These exclusive barrel kits for Brownells from Foxtrot Mike Products feature an included gas block that ensures proper alignment and a good gas seal every time. The gas block indexes with a small cutout in the barrel, so that you no longer have to worry about short stroking due to a canted gas block. The gas block and barrel are also pre-cut for the included roll pins, which makes for an extremely robust attachment method, no set screws to worry about coming loose!
Barrels are available in 16, 13.9 and 12.5 inch lengths. The 13.9 option is great for pinning and welding muzzle devices, and the 12.5 is a solid option for pistols or SBRs. Machined from 41v50 steel, these 223 Wylde chambered barrels also feature a 1-8 twist, for optimal performance with military style or heavy bullets. The 223 Wylde chamber accommodates 223 Remington and 5.56x45mm NATO ammunition equally well. Muzzle threads are ½-28.
All Foxtrot Mike barrels feature premium construction and finishes, that are costly to produce. Foxtrot Mike barrels are made from ultra premium 41V50 chrome-moly vanadium “barrel grade” (not aircraft grade) steel blanks sourced from Gerdau. All blanks are vacuum stress relieved after being buttoned, in order to ensure match-grade accuracy and precision.
Why did Foxtrot Mike chose 41v50?:
- When it comes to selecting the right material for firearm barrels, you need to look for heat mitigation, abrasion resistance, corrosion resistance, and tensile strength. As compared to other barrel materials, 41V50 steel is the best material to make barrels, here's why:
- The blanks are made from premium 41V50 from Gerdau, which is a high-strength steel alloy designed for heavy-duty applications, using firearm grade material for the barrels. The alloy contains 0.50% carbon, 0.30% silicon, 1.50% manganese, 0.40% phosphorus, 0.40% sulfur, 0.05% vanadium, and 0.90% chromium].
- Secondly, 41V50 steel has excellent heat mitigation and abrasion-resistant properties, which makes it a better choice for military fully-automatic weapons as compared to 416 stainless steel. 41V50 steel can handle extreme temperatures (over 700F) better than stainless steel. Additionally, the 41V50 steel barrels undergo a button-rifling process designed to stabilize all projectiles, resulting in match-grade accuracy and precision with all Foxtrot Mike Barrels.
How do Foxtrot Mike make their barrels?
- All Foxtrot Mike Barrels are air gaged, prior to vacuum stress relieving. Foxtrot Mike look at every inch, of every barrel to identify taper and confirm the bore and rifling are consistent. The chambers are burnished, which helps to reduce fouling and makes cleaning easier.
- All the premium barrel blanks are vacuum stress relieved, after the button-rifling process. This is an important part of the process which ensures the bright surface finish for barrels, does not come back form heat treat covered in scale. Stress relieving is there to remove the stresses that have been imparted in the barrel during the buttoning process. This is done prior to secondary machining.
- Foxtrot Mike then takes vacuum stress relived blank, and then turn them between centers to achieve the most concentric blank possible. Foxtrot Mike do this important step to prepare the blank for final machining. Foxtrot Mike do all profile machining in a single set up, on Premium Okuma CNC Lathes. Foxtrot Mike also make the taper lock barrel nuts on the same machines, to ensure excellent fitment between the barrel and barrel nut.
- Finally all barrels are coated in long duration salt bath nitride, resulting in extremely high-quality barrel that offers match-grade accuracy and precision. Foxtrot Mike chose salt bath nitride for corrosion resistance, and increases surface hardness. All the chambers are burnished to a mirror finish, to ensure reliable feeding and extraction. 41V50 steel barrels are coated in salt bath nitride, which increases the surface hardness of the barrel, resulting in better wear and corrosion resistance.
