What type of barrel?

NewLife2626

New member
Is a heavy barrel or standard barrel recommended for predators and target shooting out to lets say 300-400 yds. or is it personal choice. Are there any real advantages other then having the barrel heating slower with the heavy barrel.
 
On average a heavier barrel is more accurate because it is stiffer. A heavy barrel is easier to shoot offhand because your wobble is slower.

Jack
 
A well made thin tapered barrel can be just as accurate as a heavy one. More important is how you will use the rifle. If you’re going to pack the rifle for miles every day, that heavy barrel will get old real fast. If you intend to target shoot from a bench or do very little hiking but lots of shooting then the heavy barrel is probably a better choice.
 
I was thinking of getting a 20" dpms bull anyone have experience with them as far as accuracy and the 1in9 twist. I am working on a build and buying piece by piece.
 
I've never owned a DPMS rifle so I'm afraid my opinion doesn't carry much weight with them. They don't actually make their own barrels so you might ask them who they buy their barrels from. It could be Green River or Wilson but somebody on here will be able to tell you. Once you know who and how the barrel was manufactured you’ll have a good idea of the potential accuracy to be expected. I’m very partial to Olympic Arms Ultramatch barrels. If accuracy is your top priority, that’s what I would buy.
 
Newlife2626, I've had a 1/9, 16" bull barreled DPMS for several years and as far as accuracy, it will hold it's own, generally, up against the two custom barreled ARs that I have.

The customs are a little longer (20" & 22") and have different twist rates for the lighter bullets, so they will hold their accuracy a little better over long distances..300+ yards, with my loads.

When we went to the PM Hunt at Globe in '06, Nikonut used the DPMS to hit an egg at 200 yards...Unfortunately I missed mine, so that puts the accuracy factor on the shooter.
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I use my rifles for competition and Prairie Dog shooting, so IMHO, the bull barrels are necessary, but for hunting, where 1-2 shots will be about the most fired at one time, the smaller/lighter weight barrel will be more of a blessing...without losing accuracy...even the 16" bull gets a little heavy after a while..
 
While i have longer barreled ar's, the one that goes hunting with me most of the time is my ultralite 16" barreled ar. It does very well out to 350yds, and would probably do well past that but thats as far as i can shoot at our range.

It will hit the 4" swinging plate at 300yds without any problems. If i'm going to be hunting past that distance, i take a .243. blue
 
Geez Old Turtle, 6418 posts! I’m thinking you might have an idea who makes DPMS's barrels?

NewLife2626
Accuracy has far more to do with good materials and quality of the barrel manufacturing process than barrel diameter. It’s not likely that you will notice much of a difference between two identically made barrels just because one is a thinner taper.
If I’m sitting over a P-Dog town, I’ll take a bull barrel. If I’m packing from Coyote stand to Coyote stand, I’ll carry the lightest rifle possible. The point I’m trying to make here is that you should base the barrel weight on how you will use the rifle not on what level of accuracy that you want.
 
Quote:I’m very partial to Olympic Arms Ultramatch barrels. If accuracy is your top priority, that’s what I would buy.

Yep, if I was going with the bull barrel profile, that would be my #1 pick. They offer alternate twist rates, too, you just have to ask when you order.
If you contacted D-Tech (Mike Milli) he might be able to get you one and flute it to knock about a pound off the weight and you would have a very nice "compromise" for hunting and long-range target shooting.
He's loaded up with work right now, but he might have barrels available on the shelf.
 
I did a couple experiments last year.

We got 4 barrel blanks in, made 2 in 18", one bull one heavy and 2 in 24" again one bull and one heavy. All .223.

Accuracy results were the same in all four barrels out to 300yards.

I also tried a DPMS 16" bull against our 18" and with no disrespect to DPMS ours outshot it by a big margin, granted we didn't work up any loads for any particular rifle, we tried hornady 55gr, honrady 60gr Vmax, blackhills 69gr red box and our own 77gr Sierra handloads.

So... a heavy barrel out to 300 will shoot just as good as a bull barrel and you save a lot of weight.
 
I thought Olympic arms was making a light contoured 20 inch barrel rifle similiar to the R-15. A good quality 20 pencil barrel would be nice
 
Bartlein barrels just set three new world records at the NBRSA nationals. 65%
of the top 20 shooters were shooting Bartleins. The 3 new records are in the
1's. Not so much heavy or light but what brand. Now granted these are bench
guns but to have that many rounds under 2 tenths of an inch all in one match
by three different shooters says there is a difference.
For ar's I would say wilson has the most consistent shooters for the money. There are better but not by much. Heavy barrels are going to shoot better and
be more forgiving with load variations. But you pay in carry weight. And in the
field the difference in a .5 and a 1.0 gun would be hard to tell. Most of us aren't that good under field conditions.
 
I barreled my build with a 16'' Dez Arms match grade fluted. They're a mom & pop barrel company who were great to deal with and I think I got a pretty good deal at a time when quality AR parts were hard to come by.

That said, if I were allowed to own a shorter barrel, I would. Looking back, I probably should have waited around until the standard weighted barrels were in stock. The combination of the extra weight and the extra inch and a half makes it a little front heavy. And if you've gotta carry it through thick stuff at all, you'll appreciate it as short as you can get it.
 
All else being equal: Shorter barrels are lighter and noisier than longer barrels. Thicker barrels will warp, wobble and whip less than thin barrels. Shorter barrels are slower than longer barrels. Shorter barrels are handier and easier to maneuver than longer barrels.

Build it with the longest, heaviest barrel you want to carry for however long you need to carry it. If you have different needs, build different uppers. They are easily interchangeable.

I have 16", 20" and 24" barrels on my AR's. That's not to say 18", 22" and 26" are bad, I just don't have a need for any of them yet. My contours range from M4 style to heavy match. My twist rates vary from 1-7.75" to 1-12". Different uppers for different applications.

Fast Ed
 
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