Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Are Ballistic Advantage Barrels any good?

They seem to be reasonably priced, and used by Aero Precision. Also, they have the BA Hanson cut barrels, which from a quick read on the site is a barrel contour that saves weight but doesnt go to pencil style? Looks to be half a pound lighter than the government profile at 16"?

What do you all think of Ballistic Advantage Barrels?

A few years ago I put together an upper with one of their 16" mid-gas, govt profile barrels. It is a good shooter with plain old green tip. Here's a pic with a 100 yard target using irons.

That's nice, MM. What does it do with Matchkings?

Oakster,

I have no experience with them personally, but their reputation is one of being on the better side of the budget barrels. One of our local builders uses a lot of them and seems to have no issues.

They also have a 1" guarantee for a 3 shot groups with good ammo. At some point, I'll probably end up with a couple.

I switched out a Ruger AR556 barrel for a BA 16" mid gas SPR barrel. Accuracy seems to be about the same so far, but I need to shoot it some more. I used that Ruger barrel to build an AR for my son.

I should really find out. This upper has only seen irons, and M855.

Nice group for open sights and green tips

They are great accurate barrels, but in my experience heavy

I’ve got two Hanson profile pistol length barrels. One in 556 and the other in 6.5 Grendel. I like them and they shoot well. I would recommend them for their price. I’ve got a Noveske that shoots a bit better but is 3x the price and it is not an apples to apples comparison.

Ammo was PMC X-Tac. Seems to be some of the better M855 type ammo.

I ordered a 16" Hanson profile stainless coated black, with the lo pro gas block. Seems like a pretty good price and has good reviews. Most people say they shoot pretty good. I think having Aero Precision behind them is a good sign too.

The question of whether or not BA barrels are 'good', really should revolve around intended use, and, a small dissertation on what you perceive as adequate accuracy. For a lot of guys that shoot AR's, if you can ding a steel plate that's roughly 9 wide x 12-15 tall at 100 yards, it's deliciously and orgasmic-ally perfect (another way of saying it's 'good'). You can do this with any 90 dollar barrel and XM whatever...all day long, but that's all they need. Some guys want, "...15 thousand rounds..." to go through it before it's 'good'. So if you think you are gonna go full civilian Geek Beret, pick an upper echelon chrome lined barrel because under those conditions they will last longer...and you'll be 'good'.

If you intend to pursue tight group work and load development for accuracy, which some guys will frown upon since it's an AR platform we are discussing, then still, the premium series or Hanson profile barrels will probably suffice. Their gas ports are uniform and the machine work is respectable for the price. The 1 in 8 twist rate will handle just about anything with the exception of the heavier monolithics like the 77grain GMX. Mine prefers a 65grain GK. Currently working on a range only 55gr load.

So in this case when I use the word 'good', I'm referring to the rifles ability (the barrel and the shooter) to shoot somewhere in the 3/4 +/- inch range for groups, on a regular basis, and with the right load workup. You might even get lucky and find a factory load that shoots sub MOA on a consistent basis. In my rifle the Fusion 62grain will stay right around .850 (group size) with the occasional flyer, if I do my job, and I don't drive the rifle like I'm attempting to escape from Vietnam. The barrel that's currently on my rifle is this one: BA barrel

Hope that helps.

I've got one of their "premium" SS barrels; it shoots patterns rather than groups. There will be no more BA barrels on any of mu guns, & the one that I have is no longer mounted to an upper.

MM

Sure, that makes sense. I dont intend to do a bunch of mag dumps and run through ammo like there is no tomorrow. I would like to shoot a couple thousand rounds a year and be able to shoot a 1" group at a 100 yards if I scope it. It would be fun to accurately use a red dot at 20 - 25 yards on in and practice defense type shooting with the wife and kids (youngest is a senior in high school). Good for me, I guess is to be able to shoot 100 yards at MOA with a scope, ideally with some decent factory ammo. I would not expect bulk ammo to do that.

Go for it. And you are correct - bulk ammo is the last place you'd look for accuracy benchmarks (my opinion).

I run a BA hanson profile with a 14.5-in and absolutely love the balance, The profile alone is worth it for me, I hate the government profile with the heavy nose and no weight in the back. It is the fastest target to target AR upper I have.