Hi all,

I’m planning on changing up my PCC a bit and was looking at the New Frontier Armory 12.5” barrel. I don’t have any experience with their stuff, and was unable to find any discussion of their barrels.

I’m sure it’ll shoot straight; my main concern is the chamber. Some 9mm barrels have the rifling start a little earlier than I like, and this one is nitrided, so I can’t just give it a few twists of my reamer like I would do with a untreated SS Bbl if that turns out to be a problem.

This is for use with Colt pattern mags, 147gr FP and 124gr TC. I load my 147gr Blue subs to 1.1” COL, so I could load everything that short, if needed, just not sure I want to, and I also want to be able to shoot factory ammo.

Anyone have experience with these? Thanks in advance.

I don't have one of their 9mm barrels so I can't speak to them from experience, but I do have one of their 10mm barrels and I load them to full length without issue.

And I load them spicy too.

Thanks for the reply.

I’m now wondering if this would have gotten more visibility in one of the other subforums. Or maybe not a lot of people have bought these? Either way, if I don’t see any dissent by Mon, I’m just going to grab one and let y’all know later how it works out. The other option is another X-Caliber semi-custom.

I have 2 16'' PCC's with New Frontier Barrels.  I shoot nothing but 124gr and 147gr ammo and have never had a hiccup with either of them.  I can't help you out with information about how long the throat is, but if you are planning on loading to 1.1'' col you won't have a problem.  

If you don’t mind, what 147 loads have you tried (COL and projectile if handloading), and if I’m reading right, you’ve never had a sticky bolt when clearing a live round from the chamber, correct?

I tend to load 165 gr 9mm pills.

Do you shoot suppressed and/or load your own?

If you do, I don't mind sharing my recipe with you.  There was a guy I know with a B&K meter who found that while using my data that it dropped 5db from just that change alone.

Both, yes. My favorite load with subs is 3.0gr of Winclean 244 topped with a Blue 147 FP at 1.1” COL. Much quieter than anything else I’ve tried. I’ve got around 1k 160s that I haven’t worked up yet, though.

If you haven’t had any problems with projectiles jamming into the rifling with that barrel, I’m going to order one tonight.

Edit: ordered.

I sent you a PM with the recipe.  Hopefully it worked.  My PM's usually get jacked up here from having to authenticate myself and then re-authenticate myself after hitting the submit button.

I'm not running a VPN or anything so not sure why the PM's here are so janky for me.

Anyway, the recipe that I gave you is even better than Dr. Daters Special K load.  I don't know of anything that is better for suppressed plinking and if you don't have the components, it's worth getting them.

OP....have you contacted New Frontier and asked them what the chamber dimensions are ???

I would call them and get the email/contact info for a tech guy/designer/engineer/manufacturer that will be able to provide you with the info.



.

Received it.

As for the chamber, it works with RA9T, AE 150 FP, Fiocchi 158 RN, but not Precision One 147 FP. This is a Berry’s 147 loaded to 1.076” that was made originally as a custom load that then became a stocked item. Not sure if they still sell it post-2020. They stick in the rifling when attempting to extract a live round from this barrel. This load is fine in 2/5 of my PCC barrels and all of my Glocks and Berettas.

PCC chambers are very commonly cut “tight” with little or no freebore for some reason. I should probably dig up the SAAMI chamber blueprint and see why that is.

It also works with my 147gr handloads using Blue Bullets 147 FP, and Missouri .356” Subsonic-GL 147 FP HiTek coated bullets. Both loaded to 1.1” COL.

Be aware that its not really a 12.5” barrel. Its 13”, or the same length as a 5.56 12.5” barrel. So don’t be afraid to put a 11.7” handguard on it. I’m using an 11” Larue handguard, but I also don’t mind a little sticking out. I’m always looking for another of those, BTW.

I’ve been shooting it. TLDR is in the last two paragraphs.

Before I installed it, I noticed that the top of the barrel was more textured than the bottom. And after I degreased the threads with brake cleaner it sat for a day. The next day, there were some specks of rust forming. At first, I thought nothing of these things, however….

It fed poorly during test firing with two different weight, known good, bolts. This was with Blue 147gr RN, which is somewhat pointy. Not a huge deal, since some lowers and some barrels are going to require tuning because blowback ARs aren’t standardized. Mine’s a PSA Colt mag lower that I SBR’d prior to realizing that PSA bubbafucked the ramps. Even though I fixed it and its reliably fed 5 digit rounds since, I can’t rule that out, so I’ll not blame the barrel. Anyway, I decided to do some polishing with Cratex and wet-dry. There were concentric circular machining marks on the feed cone, right where the noses were hanging up, so I polished those out without removing much material, and lightly broke the angular edges. I noticed at this point that the nitride is very thin and weak. In fact, it came off like bluing. Shitty nitride could explain the fairly rapid forming rust on the threads. When I looked at the outside of the barrel again, I noticed that the texture on the top doesn’t look like typical bead-blast, and wondered if it may be related somehow.

It feeds great now. I shot several mags, both full and partial, today with no stoppages using two different weight bolts. Both slow-fire, and hammer triples. Suppressed and unsuppressed.

None of this is necessarily a dealbreaker for me, since this is a budget barrel at a budget price, but if the feed cone starts rusting and causing stoppages where I polished it, I’ll scrap it and buy another XCaliber.