This is the military correct barrel for an M40 USMC sniper rifle build. This is made from a Douglas blank, and contoured, cut, crowned, chambered and threaded to fit the Remington 700 action, all done by the barrel craftsmen at Douglas. Douglas has produced military barrels for the M40, Mk12 and other rifles for decades. This is the exact profile for all M40 rifles. We have a separate threaded model for the M40A5 rifle. The barrel is 25" and then the final inch is screwed into the Remington 700 Short Action for an overall final length of 24". The barrel has a straight taper, from 1.21" with a 3" full width throat, and then a straight taper.
At Charlie's, we are barrel snobs. We might want to call this the Near-Clone model. It is true that most of the M40A3 and A5 rifles use the Schneider barrel, but some M40s came with Douglas barrels. We give you a choice. If you are interested in the Schneider barrel, we offer that as well, in a blank. Quoting Dan Ross, designer of the M40A3, "I have used Douglas barrels for years, and find them to be very accurate and more readily available most of the time."
This barrel is a very good barrel and handcrafted to create a very accurate barrel. Charlie's is trying to keep these in stock, as well as other components, mostly for M40A3 and M40A5 builds, but this barrel will work fine for all M40 builds.
This Douglas barrel is made from match grade stainless steel, and rifling is done with a pull button process, which involves pulling a carbide button to create the grooves in an M40 barrel. This button is larger than the reamed hole and therefore displaces steel to form the groves and lands of the rifling. This process results in a very uniform surface that is hardened as a consequence of the compression of the steel and "work hardening."
The helix for the desired twist-rate is ground into the button to match the desired twist rate of the finished barrel. The button-pulling mechanism is set to match the helix of the button to provide precise twist-rate uniformity. Thereafter, the barrels are stress-relieved according to a specific time and temperature profile, and then lapped and contoured on a lathe to the specifications of the US Marine Corps for the M40 barrel.
Charlie's offers the Douglas Barrel, as we generally get better throughput and pricing from Douglas than we do from Schneider. Schneider is clearly the more clone-correct barrel, and Schneider makes an outstanding barrel. The choice is more around timing and budget. Our orders from Schneider take many months to fill, and we try to keep both choices in-stock. Many gunsmiths, like Dan Ross, choose Douglas. Douglas makes their barrel in a very similar fashion: both are button cut from stainless steel, and both are contoured in the traditional M40 manner. The Douglas barrel comes ready to drop in to your Remington receiver, while the Schneider barrel is a blank, and requires final fitting and chambering by a gunsmith.
If you would rather have the pure clone-perfect barrel, you can choose the M40 barrel blank from Schneider Barrels here.
Badger Ordnance
Badger Ordnance
