Hey guys, I'm building up my first AR. Can anyone recommend some good brands for barrels? I've been looking at Daniel Defense a bit. Looking for 1:7 twist, mid length.

If you want the FN sourced hammer forged barrels, daniel defence, palmettos state armory, bravo company, spikes tactical, etc. have them. They are basically the same thing except for profile, which may vary. The down side is that a lot of the cold hammer forged barrels are not as accurate as the button rifled chrome plated barrels they seem to be replacing. I cant find the lnk right now, but one gunsmith was gauging the muzzle end of barrels he was getting and was seeing the CHF offerings being opened up slightly at the muzzle end. As an anecdote, shooting a BCM 16" button rifled right next to a BCM 16" CHF with the exact same ammo (xm193, lc-08 form the same case of ammo), I was getting better groups out the button rifled barrel.

 

Outside of that, reasonably priced and readily available, you have rainier arms stainless steel barrels. Many of them are made for them by black hole weaponry. You have black hole weaponry, but you will have to wait. There's JP, but you'll have to wait. There's criterion, which are chrome lined, but designed to actually be more accurate. You may or may not have to wait. Benny Hill of triangle shooting sports thinks highly of them. There's superior barrels and ar-15 performance is you want melonite rather than chrome. They only list in their online shop what is in stock.

 

There's tons of good barrels out there. The above spans the range form $185 to about $700,

I use this barrel and have been extremely happy with it. It has been very accurate with hand loads, Always under 1" at 100 yard, lots of 1/2" groups. Its turned down to .650 under the handguard, so it balaces and transitions very well. It is a 1-8 barrel though

 

 

http://shop.nordiccomp.com/Lilja-Nordic-AR-Rifle-Barrel-Stainless-16-BBL-223-16M-LN.htm

As an anecdote, shooting a BCM 16" button rifled right next to a BCM 16" CHF with the exact same ammo (xm193, lc-08 form the same case of ammo), I was getting better groups out the button rifled barrel.

 

Raz-0 is actually only telling half the story, the two barrels had the the same accuracy differences with 3 types of ammo (I think it was xm193, PMC, and wolf) and the CHF one also chorno'ed slower with all the loads as well.