I have stated several times that the SAAMI approval process will greatly enhance the availability of products available in this chambering.

The fact that I am citing the movie Animal House in my other responses should make it apparent that the level of seriousness I posses in this matter is typical of all National Lampoon films.

I made the same statement on this forum concerning 22 Varminter into the 22-250. I understand that liability concerns with factory ammo in chambers of unknown spec.

I don't understand what you mean by the Grendal. Is Blackout not a registered trademark of AAC?

We don't use plasma nitriding so this paper does not apply to AAC barrels. Remington tested their nitriding process and found that it lasted 60% longer than hard-chrome. As for accuracy, it has no more accuracy potential than a stainless barrel. What I claim for AAC barrels is - the accuracy potential of a stainless barrel, but lifespan potential greater than hard-chrome.

I don't disagree with you that benchrest shooters have a different standard of what is good from other people, and in being clear, the AAC barrels have more of the design philosophy of an AI rifle or sniper rifle than a benchrest rifle. For example, a benchrest rifle will have freebore probably below the legal minimum - perhaps 0.3085 or so. The AAC barrel is going to have freebore around 0.3095. This is done for a few reasons...

1. To keep pressure down.
2. To reduce the chance of a stuck bullet if you extract before firing.
3. To allow for a cartridge to chamber more easily, even if there is bullet runout.

The AAC barrels are made very carefully to the drawing and the chambers are verified with ball gauges and depth micrometers, but the drawing does not go below SAAMI min as many custom guns would do. If you want to win an accuracy contest above all other considerations, you probably do want to violate minimum dimensions.

For example,

SAAMI 0.308 Win freebore is 0.310 minimum.
SAAMI 0.308 bullets are 0.309 maximum.
Custom gunsmiths 0.308 chamber reamers often have 0.3085 freebore.

This is not something an engineer who understands geometric dimensioning and tolerancing would allow. Perhaps every bullet a custom gunsmith saw so far was 0.3083 or smaller and they "never had a problem" with a 0.3085 freebore. Their guns shoot better during a magazine test and the gunwriter also had no problems. This causes the custom gun maker to claim they are better than a $6,000 AI or Remington XM-2010. Fine, until the user in the field extracts an unfired shot and the bullet stays stuck in the chamber, and powder is everywhere - and then the hostage-takers kill the hostage.

That is what I try to do for the barrel - well made and accurate but not at the expense of reliability under extreme conditions.

Also, pressure goes up about 3,000 PSI with small changes:

http://www.border-barrels.com/articl...Consortium.htm

6.5 Grendal went through the SAAMI process at the same time as 300 AAC BLACKOUT. It was not approved because the company would not allow others to use the name on products royalty-free.

"300 AAC BLACKOUT"
"300 BLK"

Anyone who makes SAAMI spec guns or ammo can use either of those names on their products royalty free.

Also, SAAMI does not allow cartridges with registered trademark names - this is why 6.5 Grendal was rejected from approval in January.

Let me get this straight .. you are saying that SAAMI doesnt allow use of a trademark name. Yet your/AAC trademark of the "blackout" went through because you allow use of the name without royalty?

Maybe I'm reading this wrong but you are appearing to contradict yourself (at least in my eyes).

There are only two valid SAAMI names for the cartridge:

"300 AAC BLACKOUT"
"300 BLK"

Neither of these is a registered trademark.

I believe this is what has got people up-in-arms. Not that it has no more accuracy potential, but that it will have less. Unfortunately, even match grade barrels, made by the same maker with the same reamer, using the same blank, will shoot differently with different loads. I'm sure there will be AAC barrels that shoot lights out. There might be some that don't shoot to that same standard. Model 1 sales makes 300 Fireball barrels: some shoot great, some not so much. As long as an object is man-made, there will be variations. Let's let Rem/AAC make barrels, and we'll all benefit from it whether or not we buy them for our own builds or not.

Whether they shoot the same, better, or less accurately than a stainless barrel will have nothing to do with the nitriding.

So what nitriding process are you using?

Salt bath nitriding.

So this means that Hornady is loading a non-SAAMI standard wildcat round in the Grendel offering! If SAAMI rejected it due to its name, this would be the case. Perhaps they should name it after another fictional character, Gimli, from Lord of the Rings. Very small in stature, but carries its weight well despite its size. :grin:

Kevin