Someone needs to try one of these barrels

Feddersen is making barrels for the PMR 30 that, they say, will cut your groups in half. His 10/22 barrels deliver the goods. I'll buy one, test it out and report back with pictures. Long live the 22 mag. Oh, and by the way, they only cost $55.

 

$55??? I'll give one a try.

 

I just ordered one. After searching for Fedderson, it took a little doing to find the Kel Tec barrels. Here's the link: https://www.1022rifle.com/buy/keltec

I hope I beat the rush. Seriously, I hope this one will shoot 40 grain CCI without key holing, though they recommend Hornady 30 gr V-Max.

Shipping seems a little high, but their prices are reasonable. They seems to have the lowest price on factory Ruger BX-25 magazines. I bought a couple, even though I don't have a 10/22 (yet).

buzzsaw

 

I hope they start offering a threaded version.

 

I'm definitely interested. The only thing that I don't like about the little pistol is the accuracy.

 

Thanks for the heads up. For $55, it's a no brainer. Like the pistol, but as others have stated, the accuracy should be better.

 

Mine's ordered. Line forms behind me.

 

Ordered last night after reading this post. Was having no problems with function, at all, just accuracy was around 4-5 inches at 30 yards. So here's hoping function stays the same with enhanced accuracy...

 

Um, that link says 90$. No go for that price, was gonna get one if it was $55.

 

Glad I ordered mine a few hours ago for $55. Price jumped from $55 to $90 between 6pm and 2am today. Not sure that how that makes me feel about Fredderson store policy but it will definitely slow down their orders.

 

I got a notification with a tracking #. Mine is on the way.

 

I got a notification with a tracking #. Mine is on the way.

I ordered yesterday and they shipped today. The only thing they do faster than shipping is raising prices. I got the $55 price. Usually I am on the other side of these deals so allow me to gloat just a little.

 

Grrrr I knew I should have pounced on one of those last nite. Oh well. Snooze and loose.

 

Stupid holidays my shipping notice says it will not get here till Monday.

 

Always a day late and a dollar short.
Steve

 

Mine should get here tomorrow, according to UPS. East TN to North GA is pretty quick shipping. $55 to $90 is a big jump. I didn't notice any indication that $55 was a sale price, but I could have missed it. On the Counter there is a thread about a Motley Fool article indicating that the PMR-30 is one of, if not the best-selling pistols on the market (!). No wonder there's little to no .22 WMR ammo to be found. We know where it's going now. These pistols have a voracious appetite. http://www.thektog.org/forum/f97/congrats-keltec-264913/

Considering the sales, there may be quite an aftermarket for a barrel that improves significantly on the original. I was thinking if they were able to make these barrels and sell them for $55, Kel Tec might consider contracting out production to them. Kel Tec lists their standard barrel for $67. All due respects to Kel Tec, and I do have a lot of respect for their engineering and manufacturing prowess, but they have a problem with their standard barrels for this gun. All too frequently, they exhibit key-holing with the world's most common, good quality .22 Mag ammo, CCI 40 gr. One of the first things I will do is check out this barrel with stuff that key-holed in mine.

buzzsaw

 

At 55 bucks I should have pounced. Based on what you guys report if these are good to go with marked improvement on over all accuracy and exhibit no key holing it might still be worth a 90 upgrade. Good luck to those of you that jumped on this. Please keep us in the loop.

 

I just buy gun stuff lol I never seem to have time to shoot. I have to work so many hours to pay for my toys

 

At 55 bucks I should have pounced. Based on what you guys report if these are good to go with marked improvement on over all accuracy and exhibit no key holing it might still be worth a 90 upgrade. Good luck to those of you that jumped on this. Please keep us in the loop.

I'll make a full report but mine is due to arrive 1-8-2016, which is apparently some time next year. I live in the middle of nowhere.

 

I got mine today. Here's the preliminary report.

Superficially, it looks a whole lot like the standard barrel. The muzzle has a small recessed crown instead of a beveled crown. Both the tops of the lands and the bottoms of the grooves are mirror smooth, whereas the tops of the lands of the Kel Tec are somewhat dull. I assume this means the KT ones are rougher, probably due to coarser machining. However, it is harder to push a patch on a jag through the Feddersen. I assume this means the bore is somewhat tighter. The Feddersen has eight lands and grooves instead of six for the KT. Judging by eye, the Feddersen has a slower twist rate than the KT.

I have a pizza and chess appointment tonight and this is about all the time I have to spend on this at the moment, and, of course, the proof is in the shooting, which I hope will happen this weekend.

buzzsaw

 

Barrel

Received the Feddersen barrel today, accuracy was better compared to factory as was getting 2 inch groups instead of 6 inches at 15 yards. I only fired 50 rounds as it was some kinda cold here. Did have 3 FTF so not really sure what's going on there as factory has had zero. I didn't clean it before firing but did have to blow some fuzz out of it. Over all I guess it was worth the $55.00+shipping..

 

i got my barrel no chance to shoot it yet

looks like a decent barrel but I didnot have problems with my stock one lol

 

I shot mine on Sunday, and used CCI Maxi-Mag 40 gr JHP and BVAC 40 gr JHP. The BVAC is US made but has the same headstamp as Armscor. I am assuming that it is the same as the US made Armscor. The CCI is one of the rounds that keyholed with my stock standard barrel.

The good news: The CCI does not key-hole. The grouping is not good (2 inches off a rest at 8 yds, 3 rounds) but they do hit the target nose first. The holes are round, not oblong, and certainly not a side profile of the bullet. The BVAC groups into about 1 inch under the same conditions.

The bad news: I had some failures to feed. This was mostly with the BVAC, and sometimes it short-stroked, but that happens fairly regularly with this ammo in my gun. The CCI sometimes stripped a round, but it didn't fully chamber. Both of these might be due to insufficient break in. When I installed the barrel for the first time, it was difficult to hand cycle. I took it apart and put more oil on it and reassembled. This helped. I had one round either fire out of battery, or extract while pressure was still too high. The back 1/8 inch of the case was shredded and I got a face full of particles. I am glad I had my eye protection on. This round was CCI. Some of the BVAC cases had rounded (bulged) case heads so that they would rock when I stood them up, and others didn't.

So far, I am happy with the barrel. Some of these issues may be related to a tight chamber, which is typical of match barrels. The recommended ammo may feed better, and I am not going to criticize the barrel for these issues, nor am I going to criticize its accuracy since I have not yet shot the ammo they recommend. The BVAC is not exactly match grade ammo, and I would expect the CCI to be better than it, but it isn't. I wonder if the issues with CCI might be related to this particular length of barrel coupled with their particular powder burn rate. I am looking forward to trying more ammo, especially the recommend 22 magnum Hornady 30 grain VMax. I don't have any of this ammo at this time.

buzzsaw

 

CCI 30 gr

Will be curious to see how the CCI 30 grain or Hornady 30 grain will perform. I figured the chamber would be tighter on a 'match' barrel, polishing it might help reliability but I have no idea what to use to polish a straight chamber that small.

 

The Feddersen barrel arrived cold off the UPS truck and I thought it needed heating up. These targets were done off hand using a laser sight pointed at the center of the target. Ten rounds of the test ammo was shot through the Kel-Tec barrel and 10 rounds where put through the Feddersen Barrel. The takeaway (for now) is that the recommended ammo shot slightly better out of the Feddersen, the non recommended ammo shot a lot better, but had case issues.

I tested it with the recommended round, 30g Hornady V-Max:

Then Speer Gold Dot:

As a lark I tried some Sellier & Belliot 40 gr - FAIL:

After the S&B case rupture I gathered up the empties I noticed that the other 4 S&B showed signs of excessive pressure. Some of the Speer did as well with the worst offender in the picture of the Speer target.

So I think this needs to be investigated further. The barrel puts lead on target better but the breech end has problems.

Edit: I have shot over 1,000 rounds out of the Kel-Tec barrel and have never noticed signs of excessive pressure with any round, including the S&B. This is the first case rupture I have experienced.