Factory Threaded Barrels - Why The Community Should Ask For Them

 Recently, someone on YouTube in the comments section asked why people keep asking for threaded barrels from the factory when a gunsmith can just do it. Let's dive into that. It's a little more complicated than "Just Do It."

If you spend enough time with firearms, especially rifles, you learn about barrel profiles. Barrel profiles are important because choosing the wrong profile can ruin a rifle project. Let me give an example. On my Remington 700 project in 300 Blackout, I purchased a 16 inch barrel for $100 on sale. I wanted to have a gunsmith trim the barrel down to around 13.8 inches and pin-and-weld a muzzle device. The problem is that the barrel's profile where the 13.8 inch mark is, is too narrow. The barrel is from a Remington Model 7 Kuiu edition that has a lightweight profile. If you look close, the muzzle has this bulbous look. That's because Remington needed to thicken the muzzle for the 5/8x28 threads. If Remington had used that same thickness for the whole barrel, the gun would be very front heavy. In many cases, manufacturer's use the lighter profile to keep the rifle well balanced with longer barrels. For me to do what I want, I need a custom barrel. 

Many hunting rifles such as the Winchester Model 70 Featherweight never have the option for threads. On guns like the Featherweight, there may not be enough material to correctly give a shoulder or taper to the barrel for proper silencer attachment.

Thin barrels are great to carry but hard to thread.

Rifles such as the Marlin 336 don't always have enough length to machine threads onto the barrel. When Marlin wanted to make the Dark series guns they needed to make sure they had enough barrel out front of the sights and magazine tube for the silencer to clear. Compare the below Dark 336 to the regular 336 and pay attention to the muzzle.

You can clearly see that when Marlin made the 336 Dark, they made sure to leave enough length in front of the front sight for them to machine the threads where the base model just doesn't have the length. To thread the base model, you'd have to move the front sight backwards and trim the magazine tube. It becomes a lot more complicated for the owner. Fundamentally, it's better for the end user if the manufacturer plans for this sort of thing in advance. Even if Marlin didn't thread the barrel but left enough for the user, there would still have to be some level of planning on the manufacturer's part. 

So why have suppressor ready models? Simply put, it saves the end user the trouble of having to figure out if it's something they have to find a way to do. When I'm considering a new build that I want to suppress, I look to see if they have a model or SKU that has threads if that build will be using a silencer. Sometimes, it's better to buy the threaded SKU even if it has the wrong stocks. You can more easily replace the stock than the barrel. In some instances, you just have to find a way. Companies like Tornado Technologies can help but sometimes you just needed to have the option from the manufacturer.