I had a bit of a roller coaster this week on a customer’s AR barrel, which turned out better than I could have imagined, so I want to give credit where it is due.

A lot of folks here might know I’ve been using a lot of Black Hole Weaponry AR-15 barrels over the last 5yrs or so. Some folks might also have seen forum posts claiming their quality has fallen off, their prices risen, they’ve sold out after the transition to Columbia River, customer service broken, what have you. I personally have not experienced any of this, so I’ve continued to order their barrels, but I have been keeping a close lookout for any change in quality or service...

Unfortunately, I got a voice mail Tuesday from them, one of my customer’s barrels was ready to go to coating, but they noticed it was the wrong profile... Do you want this barrel, or to wait for a replacement? My answer: neither, I wanted the profile we ordered in the time I expected. His rifle will be a suppressed 458Socom SBR, and even though the pistol gas length means the barrel behind the gas block is short, we wanted as much meat as we could get - standard profile. They cut a light profile... I was already anxious about this barrel, since we were at 11wks with an 8-10wk estimate online (which I knew full well it would take 12-14wks for a 458 soc pistol barrel), so my customer and I weren’t enthralled by a QC hiccup.

I called my customer, he wanted to wait for the right profile. While I was on with him, Black Hole texted me - they can make a National Match profile to add meat behind the gas block! The customer and I both certainly wanted to wait for that! They also texted - we’ll see about walking this through so you’re not waiting another 12wks... A custom profile and expedited production at no cost? Sure. (Also mentioning, I ordered these at a steep discount on Black Friday sale, so we were already 20% off on this barrel).

This morning, I got a text again from Black Hole (same gal I have been talking to for years, despite the Columbia River change over, by the way) - they walked the new barrel through yesterday with the custom profile, and it’s going to coating today! That’s a ONE DAY turn around on production for our barrel!!! I was expecting 6-8wks at best, but we’ve only lost a single day, AND picked up a custom profile better fit for my customer’s build.

I took a chance on them several years ago after seeing really great barrels other guys had bought. They performed very well, all of them sub-moa, so they kept my business. I was getting anxious with all of the internet rumors, about to go back to Krieger and Shilen, and just write off Black Hole, but after this, they’ve earned my continued business.