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  1. #1
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    Black Label Holsters Aluminum Barrel Nuts

    I was recently contacted by Black Label Holsters, who obviously make holsters by trade. However, they are releasing some new replacement barrel nuts for your existing popular handguards.

    These are currently made for the Noveske NSR, SMOS GFY, and Bravo Company USA KMR/A Handguards.

    The Barrel Nuts are all MIL-A-8625 Type II Anodized and are made from aluminum. They've been tested to 90 ft-lbs of torque

    Weights: (by my scale)

    Noveske .8oz
    SMOS .85oz
    BCM .55oz

    By comparison, a standard SMOS GFY Steel Barrel nut I have on hand is 2.8oz

    SMOS
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    BCM
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    Noveske
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    Black Label Holsters doesn't have their website up yet, but you can contact them at blacklabelholsters@gmail.com or through their Instagram blacklabelholsters: https://www.instagram.com/blacklabelholsters/

  2. #2
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    Did they mention price?

    Interesting that the SMOS and Noveske are different... they need to add an even more different EraThr3, just to round out the collection.

  3. #3
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    Pricing that was given to me:

    KMR $50
    Noveske $50
    SMOS $45

    SMOS ones fit Erathr3 Rails. The spacing between front and back holes is different on the Noveske ones from SMOS ones.

  4. #4
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    I spoke too soon. I didn't realize the Noveske and SMOS barrel nuts were different. The EraThr3 comment was tongue in cheek.

    $50 is high. $30 would be better.

  5. #5
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    Solution to a problem best solved by getting a rail with a different style of barrel nut.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by fledge View Post
    I spoke too soon. I didn't realize the Noveske and SMOS barrel nuts were different. The EraThr3 comment was tongue in cheek.

    $50 is high. $30 would be better.
    About a year ago, I had to buy 2 barrel nuts from Noveske since I lost mine. They charged $50 a piece, so $50 is inline with current pricing.

    What I will say though... replacement barrel nuts are likely not going to light the world on fire as far as sales go.

  7. #7
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    I think companies can charge more for proprietary replacements. Noveske charging $50 is above market simply because of the brand.

    If this were titanium, I can see the higher price. VSeven KMR in Ti is $57 retail. Only $2 more than the one above. 2A aluminun barrel nut is $29. Griffin's is $40 with barrel shims included.

    Black Label's would be an upgrade rather than replacement. I think they'd see sales to people like me at $30 a nut. At $50, no way.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by fledge View Post
    I think companies can charge more for proprietary replacements. Noveske charging $50 is above market simply because of the brand.

    If this were titanium, I can see the higher price. VSeven KMR in Ti is $57 retail. Only $2 more than the one above. 2A aluminun barrel nut is $29. Griffin's is $40 with barrel shims included.

    Black Label's would be an upgrade rather than replacement. I think they'd see sales to people like me at $30 a nut. At $50, no way.

    I appreciate the input and interest from folks!

    I'll try to respond as best and as fast as I can to any questions or concerns.

    We made a few changes of note to the original barrel nuts. We changed the rail mounting screw size on the Noveske-spec to 10-32, instead of the original 10-24 to allow for more purchase, better torque holding and less chance of cross threading when installing the screws. SMOS Arms had already made this change on their factory nuts so we left that as is.

    We also changed the install wrench size to 30mm, instead of the standard 1-1/16". This gave us more material to work with to increase strength and still keep the barrel nuts incredibly light.

    While the Noveske and SMOS Arms nuts are the same diameter but the spacing form the upper receiver to the front screw holes is different as is the spacing between the screw holes. EraThr3 uses the SMOS-spec nuts in their uppers, though they generally are not steel.

    The reason we went with 7075-T6 over Ti is no one is doing either the SMOS or the BCM KMR nuts in aluminum. If you're chasing weight, 7075 is lighter and almost as strong as Ti. Plus, it's much less expensive both in material and machine time. I could not even get close to these prices with Ti. If someone else can, please do it.

    I would guess for me to make any money, and I'm talking like $5 a nut, the NSR and GFY-spec nuts would run in the area of $75, maybe a little less. Machine time to drill and tap 32 holes would take a long time and that's the biggest cost other than materials, machine time.

    The reason we do not include shims at this point is they have not been needed in the over 40 we've sold thus far. Since we increased the number of rail mounting holes, timing has not been a problem. I'm due to meet with some potential dealers and distributors in the upcoming weeks and if they request shims, well then I'll be happy to include them.

    I am subbing these out and that's my disadvantage over the larger companies like 2A and Griffin. Plus, I have to make some money to make it worth my time. If you think my prices are too high, I'm sorry we won't be dealing with each other, truly! My sales up to this point tell me I'm priced okay. Again, when people are chasing grams, 7075-T6 beats Ti. The V7 KMR nut weighs around 23 grams, not quite half the original steel nut. Ours comes in at 15.8 grams, which is almost 1/3 the original. Now that might seem silly to some but when folks are paying $50 for a Titanium grip screw and $7 for a Ti buffer retainer to save around a gram, $50-$55 to drop 2 ounces from a Noveske NSR equipped build is pretty cheap!

    All that being said, we are going to drop everything $5 in order to clear them out creating capital to go to larger production and get cost down even more for potential dealers. As many of you may know, there is not much margin in the gun business but with our holsters we give around 40% to our distributors and I'd love to give our dealers 30% profit margin so they sell the nuts and I can focus on holsters.


    Quote Originally Posted by velocity2006 View Post
    Solution to a problem best solved by getting a rail with a different style of barrel nut.
    Easy to say but what about those of us that have three SMOS Arms rails, two NSR and a KMR? I LOVE my 11" NSR on my 12.5" upper but it was heavy. It's a first gen, which was made when Johnny was still alive so I'm NEVER getting rid of it! I dropped 2.1 ounces from my upper just be swapping the barrel nut, that's HUGE! I tried buying a couple barrel nuts from another company last March but they only got three in stock over a four month period. So, I decided I could make a better mouse trap that was lighter, too.

    I won't sell a ton of these(especially at less than an ounce each) but it helps folks with quality options while at the same time diversifying my business. The gun business is pretty stagnant right now and some of the niche items are the best selling items out there.


    Sorry everyone for the long reply but I wanted to respond to folks here the best I could. I value the opinions of folks on WEVO and I want to extend a special thanks to UWone77 for all his help so far. I could never in a million years be able to take photos that look even half as good as the ones above, so thank you!

    Mike D.
    Black Label Products, LLC (DBA Black Label Holsters)
    WA, USA
    Last edited by BlackLabelHolsters; 11 April 2017 at 15:02.

  9. #9
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    Mike, thanks for taking the time and talking through the bigger picture on the nuts. Helps a lot. Perhaps I'll splurge and try one out. :)

    Both of my EraTh3 barrel nuts are identical to SMOS steel nuts. Perhaps they upgraded recently.

    I've needed no shim on this style nut. The Griffin, yes, because that requires timing to a full quarter.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by fledge View Post
    Mike, thanks for taking the time and talking through the bigger picture on the nuts. Helps a lot. Perhaps I'll splurge and try one out. :)

    Both of my EraTh3 barrel nuts are identical to SMOS steel nuts. Perhaps they upgraded recently.

    I've needed no shim on this style nut. The Griffin, yes, because that requires timing to a full quarter.
    I'm happy to help, that's why I'm here! To me, the service is as important as the product. It helps that I love what I do, too. Sometimes I might be slow to reply as I'm the only one making holsters full time(I have a couple separated Army guys working for me part time), but I'll always be here to answer emails and hopefully here on this forum.

    From what I can tell based on the limited info out there, the EraThr3 rails come with a steel nut while the uppers and lightweight rifles come with aluminum. They are not available for purchase separately.

    Regarding timing- On the second run of SMOS and Noveske-spec nuts we will be adding tick marks to help get the timing correct. I don't really need them anymore after taking these type of nuts on and off a few hundred times but it does help speed the process along!

    I should have mentioned something about torque spec and installation as UWone77 had asked me about that last week. These are our recommendations based on our testing and experience as an armorer. I have tested multiple prototypes and production versions of all three to 90 ft-lbs and beyond, which was scary, to be honest! Nothing bad happened, though I wouldn't sell them ever. If you go beyond the numbers below, we cannot be held responsible for the part breaking(in the rare event that may happen). Please follow the multi-step torque sequence of applying either Aeroshell grease or anti-seize to the receiver threads then torquing the barrel nut to 30 ft-lbs, then break loose, torque to 30 ft-lbs, break loose, torque to 30 ft-lbs and then add more torque only until the next mounting holes become available.

    We only recommend using an installation rod(Reaction Rod-type), Magpul BEV block or an upper receiver clamp WITH insert, though we would prefer you use the rod or BEV block. We do NOT recommend pin-type upper receiver mounts or using a lower block with the upper attached to the lower.

    BCM KMR compatible nut: 25 to 50 ft-lbs, thought I like to stay below 40 as I've seen accuracy deteriorate a few times from over-torquing. Plus, thanks to the killer anti-rotation system, you don't have to worry about it backing off.

    NSR/NQR compatible nut: 25 to 60 ft-lbs. Again, I like to stay on the low end, especially if you have the anti-rotation pin installed.

    SMOS/EraThr3 compatible nut: 25 to 60 ft-lbs. Again, I like to stay on the low end, especially if you have the anti-rotation pin installed.

    If there are any questions, please contact me via email: blacklabelholsters@gmail.com I try to respond within 12 hours. Sometimes I can't but most times I do.
    Last edited by BlackLabelHolsters; 12 April 2017 at 13:32.

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