Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Good lightweight 16" 5.56 barrel?

Who makes a good lightweight 16" AR barrel in 5.56 or Wylde? I'd like a 7 twist but an 8 would probably work. I've been looking at a black hole weaponry and I've also though about finding a Wilson. The Wilson on my RRA predator pursuit shoots very well but I'm looking for something shorter and lighter weight.

I have 2 aero uppers and 2 aero lowers with sequential serial numbers. I want to do one lightweight 16" 5.56 and the other in a mid weight 18-20" Grendel or lbc. I'm kind of new to the custom ar thing. My 4 other ar's are mostly stock models. Most of my customs are bolt guns so any AR build advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Bb

WOA makes nice barrels, but you might want to consider the 18" SDM. A good 18" tube is just as handy as a 16, but noticeably less blast to the operator

I have a Noveske light weight stainless barrel, they make em in 16" and 18". Really good barrels in my opinion. This one is almost a half MOA shooter, my last one was a solid half MOA barrel. But finding one in stock isn't easy.

Though they are not as light as a Colt pencil barrel, they shoot better.

Centurion Arms lightweight barrel

Same contractor as Noveske, but actually in stock. These should be around a minute with good ammo, or a little tighter. They aren't true lightweights but maybe 3 ounces heavier.

I reccomended the stainless steel Noveske barrels which are PacNor blanks, not the chrome lined FN blanks. Just to be clear.

I'd also recommend the 16" Centurion lightweight.

The two Black Hole barrels I had were great shooters. No idea what their turnaround time is now though.

Daniel Defense pencil mid-length about to be my do-all.

I have one of those, its not a bad chrome lined barrel.

Mild hijack but is anyone running a melonited/black nitrided barrel? It seems to offer all the advantages of chromes durability with a more consistent interior dimensions and finish.

Brownell's has a new line of barrels that a tech said are being made by Satern that are black nitrided, reasonably priced ($221) and actually available.

http://www.brownells.com/rifle-part...ls/ar15-m16-308ar-barrels-prod56797.aspx

IIRC, S&W is nitriding their AR bores now. I think John Burns has run one of those a bit. If he doesn't see this, PM him.

I thought smith was. If they had a 1x8 with a midlength system I probably would have simply grabbed one off of the shelf and be done with it.

Of course because we are all infected with campfire disease almost nothing off the shelf could possibly be better than what we spec out....:)

Gandrtactical has some nitrided 16" mid length DD uppers with LP gas blocks and no rail, but they are pricey.

http://www.gandrtactical.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=19018

$800 with no forearm and a simple M4 profile barrel and sounds like a generic BCG and Bolt. I cannot see that price, wonder whose barrel it is?

The whole thing is DD...barrel, BCG, etc. Still too expensive for me for what it is.

Some things Grant is cheaper than anyone else and sometimes I think he needs to put down the crack pipe.

Of course DD is higher than they should be to begin with.

Well I have been waiting almost three months on my black hole barrel and Rainer cannot even begin to predict when they will have any back in. I grabbed one of the cheapo blaster barrels from Joeboboutfitters a few weeks ago in the A2 profile but they dont offer a pencil. I think that black nitride from brownells is looking better all the time.

So DD makes a nitrited barrel? Still at $800 I do believe he is overpriced, and its not a LW barrel!

I think he special ordered a run of those. And yeah, I don't see it either. But if you're looking for a nitrided barrel, it's there I guess.

I still think Colt's 6520/6530/6720 pencil barrel is the light weight general purpose barrel to have. People talk about the chrome lining hampering accuracy and the carbine gas system outdated but they shoot good enough and are reliable to the end.

And having owned a few mid lengths and even more Colt pencil barrels, the difference just ain't there.