Long AR Barrel questions

[Duncandl]

I’ve never been a fan of the lengthy barrels but I’ve started to mature (is that the right word?) and I am now starting to research caliber/length combos and wanted to hear what worked best.

I plan on trading into a long barrel with a few .300 B/O barrels I have that are brand new but haven’t settled on who is getting evicted just yet.

Let’s hear the world class advice!

 

[dennishoddy]

I'm a huge fan of the AR platform in the .243 WSSM. To achieve the posted velocities, one needs to shoot the same barrels the test rounds at the factory are fired through which is typically a 24" barrel in most cases.
However, there are reloading powders that may offer extra velocities in shorter barrels while remaining within pressure limits.
Those are limited though. You're not going to get magnum velocities from a 16" AR barrel.

 

[Duncandl]

I was leaning towards the 22-24 inch range and I know nothing about .243 so that is going to be a great place to start. Thank you for getting this started.

 

[adamsredlines]

I may have missed it but what's the goal?

 

[Duncandl]

Accuracy

 

[adamsredlines]

I feel like you are not going to get much in the way of help or suggestions without a little more detail. Caliber selection is very dependent on what you're doing with the rifle and I assume you know that but you have been very vague with what your use is. Accuracy is relative to the discipline and the distance. What a steel challenge competitor considers accurate will probably be different than what an F class shooter would consider accurate so on and so forth.

 

[Duncandl]

I'm thinking brands that people have enjoyed, I have built numerous SBR's and PDW's but now I want to know what folks think in the 22-24 inch barrel length that isn't too ridiculous price wise.

 

[swampratt]

Here is a bunch of reading for you.

https://www.snipercountry.com/best-ar-15-barrels/

 

[emapples]

I’ve never been a fan of the lengthy barrels but I’ve started to mature (is that the right word?) and I am now starting to research caliber/length combos and wanted to hear what worked best.

I plan on trading into a long barrel with a few .300 B/O barrels I have that are brand new but haven’t settled on who is getting evicted just yet.

Let’s hear the world class advice!

I get excellent accuracy out of an 18 inch AR with 77 grain ammo, Ammo type and twist rate matter a little more that barrel length from my research. Barrel length does increase velocity

 

[HoLeChit]

My understanding is that the AR platform/ 556x45 was made to be shot from a 16 or 20 inch barrel. unless you change calibers or have some sort of specific crazy use I don’t think you’ll get much more performance or accuracy out of longer. At least enough to be worth the time and cost. With most run of the mill loads you start running out of steam at a 20 inch barrel, so anything after that in length is gonna have a detrimental effect on your ballistics/etc.

Heres a study done, mostly focusing on the effects of shortening an AR down to the more popular lengths that are the fad now, but it does include data up to 24”.

https://sadefensejournal.com/barrel-length-studies-in-5-56mm-nato-weapons/
I’m trying to find another article that I read a while back that focused more on longer barrel stuff, I just can’t find it yet. When I do i will post it.