...with an emphasis on "project". Spoiler alert, this story does have a good ending. :)
I'd had my eye on this barrel from the Van Horn close-out list and finally got around to doing the deal last week. I'd had a great experience with my recent 357 Mag carbine barrel so I expected a repeat performance with this 17 Mach 2. It didn't quite turn out that way (I should say up front, Craig was 100 percent supportive and eager to resolve any and every potential problem).
The first thing I noticed was the forend attachment screw holes drilled and tapped very unevenly - one just a few threads and one deep enough that I had to measure the depth to be sure it wasn't close to the bore. Not a deal breaker, in and of itself but then I noticed that the spacing was right but both holes were nearly a half inch too close to the receiver so that no standard "Super 14" or hanger bar forend would work.
Moving on, I tried to mount the barrel on a frame and it locked up instantly so that there was absolutely no way to get it open. I disassembled the frame and got the barrel off and tried to see what the problem was. The locking bolts seemed really stubborn and didn't seem to work very smoothly but I couldn't see anything that just wouldn't let it work. I tried a different frame with the same results. Those were both original, hard-open frames so I tried a newer EZ-open frame but still no-go. The locking bolts seemed to be hanging up in an odd way and just didn't want to function. I decided to try working the locking bolts back and forth to see if they were binding in some way and after several in-and-out cycles, one of them broke off on the inside. Not a good look, for sure.
Since I happened to have a spare pare of locking bolts, I decided to install them just to see what would happen. On any frame I tried, they just wouldn't come near closing and locking, though I didn't get the total fail that required disassembly. When I compared the old locking bolts and new ones I realized that the bolts from the barrel had been milled pretty drastically and in fact had sharp edges and burrs that were probably complicating things.
I talked to Craig and worked out a plan to send it back for new locking bolts and take care of things but I realized that even with a perfectly functioning barrel, the forend oddity sort of ruined any resale value it might have. The barrel just wasn't worth what I paid, even if repaired. We ended up working out a deal whereby Craig would refund an amount that left me paying a reasonable sum for something that was potentially a good barrel but not without pretty extensive work.
In the end, I spent a lot of time fitting new locking bolts by hand and eventually achieved consistent lock-up and functionality. I also fabricated a custom hanger bar and altered a Herrett-style forend that I'd been saving so that I could make it a fully-fledged Contender. Mounting a Simmons Pro-Hunter 2-6x32 finished it off.
I took it to the range today to see if it would fire consistently and start the break-in process and see if there was any indication of what sort of accuracy I could expect. All in all, the results were quite good! Not a single FTF (though a burr in the extractor made getting those little cases out a total PIA) and a few initial groups definitely showed promise. There seems to be a clear preference for CCI ammo with the Hornady ammo (those are the only 2 that I can find anywhere) showing considerable vertical stringing. I cleaned a few times during the session and it looks like group sizes consistently shrunk quite a bit after at least 5 rounds were fired from a cleaned barrel.
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