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

From Midway USA. I have the 20" version of this barrel and it shoots pretty darn good. This one is 18". I hope to test it out Monday. I think this is upper #10 or something like that. kwg
[img]https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1017600744?pid=794051[/img]

Linkee no workee. I get an error message from Miday.

Ed

Linkee no workee. I get an error message from Midway.

Ed

Pretty worthless...

Ok. It's 2 a.m. and I can't sleep but if I get up to use the computer I'll wake up the wife.
I heard on another forum Midway is down.

I just tried it and the link works at 2:29 in the morning.
kwg

Looks like a very nice barrel. Probably accurate. Too bad it doesn't come with a matched bolt. What kind of muzzle device are you going to run? I'd bet money its going to be a shooter. Keep us posted..

I was gonna buy that exact barrel, but bought green mountain instead. Midway had free shipping that ran out before I could decide. GM has button rifling, what type in Stoner barrel.

My guess is it's a cut rifling due to the price. The 20" I own is a good shooter but I haven't spent much time with it. I have gravitated toward lighter and shorter rifles which means the 20" stays in the safe. Midway also has a 16" barrel in the same configuration as the 18" and 20" barrels.

I have come to the conclusion I have too many AR's and I can't seem to find the "right" one. I have a couple of polymer Tennessee Arms lowers. They do make for a light rifle. I currently have one with a Del Ton 16" light weight carbine barrel and a standard A2 clamp on handle. (Armalite) I keep going back to it for some reason. It's more like a truck gun than a fine shooting instrument and it comes in a light weight 6 lb package with no magazine in it. But, I like playing with the darn thing. I got a 1" group at 50 yards 2 weeks ago with it shooting my hand loads. For a cheap Del Ton upper and barrel it shoots very well. https://www.del-ton.com/AR-15-Barrel-Assembly-p/dt1021.htm


The 18" is too front heavy for a light rifle so the debate is do I buy a 16" barrel ? My brain says yes but my wife says "don't you have enough guns" ??

The 18" is going on a standard A2 lower (with A2 butt stock) from Aero Precision and an A2 front hand guard and no front sight. The gas block is a clamp on from Armalite. I haven't fallen in love with the free floated hand guards yet. I have a Cabela's 30mm 1-6 tactical style scope I got from someone here at the Fire and it rides on top of the upper. I have not put on a flash hider yet. I currently have a thread protector on it. The upper is also Aero Precision. The bolt and carrier are Tool Craft via Right to Bear Arms. Most of the components are "junk box" parts that I had stuffed away so this is like a bonus gun.

I haven;t figured out the picture thing so I don't have anything to show you. I hope to get to the range early this week and I'll give a range report.

kwg

A good post with good info. Makes me wonder how many guys do the same thing you are doing. Probably quite a few. Buy and build a bunch of different kinds and figure out which one you like the best. Funny thing you mention the A2 being one of your favorites. My buddy had that same realization a while back. Says he did all this research and decided the RRA was "the best one out there" for him. He bought it, used it and never liked it. Then he was at a gunshow and ran across a nice Bushmaster pre ban A2 upper. It is a national match upper. The guy only wanted $200 for it and he hesitated. His buddy that had a table at the gunshow got up and went over to the guy and handed him $200.00. Then he handed the upper to my friend and said you are crazy for not buying this. "That's one hell of a good deal, you won't find another like this one", he said. "Not for $200.00 anyway".

$200 is a smokin' deal for that upper. I seem to come back to the basics. I guess my time with Uncle Sam's green machine spoiled me. I also have an A1 upper that I plugged a 14.5" barrel from Brownells into and it sets on an M4 lower. The barrel is a 1/12 twist and it's not as accurate as the Del Ton 1/9 16" but I expected that from a chrome lined barrel. Both are sub 7 lb rifles and very handy. I even pulled a barrel from a Mini 14 and took it to a lathe and made it 17" and put it in the original style curved butt wood stock because I wanted something light and handy. Now I need to get a rifle rack for my ATV so I can carry something there as well as in the truck.
kwg

I made it to the range today. But, I had to do it twice. The first time the rifle failed to extract and eject. I was shooting it single shot and each time the BCG stayed locked back every time. It finally dawned on me that I had a brand new Ballistic Advantage BCG and when I bought it I bought it for a 6.8 SPC I was planning to build but never got it done. Of course the bolt face is wider for the 6.8 than it is for the 5.56. So, I had to go home and swap bolts in the BCG. It's about 8 miles each way from home to the range and back plus a number of traffic lights I have to go through. I spent more time driving that shooting today. Plus, I backed into a pole and scratched the crap out of the paint on the left rear corner of my car while at the range. It was an expensive trip today.

I was shooting some 55 grain hollow points I got from Midway over 25 grains of H335. I could only get on the 50 yard range so that is where I shot some 4 shot groups. My last 8 shots were right at 1.5" groups at 50 yards. That was just a bit larger than I was hoping for. The lower is an Aero Precision with a RR Arms 2 stage varmint trigger. The scope was a Cabela's 1-6 tactical. The scope does not have cross hairs, it has a horse shoe shaped circle with a dot in the middle. That might of been part of the issue but I was hoping for a group just a bit tighter.

Other than pulling a bore snake thought the barrel I did nothing more to the barrel prior to shooting. I like to run some Brasso with a plastic brush through the barrels before I shoot them but I did not get it done this time. The Brasso has a bit of grit to it to work out some of the rough spots. I'll do that tomorrow and try to get to the range again . I have a pistol bore scope so I will take a look at the bore and chamber as best I can. The brass did eject at 4:00 o:clock and the brass piled up in one spot about 10 to 12 feet from the gun.

Once I got the right bolt in the BCG the gun operated flawlessly with no misfeeds or fail to eject. I shot from some sand bags and every shot felt good. The primers are either CCI 450's or Federal Match primers. None of them showed any signs of excess pressure. I'm hoping with some shining up the barrel I can shrink those groups. I like the A2 stocks but I might have to try a collapsible stock just to see how the gun feels wearing one of those. Or, I can get the 16" barrel and put it on a collapsible stock lower. The only down side to that is I already have several 16" barreled rifles and really don't need another one. I have some 62 grain FMJ's I might try just to see if the groups get smaller. But, that's for another day.

kwg

Sounds like a hectic day. I'm surprised it's not producing better accuracy. Was the barrel extension sloppy when you installed the barrel into the receiver? Are the midway bullets good shooters in your other ar's? Your load sounds spot on though. That's where I run my 53's with H335..

The barrel extension was tight and the fit inside the upper was tight. I'm going to clean the inside of the barrel good tomorrow and hopefully that will smooth up the bore. I might switch scopes to a 3-9 Burris after I shoot it again if I don't like the results. I also seem to have more shake than I did just a few years ago. Even resting on sandbags doesn't seem to be good enough to control the shakes. But, I'm really thinking I need to change the scope to something with a much finer reticle.

I'm not ready to give up on the barrel just yet. It's too new to just walk away from it. Besides, a bad day at the range is so much better than a good day doing yard work.

kwg

Ha ha.. Yeah, the barrel probably needs a little breaking in. I wouldn't worry about it much, since it's so new. Some barrels are better than others too. I have 3 Windham weaponry barrels and the last one I bought is more of a dog than the other 2. Its on my new BCM, but I can't blame it on the receiver. Your scope sounds like a good close quarter combat type of scope, so you are on the right track to swap it out with a better scope with a good reticle. Try some 69gr sierra matchkings if you have some on hand. Those always shoot well.

I don't have any Sierra Match Kings in my bullet box. I'll be watching for some. That sounds like the perfect bullet for this barrel.

kwg

I cleaned the new barrel last night. I ran a couple of brush loads of Brasso through it trying to eliminate any rough machine marks. The brush slid through very nicely. Then I looked at the inside of the barrel with my bore scope. WOW !! Was there a lot of copper for only 35 rounds down the tube. I used some Patch Out in the barrel and some more Brasso and I greatly reduced the total amount of copper. I was really surprised just how much copper was in that barrel with just 35 bullets down the tube.

If you should happen to pick one of these barrels up I highly suggest you lap the barrel first to smooth it up. I was really surprised just how much copper was in the barrel. It will probably be next week before I get to shoot it again.

kwg

I'm no expert at gunsmithing or shooting, but don't you need a little brass to fill in imperfections in the barrel?

Agree. But just a little bit. For 35 bullets down the barrel, this was a lot of copper.

I'll get back to the range next week and check it again after another 30 or 40 bullets.

kwg

Definitely a button barrel.