GM Sale barrels?

[Rebel]

Has anyone that got one of the GM $100 sale barrels noticed if it has a heli-coil in the nipple hole? NW Hunter got his Friday but he had to leave Sa.t to take care of some family stuff so he asked me to take it out and try it out. I took it out today and after getting back home cleaned it up good. I noticed that when i had the nipple out that it does have the heli-coil in it. Doesn't seem to be any problem with it but just wondered if that was the reason they are on sale. Maybe GM is selling off all the ones they had with them cheap to get rid of them? The thing is a shooter though, at least at the 25 yds i tested it at. The first 3 shots out of it were all in a group just over 1" center to center. I didn't have any rd balls the right size for it so this was with 70 grs of Pyro P, half a .12 ga fiber cushion wad,(all i have) a thick denim patched .530 rd ball that i cast for our .54's. Don't see how it could do any better with the right sized ball. Here is a target pic

 

[roundball]

Has anyone that got one of the GM $100 sale barrels noticed if it has a heli-coil in the nipple hole? NW Hunter got his Friday but he had to leave Sa.t to take care of some family stuff so he asked me to take it out and try it out. I took it out today and after getting back home cleaned it up good. I noticed that when i had the nipple out that it does have the heli-coil in it. Doesn't seem to be any problem with it but just wondered if that was the reason they are on sale. Maybe GM is selling off all the ones they had with them cheap to get rid of them? The thing is a shooter though, at least at the 25 yds i tested it at. The first 3 shots out of it were all in a group just over 1" center to center. I didn't have any rd balls the right size for it so this was with 70 grs of Pyro P, half a .12 ga fiber cushion wad,(all i have) a thick denim patched .530 rd ball that i cast for our .54's. Don't see how it could do any better with the right sized ball.

My .62cal Flint smoothbore did not have a helicoil...would have had them pick it back up if it[url] did...in[/url] fact, it looked like a nice new breechplug had been installed...threads look perfect

 

[Brian Rice]

Roundball,

What did it cost you to get your rifled 62 rifled and who did it for you? I am thinking about picking up a discount flint 62 if they have any left and sending it off to get rifled for a project I may work up. Any idea when the sale is over? Any idea of the remaining stock? I just called, but they are closed! GRRR!!!

Brian

 

[roundball]

Roundball,

What did it cost you to get your rifled 62 rifled and who did it for you? I am thinking about picking up a discount flint 62 if they have any left and sending it off to get rifled for a project I may work up. Any idea when the sale is over? Any idea of the remaining stock? I just called, but they are closed! GRRR!!!

Better keep after them...doubt there's many left.

Barrel maker Ed Rayl in Gassaway, West VA installed .012" x 1:72" square bottom grooves, crowned, and polished the bore for $65...top quality work and it's a tack driver with my deer load:

100grns Goex 2F
Oxyoke prelubed wads
TC .018" precut/prelubed pillow ticking
.600" cast balls (Eddie May/Georgia)

 

[Geraldo]

Rebel,

Any way you could post a pic of the helicoil in place? I'd like to know if my sale barrel has one but I'm not sure I'd know it if I saw it.

 

[roundball]

GM had a problem drilling & tapping a bunch of threaded seats for nipples and vent liners, issued a recall...ran out of replacement breechplugs and tried to save some money by drilling out the holes even larger, and attempting a repair by screwing in one of these heli-coils, then screwing the nipple into the heli-coil.

 

[Rebel]

Yep, that is what it looks like, stainless steel threads instead of blued like my New Englander.

 

[Geraldo]

The .62 I got has one, the .45 doesn't, so it doesn't appear that they're just selling off helicoil barrels. I'll give GM a call today and see what they have to say.

 

[erbeckerdite]

No 62's left - tried to order one.

 

[29caliber]

What is the concern should you have a barrel with a helicoil?

 

[Geraldo]

If you do a search for 'helicoil' you will find several pages of threads detailing member's concerns. I read a number of them last night trying to figure out where I stand on the issue.

 

[roundball]

What is the concern should you have a barrel with a helicoil?

Well, first of all it's a repair action on what is supposed to be a new barrel.
Second, and this is speculation and debatable...some worry, myself included, that introducing a modification like a heli-coil may just invite future problems.

To me, anything 'extra' that's introduced into a structure creates another possible failure point...ie: could corrosion begin to occur behind or inside the heli-coil and ultimately fail resulting in a blowout.

Also, the very fact that there was a problem just doing the routine drilling & tapping that they are now trying to fix with an unusual repair begs this question: "how do we know they did the repair correctly"?

A .40cal Flint barrel I bought had one in it and I refused[url] it...made[/url] them pick it back up...they later contacted me, had found a good replacement breech plug, asked me if I still wanted it and I did so then I took it.

A number of people's barrels had them installed and GM took them back and made them right.
However, I bet they are selling the $100 barrels "as is", but since that wasn't advertised I'd still call and tell them the breech plug needed to be replaced.

PS:
When this issue surfaced a couple years ago Ed Cain of Cains Outdoor in West VA, and Tip Curtis of The Frontier Shop in TN both refused to sell them to customers and made GM take their inventories back.

 

[gordy]

Roundball,do you feel that the Heli-coil presents a safety problem,or is your objection because the hole was improperly drilled and didn't maintain the quality standards of the product? Over the years, I've installed several Heli-coils doing engine work, and never had a failure.

 

[Runner]

If it was in a tighten and forget spot on the gun, then things might be different. It is in a spot that has to be removed repeatedly for years. A run of over sized nipples or threading for an existing over sized nipple would seem to make more sense.

 

[Bon Sauvage]

Oh crud! My barrel is supposed to arrive this week. I've got a baaaad feeling....

 

[gordy]

I would have to agree that an oversize nipple thread would be a more secure option. If anyone has received a .62cal. with the Heli-coil, and would like to sell it, contact me at [email protected]

 

[roundball]

Roundball,do you feel that the Heli-coil presents a safety problem,or is your objection because the hole was improperly drilled and didn't maintain the quality standards of the product? Over the years, I've installed several Heli-coils doing engine work, and never had a failure.

I completely understand about helicoils in engines and have no worries about them as...head pressures are low, they don't operate in a corrosive environment, and they aren't in a location where they'd cause personal injury if one did let go.

By contrast...muzzleloaders operate in much higher pressure ranges...the coils are constantly subjected to corrosive residues under that high pressure...and their location is such that if one of them did blowout, there's a very good chance of some sort of personal or bystander injury.

We all have choices of using first quality products or parts and to me personally its a no brainer...it's not a choice I want to make and more to the point it's not a choice I NEED to make as there are other options...my choice is that I won't "settle" for a barrel that has a heli-coil in it.

 

[Gemoke]

Good reason to buy a flint

 

[spaethjm]

I just got a 54cal smooth bore 100.00 flint no problems wit it look good shots better PBR and shot.

 

[roundball]

Good reason to buy a flint

Same problem...their D&T operation messed up hundreds of breechplugs, both cap and flint...my .58cal GM Flint was one that got recalled...and back then they had plenty of spare breechplugs so they replaced my breechplug, D&T'd it correctly, reblued the whole thing and returned it...when they ran out of breechplugs, they resorted to the heli-coil bandaide.