Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles How many rounds will a $400 AR-15 last?

Cool video
Intersting they discuss barrel death at 5K. AMU changes match barrels out at 2500 rounds last I heard still. Because they have seen a QUALITY barrel die at 3000/3500 rounds.

Which is pretty typical for us when we shot buttoned barrels. 3500-4500 was about all you could get.

Also pretty typical death, buttoned tubes seemed to be fine and then horrible. Good cut tubes just faded away.

All in all for what you spend vs what you get.. its up to the purchaser.

And how many will run full auto or get into combat anyway. At that point there are other issues IMHO. And it may be that picking up other guns laying around isn't a bad thing...

As I've been saying, they figured the AR thing out some years ago. CNC type auto stuff makes stuff so good that it just doesn't take much to have a basically MOA gun that will last just fine for most peoples uses.

Good test.

Looking at the cracking in the barrel, it seemed pretty obvious that heat killed it. That and it seemed to have a lot of copper. I wonder how long it would've gone with more frequent cleaning?

It would've been neat if they air-gauged the barrel.

Thanks for posting.

Truth is very few people will ever fire enough rounds to shoot the barrel of a PSA.

If you do, time to buy something better.

I think they last a hell of a lot longer than most buyers interest in that gun does. Bought a dpms Oracle for $500 when that was the going rate years ago. Sighted in a red dot on the rec. As well as a laser on the picatinied gas block. Probably put 250 -300 rds thru it checking function and reliability. With those sights it is my house gun. Last forever , simply does not get the volume of rds thru it my scoped ar does that I use for varmints and such. As simple as Lay's potatoe chips can't have just 1..mb you know I wouldn't chit you.

I feel like this was GT's way of telling people "you have no excuse" when it comes to arming yourself for self defense/SHTF/whatever.

He's rather "based" as the kids say and seems to believe that conflict is coming of some sort. A 300 dollar roscoe is more than enough so the old saw about "I can't afford one worth having" doesn't really apply. Get one so the numbers swell.

I'd like to see him do the same test with the PSA premium kit with their FN double chrome lined barrel and their premium BCG.

Not at all surprised they managed to cook that barrel so quickly, given the rate of fire. All that heat certainly affects the innards of the action as well. I doubt that barrel was hammer-forged; if so, I don’t recall them saying so. I skipped around some, so if they did any cleaning or lubing, I missed it.

Just looked, and Bear Creek, which has its own hammer-forging machine, offers uppers with nitrided, H-F barrels pretty cheaply. One of those should last a long time under normal conditions. My upper is 416R SS, no doubt button-rifled, but I won’t ever get it anywhere near that hot. Rifle-length gas system is supposed to help things inside stay cooler too, according to the video. Learned a good bit from that Asian guy; stuff to watch out for.

Been watching a lot of similar videos. Point seems to be that you can get a decent rifle for not a whole lot of money, but it pays to check the details for stuff that might’ve slipped through, like staking, loose screws, etc. Even spendier ones can have those issues.

I'm a little bit surprised at the barrel/accuracy holding up that long, considering full auto at times. But otherwise, I hold the belief that any auto that passes a good visual & function check, runs 100% for the first few hundred is good to go for the long run for the average shooter.

Those guys fired in the neighborhood of 3500 bucks worth of ammo. Average Joe won't.

Now at 20k rounds through a Colt A1 1:7 twist 11.5" blaster. Purchased as a LE takeoff after some indeterminate number of rounds.

Anyway, first 12k used a Colt bolt, rest with a FN bolt. Carrier is fine, rails shiny but no asymetric wear. Both bolts are still in service, no sign of cracks. Two extractor hooks broken over 25k (sometimes used bolts in another upper). Definitely not undergassed as in the vid. Replaced rings on the Colt bolt around 10k, haven't done the FN. As for the CMP-stamped barrel, Teslong pics are worse......OK, much, much worse........than those in the vid. Rifling barely even visible first 5" or so, gas port looks like grand canyon, etc.

By pure coincidence I'd treated it about the same as Garandthumb in the vid. 3-4 mag dumps followed by cooling period. 95% or more was FA.

Occasionally tested for accuracy using IVI or LC M855. Through over 10k it held to 5 shots in 4-5" at 100 yds (with irons......I'm old). At that point it went to a shoot and the volunteers got to run that upper with consecutivve mag dumps......probably ten or so before it was benched for handguards too hot to hold. After than occasion it abruptly became a 12 MOA blaster. Which is still OK by me.

Not content, did the Kroil/Paste alternating with Patch-Out soaks. As in 3-4 cycles. At the range it again went into 4-5". To be fair, it fouls up pretty fast now. Whatever have a local shoot in May, and that upper will be attending.

I have noticed - A LOT of youtube types with access to FA weapons. I need some too.

One of the top line names in custom AR rifles for competition sent out a top notch not cheap rifle upper to a friend. Would not shoot. Barrel nut was so that you could unscrew with your fingers.

it happens to all.

So yes, check everything you get. There will always be lemons for any number of reasons.

Obviously the cheaper the Item the higher the odds of an issue. But these days it almost all works.

When you keep saying "I get it, I get it"... you don't get it.

So.... what exactly was this upper anyway? What kind of bolt is in it? What kind of barrel? Is any of it nitrided or hard chromed? Just plain steel? As far as I could find, they NEVER said. And to take all the measurements AFTER shooting, and none before makes the measurements mean NOTHING.

The barrel was a copper mine.


I would like to see it cleaned ,
gas rings cost a few cents, an idiot could replace them.
Do that too.

Let's see what happens then.
Everyone talks Colt, FN, Knight.
How about we really treat the PSA like a military gun would be treated.
Not likely to fire 3k rounds without cleaning.
Pretty certain if the gas rings fail the test, they would be replaced.


There was a bit of value in the test, but it deserves a cleaning before the barrel is
declared toast. Gas rings if it needs them. $10 in parts and supplies would likely
have it back in business.

If it was a $3k dollar gun, it probably would have been mechanically better.
They wouldn't have proclaimed a MK12 toast without cleaning it.

So I'll never wear one out with the demands I put on a rifle, along with a little lube, good to know.

I did skip through the video as the frantic speed talking is distracting..

Informative video!

Which is the point of the video IMO. Not to compare it or to see how long one could make it last. Basically - 300 bucks gets you a serviceable AR for home defense and training.

There really is no excuse for anyone wanting an AR “that works” not to have one. Even snobs like me that love colt and fn chromed barrels and $300 BCG’s might want one of these just to keep in the trunk of your Tesla while shopping down town.

Thats a [bleep] slap... Tesla.....
FWIW we haven't owned a car since the wife wanted to play with a Mustang around 94... I don't see us ever owning a car period again. YMMV.What I took away is that if you can abuse an upper like that and it makes 3000 rounds, its good enough for most people. Yes it could have been done differently. But then again we have shot barrels to the almost 5000 round mark without cleaning too just to watch accuracy on good barrels. Yes the upper got wiped now and then and the bolt re lubed. But those barrels did not degrade so they evidently are better barrels.

I've noted life depends on lots of factors. Cleaning the barrel is one that just tends not to make enough difference UNLESS you get bad spots of carbon fouling.

After seeing one of PSA’s double chrome lined FN barrel’s do a pretty decent job as a GP gun, I started ordering a few parts here and there. Finally found an H&R chrome lined upper from them for $369 so I bought it and after running a few hundred rounds through it, it now lives in my Tesla, uh, I mean Chevy monster truck. 🤓

The upper in the video was severely over gassed but it was assembled right and stayed together. I’m not sure how far the groups were shot at but the accuracy was acceptable.