Here is an interim report on my adventures with the AET barrel:
First, a brief introduction for the new readers: I ordered one of the Schuemann AET barrels for my Kimber Super Match last November. It arrived in early January, and I sent it (and my gun) to Ed Masaki to be installed. In late May, Ed called to say he'd installed the barrel, and that it had a severe problem with leading. Ed said he had several ideas that worked on conventional barrels, but the instructions that came with the AET barrel specifically advised gunsmiths not to monkey with the barrel's internals (i.e., no polishing/reaming the chamber, etc.) I called Schuemann, and they asked to examine the barrel. Wil Schuemann and Ed Masaki exchanged emails and phone calls, and a plan was developed. Schuemann would send a new barrel and return the old one to Ed. Ed would experiment on the old barrel to see if his modifications worked or if they had any negative side effects. In a private email I have not made public, Wil Schuemann admitted that they applied a titanium nitride coating to the barrels that were going to SVI, and that they sometimes had problems applying the coatings. Rather than throw away the barrels with problems, they would grind the coatings off and put them back in inventory. He thought I might have received one of those barrels. Naturally, I wasn't too pleased to find this out, but I thought the combination of getting a new barrel and being able to tweak the old one would result in everybody coming out ahead.
More than a month elapsed between the time I returned the problem AET barrel to Schuemann and when I received the replacement. I was surprised that they didn't return the original barrel, and emailed Schuemann. After a couple of days went by without hearing from him, I emailed him again. Waited a few more days and emailed him again. I emailed Ed Masaki and told him what was going on, and he got upset. He basically said since Schuemann sold me a defective barrel, that they should not only replace the barrel, but pay his fees to fit the new barrel. I forwarded this email on to Schuemann, and this time I got a reply. Suddenly, Schuemann had decided not to return the original barrel, unless I returned the replacement. Not only that, but they weren't about to pay to have a barrel fitted. When I relayed this to Ed, he told me he would install the new Schuemann if I was going to be stuck with it, but his preference was to go with another barrel. After thinking about it, I told him to go ahead and install a Kart and to test the gun with a Kart barrel. I still have the test targets he shot with the original Schuemann barrel. If the Kart outshoots the original Schuemann, then I keep the Kart. (Actually, I keep the Kart anyway - there are no refunds on barrels once they're fitted.) But if the Kart doesn't do as well as the old Schuemann, then he's to go ahead and install the new Schuemann. Hopefully the new AET barrel won't be one that went through the coating & grinding process, and hopefully it won't lead up.
FWIW, Keith Sanderson shot a 6" SVI gun that was put together for him at Camp Perry. He was still sighting it in during his first strings. This gun has a Schuemann AET barrel in it, but as noted, these barrels have the titanium nitride coatings that give them a gold color. Schuemann can change his mind, but at the moment, the only way you can get a titanium nitride coated AET barrel is if you buy an SVI gun.
Sorry for the lengthy post, but it's kind of a long, convoluted saga and I didn't want to leave out any of the facts.
- Steve