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New Barreling for Armalite AR 10?

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14 years 3 months ago #5155 by OldJarhead
Replied by OldJarhead on topic Re:New Barreling for Armalite AR 10?
Some ruminations on barrels from past experience:
Chrome lined barrels, like chrome lined chambers, were intended to reduce wear and were originally intended for weapons designed for high rates of fire (i.e. machine guns, etc) since the chrome was harder than the gun steel. The chroming also provided for easier cleaning (not sure if intended or not). Barrel wear is reduced thereby extending barrel life.
The problem with chroming a barrel lies in the inability to plate the surfaces in a consistent thickness,thereby causing different bore and groove dimensions. Hence the accuracy can suffer becasue of these differnces.
Put 20 shooters in a room, asked them the same questions, you get 20 different answers. SS or Chromoly? Twist rate ? Barrel profile? Barrel length? Gas port location and size?
So, what does one do? Whatever you want! I suggest a step process. Step 1 - What cartridge will you use? What bullet? Intended use for rifle?
Step 2 - Contact the barrel makers or their representatives for availability, costs, chamberings offered, etc.
Step 3 - Be prepared to pay and wait. You're asking for a custom barrel, you must be prepared for some lead time and it's not going to be priced as olf the shelf barrels are.
Step 4 - If you have the proper tools to mount and torquethe barrel, go for it. If not, let the pros do it.
Step 5 - If break in us required, so so per manufactureres guidance. Don't worry about accuracy so much in this process, you're just getting the final polish on the chamber and barrel.
Step 6 - Once break in is finished, start working up loads, changing only one component at a time. If you're hell bent on 168 Sierra MK's (jsut an example) select a powder, work up 3-5 loads with a chage rate (low end to start) and start shooting. There's a lot of time and shooting associated with developing the best load for your rifle. What works in yours may not be the ticket for your buddies rifle and vice versa. It's a lot of trial and error is you're looking for that ragged one hole in your target.
If you are not a loader, find someone who is. Paying for a match grade barrel and running military surplus ammo thru it defeats the purpose. Some factory ammo these days gives excellent results in match barrels, but it's pricey.
Point being that re-barreling is not the only step required to gain acuracy.

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14 years 2 months ago #5255 by MistWolf
Replied by MistWolf on topic Re:New Barreling for Armalite AR 10?
You might take a look at the Noveske 21". Noveske makes some real good barrels

noveskerifleworks.com/cgi-bin/imcart/dis...arch=&since=&status=

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14 years 2 months ago #5420 by tim-jon
Replied by tim-jon on topic Re:New Barreling for Armalite AR 10?
Hey Karma, what makes you determine your barrel is bad? When you say "dial in" that seems a bit vague. What size groups are you shooting with it? What size do you expect? what kind of ammo?

a 1 in 11.75 (read 1 in 12) twist is going to shoot lighter bullets better and may not shoot a 175 at all. I mean it may cause the bullets to be a bit unstable and end up punching a key hole in your target, even at close range. 1 in 10 is a good all around twist for .308 and will handle the heavier bullets. But your 1 in 12 may shoot more accurately (shooting the appropriate bullet weight, 150 gr) than a 1 in 10. on the other hand it may (most likely) shoot these heavy bullets terribly.

I suppose the point is you perhaps should define what you expect from your rifle/ammo combo and go from there. Spending a bunch of money or hours breaking in a barrel may not resolve your issue.

As far as barrel length goes length doesn't translate to accuracy. Length has 2 advantages which are 1) increased sight radius with iron sights and 2) increased velocity. Most military .308 ammo is loaded for optimal barrel lenght of 20 inches. So unless you are handloading there may or may not be an advantage. When using a scope there is no advantage in length accuracy wise.

a lot of words, for what it's worth

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13 years 3 months ago #8233 by Bluegrassdan
Replied by Bluegrassdan on topic Re:New Barreling for Armalite AR 10?
I would second that question, what does it shoot now? If you want sub moa accuracy from your rifle look at what might be causing you to not get that with the current setup. Do you have a good scope or irons, repeatable and you know enough of how to use them to be able to achieve that level of accuracy? If you can say yes, then look at your loads, factory match ammo or iffy surplus stuff thats really not capable of shooting that well? Handloads are another story. If good factory match ammo shoots well, you should be able to match or sometimes exceed that quality with good equipment and quality components. If your capable of shooting well and you shoot good ammo, then I would start to look at the rifle. I dont like to see guys go dump a truck load of hard earned money buying parts for a rifle that was already capable of doing what they wanted. If they really take an honest look at what they have and what goes down the barrel, a lot of problems can be solved righFt there. I shoot F class a lot and see guys buying barrel after barrel thinking thats the problem when a lot of times they needed to try different ammo or get a better scope.

If you opt to get a barrel, get a match grade stainless barrel and send it to a smith that has done barrels for the type of shooting you do, have them chamber it and crown it and install it if you can. You should feel confident that they have done their best work, then go break it in and start building loads.

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13 years 3 months ago #8372 by JSteinhoff
Replied by JSteinhoff on topic Re: New Barreling for Armalite AR 10?
Noveske mates their 7.62 barrels with Armalite uppers...!

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12 years 9 months ago #10190 by weshowe
Replied by weshowe on topic Re: New Barreling for Armalite AR 10?
Gents,

I'm running a Schneider 1:11.25" 20" stainless barrel on my G.A. Precision AR-10.

Buy the best barrel you can afford and have it installed by a reputable shop. G.A. Precision or Kreiger get my vote. My preference is Kreiger.

For accuracy I'd stay away from chrome lined barrels. Not really needed if you go with a stainless tube anyway.

I generally specify a 1:10" twist on my rifles in case I want to shoot 190 gr. SMK's.

My AR was specifically set up for 175 gr. SMK's.

Wes

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