Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Criterion barrel review

Of sorts anyway.
I wanted an 18” gun again and got to looking at Criterion’s CORE barrel. These are chrome lined barrels that are hand lapped and profiled differently than most. They start heavy and taper out to a .625” gas block journal. The claim was a more accurate chrome lined barrel of which I’m a fan. 18” and rifle gas, 223 Wylde chamber and a 1/8 twist. Sorry I didn’t measure gas port.
https://criterionbarrels.com/products/ar-15/ar-15-core-series-rifle-gas/?v=7516fd43adaa
I ordered the barrel and Badger Ordinance gas block along with a rifle length gas tube. I also ordered a Colt upper, one of the newer CZ Colts that has no C just 13629 and a Brass Forge logo.

The barrel/upper fit was tight enough that I heated the upper to mate the barrel. It was square without needing to true it up.


I installed a Midwest Industries M-lok 15” rail on it which uses a non indexing barrel nut so I torqued the nut to 60’ lbs on the advice from Criterion. The rail is strong with anti rotation for either direction and pretty light. I added a Vortex Flash hider and a new CZ/Colt BCG.




Can’t distinguish the new from the older ones I have, quality from the new Colt seems to be good.
Continued…