Blaser barrels

This is a quote from Elmer Laitala. He makes and hardens complete barrels in various calibers and twists that you can't get from blaser as well as standard calibers. Barring freight and import costs [kiwi greg could be the man to help with this....?] it looks very competitive to what you can get here as far as price goes. Not sure if he does stainless but have asked.

Pricing is; $995 for the basic barrel, $40 domestic pack and ship, $175 for fluting, $50 for muzzle threading and $125 for Cerakoting.
The barrel would be a chome moly match grade barrel from Krieger Barrels. Lead time would be around 7 months or so. We are at the mercy of Krieger on that.
Above prices are in us dollars

Here's his answer on stainless barrels,

Concerning your question on SS barrels, four years ago I started out making these barrels out of 416 SS but found out that it looses A LOT
of impact resistance in extreme cold temps. The weakest part of that whole barrel system is the bolt lockup ring groove in the breech end and I heat treat that for strength,
which makes it even more brittle. 4145 chrome moly does not have that problem so I quit making SS barrels.
Thank you for passing on my info to other Blaser owners. Attached are pictures of the product
Attachment 84402Attachment 84401Attachment 84403Attachment 84403Attachment 84403

Thanks for this very interesting but I’m wondering if there would be a significant saving after GST, customs charges and shipping. But for a non standard twist could be good to know about

I doubt cost is a consideration with regard to the Blaser barrels. It's one of, if not the most limiting issues with the R8. Great system, super accurate (yes, heavy relative to other makes) but not easy to spin a custom barrel up in a twist rate you want.

Has anyone bought one of these in and can offer an opinion through first hand experience?

I'm surprised aftermarket R8 barrels aren't more commonplace.