Alternate Calibers
Beginning January of 2007, I will be offering several new calibers and services. As my company has grown I have found it necessary to offer more twist-rates and chamberings than in the past. Historically, Olympic Arms has provided me with barrel assemblies to cover my product line. With the growing popularity of the .204 Ruger, and the fact that Olympic Arms does not offer a .20 caliber barrel, I was forced to look elsewhere for .20 caliber blanks. I tried several barrel makers and have decided on Shilen. Shilen has an outstanding reputation for quality barrels, and in speaking with them, and other barrel manufacturers, I felt that Shilen was the most logical choice.
Let me just say that I have now sold over 1200 of the Olympic Arms, stainless ultra-match (SUM) barrels and firmly believe they are the best, off the shelf, factory AR barrel you can buy. The only way to get a better barrel would be to use a premium barrel, such as a Shilen, and have it hand-chambered. Olympic Arms has grown a lot since I started buying their barrels back in 1991. They have found it necessary to eliminate some services they had been offering. With the growth of their business, they have little time for the non-standard barrels. The 6 x 45, .17 Remington and the .300 Fireball were once quite readily available from Olympic Arms. In 2006, lead-time for special-order barrels from Olympic Arms prompted them to quit taking orders for anything but off-the-shelf barrels for 2007. This prompted my move to start purchasing Shilen blanks, and at the same time, expand the chamberings that I could offer. At this time, I have some Olympic Arms .17 Remington and 6 x 45 barrels in-stock. When those are sold-out, they will not be replaced. I am offering them, as well as many others, in hand-profiled, hand-chambered, Shilen barrels.
( All of the 6 x 45 and .17 Olympic barrels are now sold)
AR-15 uppers in "alternate" calibers start at $675.00.
Alternate caliber uppers are all chambered in Shilen select-match stainless barrels. I use a forged flat-top upper receiver with dust-cover and forward assist. Every upper gets squared and detailed before assembly. Due to the fact that each barrel is hand-made, custom contours are available. I keep an extensive inventory of Shilen barrels in stock to keep leade-time to a minimum. The base price does not include bolt/carrier or charging handle. Options for the alternative caliber uppers are the same as the .223 uppers. Look here!
- .17 Remington (Note: Fluting for .17 and .20 cal. $129.00)
- .17/.223 (I stock 1:9 twist in the .17 cal.)
- .20 Vartarg (I stock 1:9, 1:10 and 1:12 twist in the .20 cal.)
- .20 Tactical
- .204 Ruger
- 6 x 45 (6mm/.223) (I stock 1:10 and 1:8 in 6mm)
- .25 x 45 (.25/.223)
- 6.8 SPC
- 6.5/.243 WSSM Note: the WSSM uppers are not priced the same as the rest of the "alternate calibers"
- .300 Fireball
- .260 Remington*
- .243 Winchester*
- 7mm 08*
- .308 Winchester*
- .338 Federal**
* = Available in the AR-10 only
** = Coming soon!