Printable View
Hello, was surfing the net looking at pictures of barrels and noticed the staking of the piston nut on this described as new old stock replacement barrel still in its package made by Herlo during the Vietnam war era. Was this common to do the staking on such a thin piece of the gas cylinder? Seems like it wouldn't be, since that area is prone to cracking. It just jumped out at me and I thought I would ask.thanks
I don't know the whole story on these Herlo barrels, but apparently they were rejected for use for incorrect twist? Some were good, most weren't. If I was going to use one, I wouldn't sweat something as small as the staked nut.
The chrome lined ones weren't headspaced and the chambers needed to be reamed. First, the reamers had to be specially hardened. Second, many of the chrome bores started to flake badly when reamed and fired. So the chrome barrels were all rejected. The non-chromed ones were made with a couple of different twist rates. And you are correct, many had a twist rate that wouldn't stabilize the carbine bullets. Most of those barrels went to Korea and many were imported back into the US and sold on the "spare parts" market.
As the others have stated, none of the Herlo were accepted by the government. All were rejected for one of many defects in them. A dealer got ahold of then and sold them as replacements to South Korea. They tried a few and sent them back. The next trick was to start stamping them with USGI acceptance stamps and then sold them here as replacement. Junk from start to finish. One well known carbine collector installed a brand new Herlo barrel on his M2 to see how bad they really were. After shooting a 30 round magazine at a large target at 25 yards, he had two hits on the paper with both of them being sideways. Best advise is to stay away from them no matter how cheap the price.
I put a Herlo slow twist, chrome lined on a junk receiver to see what it would do. At 25 steps, shooting off hand, it shot accurately meaning it would hit a four inch target. Good enough to stop "Killer Coke Cans". There is a picture of the target in one of the CC NLs.
The first shot made a round hole but the following shots key-holed. So when I walked back to the point I was shooting from, I was a little long or short by a foot or two.
I have had Herlo barrels that were stamped Rock-Ola but the font was not correct, so they are easy to spot. Picture in CC NL.
I have had one Herlo barrel with a Blue Sky stamp on it, so some were sold and used in Korea and on carbines imported back.
I sold the junk carbine, so it is still out there somewhere.
There are non-chrome lined barrels standard twist that seem to work fine. I remember at least three different part numbers on the flat: Chrome, slow twist; Chrome, standard twist; and non-chrome, standard twist.