Back in the 90's there was a rumor floating around that they were "soft". It implied that they would wear out or the throat would burn out quick. I did not find this to be true. I have barreled several actions with them and also two of my own and I have not been disappointed. The barrel you are talking about for under $200 is the same ones I got and neither of mine were lapped. In fact, if you borescope it you will see quite a few tooling marks, but they don't foul any worse or less than anything else. The ones that are lapped are the "select match" grade and you will not see any tooling marks in those. Many people say that they spent the extra money and the select barrels didn't shoot any better than the regular grades. I will say one other thing...do not make the mistake of automatically concluding that just because it's a Bartlein barrel it will "give good groups"....I have barreled up several rifles with those too.
