine shop customer specifications allow secondary work, hand work, or process completion to make non-conforming parts conform. I was a machinist for 20 years, and now work in Quality Assurance. Rejects are required to be rendered unusable by physical damage, and then to be scrapped.

Numerous Colt owners have posted something similar to " Ya, my Colt barrel looks like that."

I have access to a 2013 6920 complete rifle, a 2020 6920CK complete upper, and a 2015 HBar barrel assembly. All three have feed ramp work done by hand. The 6920's look kinda like Bubba dun it, and the Hbar looks like a gunsmith worked on it. Not pretty, but functional, and probably they are checked in a function test fixture.

None of the above will be returned.

.

Yeah, it's the "non-conforming parts" part that is mind-boggling. Why not just buy conforming parts in the first place??? Clearly this issue is more the "norm" for Colt, rather than the exception. I'm pretty sure this attitude of theirs is born in the same place that didn't give a crap about consumers for so long, and lead to their bankruptcy.

**sidewaysil80** · 10-17-21, 19:01

Originally Posted by Stickman

I will point out that there are companies who go the extra mile like Rainier Arms with some of their barrels. If you have ever checked out their titanium nitrate barrel extensions, they are beautiful.

https://www.rainierarms.com/rainier-...blk-barrel-10/

Scroll down to the TiN pic, click on it, then click it again or open in a new tab. The larger size should show how nice they are.

Rainier Arms puts out some damn good components, plus I have a soft spot for Washington State. Do they finish those in house or are they just stringent with their specs/sourcing? I’ve had great experiences with all their barrels from their select line ip to ultra match.