Titan Titanium Bbls Project

TITAN

Titanium Rifle and Pistol Barrels

“Titan” titanium barrels were designed by Brian Maynard in 1997 when he owned Maynard Arms Co in Vernonia, OR. There were four prototype barrels produced. Two to fit the Ruger MKII & AMT Lightning semi-auto pistols and two to fit the Ruger 10-22 and AMT Lightning semi-auto rifles. One each of the pistol and rifle barrels were contoured with a taper while the remaining were of the bull barrel configuration.

Brians vision was to follow in Harry Sanford’s footsteps of innovation. In the 1970’s, Harry was the first to introduce, then state-of-the-art stainless steel into the firearms world. By doing this, the firearms manufacturing community was forever changed.

With titanium becoming the new materials to be used in aerospace and other manufacturing industries, Brian saw a parallel and realized that, with some investigation and experimentation, it may be possible to introduce titanium as the new state-of-the-art in firearms manufacturing.

Brian soon found out the titanium, unlike stainless steel dissipates heat very quickly. In a firearm, this could be key in minimizing warpage and distortion while at the same time reducing weight and holding balance. This was enough to convince Brian to start on his journey.

Titanium 6Al-4V was chosen as the grade of material for it’s characteristics and availability. Gun drilling was the first challenge but Brian found Gun Drilling Specialties in So El Monte, CA and they were able to complete the task. Rifling of titanium was now the next issue so Brian contacted Pioneer Broach of Santa Fe Springs, CA to discuss options. Button broaching was questionable but it was worth a try. After breaking three broaches, it was determined a failure and everyone went back to the drawing board. Cut broaching seemed to be the only way to do this but a typical cut broach is not configured to accommodate the shrink factor of titanium as it’s being cut. After just two engineering changes to allow for the shrinkage issue and some clearance concerns, they had four barrels ready for the completion.

Upon completion and testing of the prototype barrels, Brian contacted Chuck Karwan, a gun scribe for Guns & Ammo who happened to live in So Oregon. At the same time, Brian announced his new project in Gun Test magazine. As Chuck was preparing to put the barrels through the test, Brian received a letter from Stephen Sanetti, VP and General Councel for Ruger, insisting he cease and desist on the project immediately, claiming unfair trade practices. Brian called and spoke to Mr Sanetti, requesting some sort of arrangement where Brian could compensate Ruger in turn for allowing Brian to continue. Soon thereafter Brian received a second letter denying his request. This was unfortunate and the project was scrubbed due to the fact that Maynard Arms Co was no match for Ruger’s legal team. To date, no one else has tried to do this.