Schneider Match Barrels
Since 1985, Gary Schneider of Schneider Rifle Barrels, Inc. has been manufacturing hand-lapped match-grade stainless steel rifle barrels for a broad spectrum of the shooting industry. They manufacture sporting barrels for the accuracy demanding long range hunter, target barrels for world class competitive shooting disciplines, and specialty barrels for tactical law enforcement and military applications. Champion shooting notable David Tubb (11 time national Champion) has brought Schneider Barrels into the competitive field for over 25-years. In the sporting rifle arena, McMillan Rifles, Lazzeroni Arms Company, Red Rock Rifles, Hill Country Rifles and others, utilize Schneider Rifle Barrels on their products.
Gary Schneider is particularly proud that all of the United States Marine Corp M40A-series sniper rifles utilize his barrels exclusively. These are the M40A3, M40A4, M40A5, and now the new M40A6 sniper rifle. This series spans 17-years as the only qualified barrel supplier for this series of rifles. Other federal government entities with similar applications also employ these barrels.
THE BARREL MAKING PROCESS
They utilize a “pull-button” rifling process to make the barrels. This involves pulling a precision ground hard carbide tool, called a “button,” thru a drilled and reamed hole in the barrel blank. 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 contoured to our customer’s desired barrel contour.
Finally, the barrels are individually hand-lapped to provide the desired surface finish and rifled bore uniformity for the full length of the finished barrel.
All of the buttons are precision ground in house. Over the course of 31-years’ experience this has allowed them to understand the many independent variables associated with rifle button geometry. This led, ultimately, to the innovative P5 polygon rifling geometry. A complete line of calibers and twist rates are available in two distinct rifling geometry configurations. The first rifling form (geometry) is the well recognized 6 land and groove. This form is typical of commercial rifle manufacturers and has existed for a century and a half. Variation in the number of lands is common (6,5,4,3,10 etc.) But geometry is the same, the basic rectangular shape.
P5 RIFLING
The second rifle form available, in addition to the above, is their innovation that they refer to as P5 rifling. Some refer to it as “polygon” rifling. Most shooters when referring to polygon have thoughts of the European pistol barrels. Schneider however is different but has similarities. Some of their customers call the P5 rifling polygon and that is fine, however it’s called P5. Have to admit the “P” in P5 does have an association. What is different? Most shooters have looked thru a standard barrel and observed the rectangular shape of the lands and grooves – very well defined by the sharp corners at the transition of land to groove and at the top of the land. The P5 however displays no sharp corners when observed. The sharp corners have been replaced with a radius. The net effect is better seal of bullet to barrel and less damage to the bullet preserving its integrity. The most profound result is an increase in bullet velocity. This is not subjective, a chronograph can measure it. In some instances an excess of 100 fps have been recorded. Another attribute is the barrels foul less. This is subjective; however our customers have been consistently reporting this observation without solicitation. What is telling is the fact that the P5 rifling represents 97% of Schneiders barrel sales compared to the conventional rifling
RCM is proud to bring these barrels on board. We are initially stocking just the 6.5mm and .30 cal but have no problem taking special requests. Infact you can call Gary directly and order what you need from him.