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RichP

Accuracy barrels

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Looking to put together a mid-weight but very accurate AR. Have most of the parts picked-out or already ordered and next on the list is a barrel. Looking for an 18", not super heavy, likely a .223 Wylde chamber with a 1:7 - 1:7.5 twist. Would like to use bullets in the 65-77 grain range.

Strong considerations are Noveske, CLE Bartlein or Rainier Ultramatch. I am leaning to CLE mostly for customization options, but the Rainier looks damn good and the Noveske has a cult-like following. Chances are, the CLE will be the most accurate.

Opinions?

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I wound-up calling CLE and speaking to the owner about what he would recommend, based on some things that I was looking for. Ultimately, I ordered a Criterion in the SPR profile, 7.7 twist and a CLE match chamber. Sending him my bolt so that he can check headspace and remove any slop. Should take about a month to finish-up. Still up-in-the-air about whether or not to get it fluted; the whole heat dissipation vs. stiffness debate.

Now, to find glass....

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3 hours ago, Golf battery said:

From what ive read heard seen. Fluting isnt worth it.  Harmonics get tampered with and cooling of the barrel is negligible. 

I'm no expert, but that won't stop me from giving my opinion.  Increasing surface area absolutely does increase cooling.  Otherwise, the heat sink on your computer CPU would be a solid block of metal.  Car radiators would just be copper tubes with no aluminum fins.  The same with air conditioners. 

Now, accuracy is a whole other ball of bees wax.  A cooler barrel will shoot more accurately but if the barrel does not cool evenly it can have an adverse effect.    I think there is some process that helps the barrel maintain equal tension after it heats up, can't think of what it is but stress relieving comes to mind, though that may be incorrect.

That said, most of the competition barrels I've seen are not fluted.  They are plain heavy bull barrels, but that's not to say the pros dont use fluted barrels.  Bartlien, the company that makes 43% of the barrels used by the top 100 competitors does make fluted barrels.

The effects on harmonics is debatable but the increase in cooling is not.

 

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White Oak is highly popular among High Power shooters.  If they weren't "accuracy barrels" they wouldn't have such a following with that crowd.  I encourage you to check them out.  I have a slight bias as I helped John develop their new 3-gun barrels, which are freakin' awesome, but they are not the style you're looking for.

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22 minutes ago, Pew Pew Plates said:

White Oak is highly popular among High Power shooters.  If they weren't "accuracy barrels" they wouldn't have such a following with that crowd.  I encourage you to check them out.  I have a slight bias as I helped John develop their new 3-gun barrels, which are freakin' awesome, but they are not the style you're looking for.

I did check on WOA quite a bit. The 3 gun barrels are nice, but I did not like that they used a proprietary gas length (rifle -1"). The CLE barrel uses intermediate gas length, and while not hugely common, it is made by several outfits.

Just about everything else was a toss-up between the two companies. I also recall reading somewhere that CLE was turning barrels for WOA at one point, but don't know how true that is.

 

This is going to be my first AR build, so hoping to get it right without much rework.

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18 minutes ago, RichP said:

I did check on WOA quite a bit. The 3 gun barrels are nice, but I did not like that they used a proprietary gas length (rifle -1"). The CLE barrel uses intermediate gas length, and while not hugely common, it is made by several outfits.

Just about everything else was a toss-up between the two companies. I also recall reading somewhere that CLE was turning barrels for WOA at one point, but don't know how true that is.

 

This is going to be my first AR build, so hoping to get it right without much rework.

In regards to the gas length on the 3-gun barrels, that was chosen based off our experience with rifle length gas systems not always providing the gas or dwell time neccesary to run reliably specifically with an 18” barrel length.  Moving the port back that smidge gives you more room to adjust your gas depending on your needs, keeping the felt impulse nearly the same without having to dial all the way back to mid length.

All the WOA offerings with this setup come with the tube included, negating the need to buy any proprietary/non standard parts.  As you know gas tubes don’t go bad so we deemed it more appropriate to go this route for maximum reliability without sacrificing the qualities of a rifle length gas system in an 18” tube.  The qualities of its soft impulse, light weight, reliability, accuracy, and 18” length make it ideal for 3-gun where you may be raging in a bay at 10 yards and then turn and shoot 500 yards.

That said, I know the 3 gun barrel specifically is not what you’re looking for (a real accuracy rig) but I wanted to explain the gas length for the other readers.

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