Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles I built another upper using this barrel

Exactly^^^ I was going to suggest that. Pretty good deal and they are in stock. Received the email from them about a week ago... Great bullet. Hey J, have you tried the 69gr match burners? I bought some the other day. Sportsman's had a bunch of them, so some shops are getting shipments from Barnes. Price wasn't bad, at $26.00/box:


I've been wanting to load some up, but it's been hot here!!!

No I haven’t messed with them. Some say they are good others say not so good. I should buy some give them a try. But they are almost same price point as the 69gr smk’s.

I went back to the range today. I put 12 rounds through the new barrel. The first one was a flyer which I kind of expected since I had just cleaned the barrel. The next 11 were just over 1 inch at 50 yards.

I took the rifle home and checked it out with the bore scope. The copper is back. I did the Brasso thing and some more Patch-Out. In fact it's setting in the work shop with the Patch-Out still setting in the barrel. I'll give it an hour and go back. I was shooting some 55 grain hollow points and this time it was with 23.2 grains of RL10x. The upper functioned perfectly and the brass was deposited at 4:00 in one pile. If I can get the copper thing figured out I think it will be a shooter.

kwg

At 100yds group will be even bigger... I mentioned in the past if one is going to buy a barrel get a green mtn barrel. I bought one 2yrs ago at the time they said they were lapped barrels. No longer say that. But for $198 you can’t go wrong.. I recently bought a Ballistic advantage barrel for my daughters AR. I must hit the jackpot with this barrel. It will hold the 10ring at 600yds with 77gr Sierra OTM’s.

Which Ballistic Advantage barrel did you buy ?? I have 2 of them and they are good shooters. The nitride barrel is a 14.5 inch barrel and shoots well for what it is. But I bought one of the stainless barrels with the Wylde chamber. I'm getting good accuracy but it's very similar to the barrel I just bought from Midway. 1" to 1.5" at 50 yards. It only has about 50 or 60 bullets down the tube so it's a bit early to decide just how accurate it will be. I was hoping to see holes stacked on top of each other.
kwg

I took my Midway barrel to the range today. The groups continue to tighten up. I did attack it again with the Brasso and copper killer since the last time I posted. I shot again at 50 yards and I was just over 1 inch with a 4 shot group. It was a 3/4 inch group but I threw shot number 3 taking it slightly over an inch. No doubt I am the weak link. Even off of a rest I can't seem to hold completely still. I am still using the Cabelas 1-6 30 mm scope with the cross hairs inside of a circle scope. It's not a perfect scope but it's usable. I have an unemployed 3-9 Burris but I haven't found rings I like yet. I was using Nikon AR rings but I have not seen them for a while. I assume Nikon stopped making them when they got out of the scope business.

kwg

You just can’t polish a turd…

My feeling is the biggest turd is the guy pulling the trigger.

kwg

As said before you stretch that to 100yds you will chucking that barrel
In the trash can..

Very likely. Too bad though. I was hoping it was going to shoot well.

I don't think anything less than 100 yards is any indication.

Ive shot enough to know that any accurate centerfire rifle will put all the bullets through the same hole at 50 yards. Im sure 79s has seen the same, thus the reason he said he'd toss the barrel in the trash can. Unless i'm reading your post wrong?

Lawrence I picked up a cheapo 18inch ballistic advantage barrel couple months back. To replace a 1-9 twist on my daughters AR. Anyhow that damn thing shoots 77gr Sierra’s very well just over an MOA good enough to hold the 10ring at 600yds. Let a buddy use it for a 600yd match and he was trying to get my daughter to sell it to him lol. I also seen barrels I owned that left me frustrated, funny one I had a 16 inch 5.56 barrel I tried and tried to get it to shoot 77 Sierra’s. This was a psa barrel. I burnt up a lot Bullets and primers. I pulled it off gave it to a my buddy. Well he used it for a build and brought it to the range. He was shooting 55gr fmj factory ammo and that damn thing was shooting great groups lol.

Ha ha yeah, ive seen that. My buddies national match bushmaster A2 (1in 9) shoots the green tip ammo just as well as 69gr match grade stuff. You never know what a barrel is going to do until you run an assortment of stuff through it. I like it when my barrels like the 77s. Most all of them love the 69 SMK. The 77's are much better out past 400 yards though.

At my next chance I'm going to shoot from the 100. I'm going to put it on one of the lowers with a RR varnmit trigger. I need to find some of those 69 grain hollow points. It may take a bit of work and it may never be a Green Mountain barrel but it may live to shoot another day.

kwg

It appears that 79S is correct. I took the rifle with the Midway barrel back to the range yesterday. I had swapped the upper to a lower that has the Rock River 2 stage varmint trigger and put a known Bushnell fixed 10 power on top. I started at 50 yards like I normally do to check the scope. I was shooting 60 grain soft points over 25 grains of IMR 4895.

This barrel is NOT free floated. I am currently using a standard midlength hand guard and a front end cap behind a gas block to keep everything in place. At 50 yards I'm not sure it would make a huge amount of difference. I'm going to get a free float hand guard at some point but it may not go on this barrel. I used what I had in the parts box for this upper.

The 1st shot was always just a bit right of the bull. The 2nd shot was in the bull. The 3rd shot was somewhat close to the first shot and the 4th shot was right next to the shot in the bull. Both pairs were just a bit over an inch away from each other. I did this several times and the results were the same. 1st and 3rd shot was outside of the bull and the 2nd and 4th shot were in the bull right next to each other. I was using a 1" bull.

I was using a new Magpul 10 round magazine and some reloads that I put together in 2014 that have always shot well. I can't explain the behavior of the 2 different POI's. As the barrel heated up the spreads grew just a bit bigger but nothing outrageous.

I didn't bother going to the 100 yard line. I sure wish I had looked at the Windham Weaponry's barrels before getting this one.

kwg

kwg, how did the barrel fit in the receiver? Was it loose or was it nice and snug? How was your torque setting? Not too tight, as that will play hell on groups as well sometimes. There's a good thread here on bedding a barrel into the receiver, but it may not be a good idea if you have a mediocre barrel. Like I said before, I was hoping you'd have a good shooter with that barrel. I think for the most part the consensus here is you get what you pay for. Its awesome when you get a barrel for a good deal and it shoots sub moa, but often times that is not the case. Like some of these other guys always preach, spend your money wisely when it comes to barrels. Also, If you want to rule out the handguard, I have a round freefloating handguard I can send you, if you want it. I'm not using it:

Hello BSA
The fit into the receiver was good and there was no wiggle. But, it was not a force fit. I did have to put some torque on the barrel nut to get to the next notch and fit the gas tube. My guess is without a torque wrench on it 60 to 70 lbs.

Jiveturkey has volunteered me a free float hand guard and says he can get it in the mail quickly. I appreciate the offer. I live just 50 miles from Brownell's and was going to make the drive to pick one up but other things seem to get in the way.

I had seen this barrel on Midway's web site and have considered it for some time. I had the parts to complete a mid length upper and that is what added to the appeal of this barrel since it has the mid length gas port. The external machine works look good. The internal machine works also look good but for some reason the barrel seems to collect a lot of copper. But, the first shot is no better or no worse than the last shot. I put 48 rounds through it on my last outing. I haven't looked down the barrel yet since my last range trip. I expect to see copper I just don't know how much.

I have an 11 degree muzzle reamer. I could touch up the muzzle just to eliminate that but I did not see any dings or deformations on the muzzle when I put it together. I don't have a flash hider on the threads, just a thread protector for now.

When Jiveturkey's hand guard gets here I'll get it all put together and give it another try. By then it will have gotten another cleaning and should be ready to go.

kwg

The older Stoner barrels were Liberty barrels and shot really well. I have one that’s a 20” with their SDMR profile. The ones made in the last couple of years are said to be made by Bear Creak Arsenal and it’s pretty hit and miss with them. I also have one of these BCA in a 20” 6.5G and it’s a copper mine. Not very accurate. I may waste time and money trying to break it in or just say screw it and buy a different 6.5G barrel. The easy button is to buy a barrel from a quality barrel maker. Sometimes the extra $100-$150 is worth it in components and time.

That's why a lot of guys say to spend the little extra on a good barrel. One from a reputable manufacture. You briefly talked about Liberty barrels. I have one and it seems to be pretty good. Doesn't copper foul like you say the BCA does. The BCA's are known to be hit and miss. From what I saw in the little bit of research I did on Liberty, there are a lot of guys saying they are good barrels. They are fairly inexpensive as well. The 6x45 20" stainless barrel cost all of about $250.00. Its a decent shooter, but not nearly as good as my Windham Weaponry barrels.