Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles Barrel

Where would you go, currently, to purchase a replacement barrel for an M1A?
Also will ask on the gunsmithing forum.

https://criterionbarrels.com/products/m14/m14-m1a-usgi-contour-barrel/?v=7516fd43adaa

If you are doing it on the cheap - check SARCO

Criterion has a great reputation. You can buy direct, or maybe save a few pennies going to a retail seller. No idea, but; as a general rule - factory outlets always charge full retail while individual sellers are free to discount a little bit. EABrown CMP - no idea really, just spitballing.

No experience with M1A, but if the handful of Criterion barrels I've used on Springfields, M1's and Krag are an indicator one should perform nicely on an M1A.

A couple of range acquaintances speak very highly of their Criterion made Garand barrels.

I have one in both a Garand and an O3A3, both shoot pretty good with the bolt rifle being more accurate.

One thing I found out was that, with the Garand, I have to shorten OAL to 3.250" with the Hornady fmj or it will stick in the rifling and make a mess if you want to unload the round in the chamber. Not only that, but you'll have to use a cleaning rod to get the (lightly) stuck bullet out.

I don't know if the throat is shorter in the O3A3 or not, I simply fire the same load in both rifles and they seem to be happy with it.

When these barrels wear out, Criterions will go back on. I don't know how long the life is, but the Garand in particular has been fired enough to find out if the barrels wear quickly, seems to have plenty of life left.

The Criterions I've used on pre-war '03's have all shot as well and/or better than the crispy Star Gauged barrel on my National Match rifle. One thing though, they were all short chambered from the factory and after installation required a touch with a chamber reamer. That allowed me to obtain absolutely minimum headspace. (One is a dedicated cast bullet shooter and as such I additionally re-throated it with a 1 1/2 degree included angle throating reamer. I had to know if it was still ok with jacketed stuff, and lo and behold it is but bullets have to be seated out a lot farther.)

Note also the index marks on Criterion barrels are dead nuts on with the index marks on the receiver. Those folks know their business.

Thanks for the advice, fellas. We ordered a Criterion a couple of days ago.
Stated to be short-chambered ~ .010.