Been waiting forever for a 1:7 20” retro barrel assembly to come in. Any ETA on these, please?

Is this the one you are referring to?

20" Retro 1:7 barrel

That is the one!

I went to check the retail store because the system showed we had one in stock, but it was a miscount.  I've emailed the purchasing dept to try and get an ETA for you on the qtys we have on order and I'll let you know what I find out.

Thank you! I had purchased one before and was really impressed with the quality. Like an idiot, sold it to please the wife. Made a deal that whatever I spend on guns, she gets an equal amount for clothes.

I have 6 from the first couple of batches, but there are things/issues with them that I'm not pleased with... Hopefully the newer ones are better.

Actually I'll count 4 from the first batch, because my brother got one of the same from that fist batch too.

So anyways, the only real issue I have with the 4 barrels from the first batch is that the FSBs were black oxide finished and not phosphate finished as they should have been, otherwise they were fine. The 3 barrels I got from the second batch had sling swivel ears that were way too long and actually bind on the sling swivel as you move it back and forth and tears up the rubber coating. Also, just to get a zero with the 3 barrels from the second batch at 50 yards you have to bury the front sight post in the FSB because they shoot so low. I think they might have used unmarked "F" height FSBs, or maybe it's something even more messed up than that. I'm not really sure, but at least the FSBs were phosphate finished.

Lastly, some of the barrels from the first batch have relief cut threads (an issue which was later corrected) which made them incompatible with the old split lock washers.

@OldGunner38 I was told 4wks (at least--my edit to be conservative) by the purchasing dept after asking the manufacturer.

@556Cliff if they have issues and they're not up to your expectations, you could always return them or arrange for a swap with the new ones.

I probably should have done that on receiving them years ago, but I've assembled most of them into complete rifles at this point and they are at least functional and accurate enough.

Due to the WA AWB I'm stuck with them and getting new replacements is not an option unfortunately... I just had to send back a Brownells C7 receiver that had an out of alignment indexing pin notch that I have no way to replace. I still really need the receiver though as I have one of those Brownells A1 Retro barrels that was needing it to be complete. I have other uppers, but they all have M4 feed ramp cuts and the Retro barrels have rifle extensions. So I'm up sh!t creek with that one unless I Dremel cut M4 ramps into the barrel extension to match, which I very much doubt my skill level with a Dremel to do.

Wow - so I recently (last couple of weeks) purchased a 20" 1/7 retro A1 barrel, and I had to both bury the front sight post as far down as it could go as well as basically turn the rear sight as far left as it could go in the Colt A1 upper I had installed it in, to get it on paper at 50. I've got some things and a new upper on the way to see if it's the upper that's out of spec (including a squaring/lapping of the receiver face jig for it), but...it sounds like it might not be the upper, if half of what I had to do was the same as what you had to do just to get a zero at 50

Even re-barreling the upper again yielded the same results, so if it's something I'm doing, at least I'm consistent if it's me who's mis-assembling the upper

Hopefully the other upper comes in this week and over the weekend I can test it again and see if it's the upper or the barrel that's that far off.

Let me know your results, Ed--if it's the barrel, we'll make it right.

No worries, I know you guys will, least of my concerns This particular upper receiver's been kind of a problem child so I'm still about %70 that it's out of spec. I've got another upper coming to free up another upper which I'll use for this (c7 upper coming from H&R, and BRN16A1 from you guys) - I've got an 11.5" carbine using another suplus M16A1 upper that I'll swap out for the C7 upper that's coming, and try that surplus upper with the 20" - if that's no good, I'll try the BRN16A1 - and if that peters out, if it's identical across all of them, I'll give you guys a call and figure something else out.

All this started because I have a surplus M16A1 upper, complete, and I like shooting it...but I'd rather shoot a repro that's %99 of the way there but with a more modern barrel twist

For whatever reason I seem to recall that the 1:12 twist barrels have a standard height FSB and the 1:7 barrels have a 'F' front sight. Not sure if it's still that way on the web site.

Nope -



At least...not F Marked, but don't know if it's F height or not from the description

FWIW - I had to send my 20" retro A1 barrel back. I tried mounting it in different uppers - each time, I had to max windage to the left and then bury the front sight post as deep as it could go (pretty much; I think it might have had a turn or two left before hitting bottom) in order to get it near zero at 50 yards. Two different upper receivers, including a brand new Brownells BRN16A1 upper.

For contrast, I rebarreled the first upper I tried with it with another barrel; dead center on the rear sight and I had to actually raise the front sight post one click to get a dead on zero at 50 yards.

I'm hoping it was just a bent barrel, or maybe a crooked barrel extension, or something...anyway, it's going back - I'm going to order another barrel from them and see if it's any better.

That's disappointing, but it's good you were able to rule out it being anything to do with the uppers or your assembly techniques.

Canted FSBs and having to bury the FSP seems to be a common issue with the Retro barrels from what I've seen and experienced. I believe these were made by Ballistic Advantage when I got mine, but that may have changed since then.

Well, I'll find out, maybe as soon as this weekend - the old barrel is criss-crossing the ether with the new barrel on the way to me Hopefully this one isn't tweaked. It'd be really nice to have an A1 clone-ish gun to actually shoot, vs have in a rack and be 50 years old and not want to mess it up even more than it already was from 30+ years of being manhandled by GIs

They are nice to shoot, so I wish you luck. Keep us posted on your experience with the next barrel.

Also on the windage issue, keep in mind that it might not necessarily be do to a canted FSB... Only one of my Retro barrels has a perfectly dead centered FSB (where all of the others were just a little off according to my alignment gauge) and it required the most extreme windage adjustment of all of them. I'm considering lapping the upper to see if that will bring the windage closer to center, but I might just leave well enough alone since it could be worse... Pics below.

Mine's just about pinned to the left side 2 more notches and it'd be in contact with the left side. I don't have a sight gauge sadly...

I actually had the upper pictured set one more click to the left, but switching to my usual IMI M855 allowed me to bring it back to the right one click. I think maybe 4 clicks is all I have left to go for left windage. It is usable, just not pretty to look at.

The alignment gauge I have was sold by ArmaLite way back in around 2004/05. They had rifle length, mid length and carbine length versions and they sold for about $90 each. I wish I had them all, but I only got the rifle length version and they discontinued the alignment gauges maybe a few years after I originally bought mine.

You can make a telescoping tubular alignment gauge following the advice in the below video with parts from McMaster-Carr.




Also, watch SOTAR Chad's 3 Brownells Retro barrels which all exhibited canted FSBs according to his BRD Engineering gauge. Chad might have got a passable one, but I can't recommend the BRDE gauge as mine and AR15 Tech Tip's examples were pretty bad quality and warped... I can only hope that some improvements have been made since we had our examples.