AA 18 light or Stoner 18 heavy?

[aephilli822]

I have a DPMS lo-pro heavy upper that needs an18 inch barrel. Which should I get, the Alexander Arms "light" 29 ounces or the Stoner "heavy" 41 ounces? Who has had what experience with either?

[1Shot]

Primary Arms or joeboboutdoors.com I can't remember which right now has the Faxon 18" Gunner barrel for a good price. I believe it is in between the weights you quoted. I don't own a Faxon barrel but there are plenty of people on here that do and I have not heard any bad reports about them.

[Lastrites]

Of the two I would go for the AA and not give the stoner a second thought, there are a whole host of others too I'd look at before the stoner as well.

[grayfox]

Neither... I would do either faxon or Odin, they are good barrels. Lately I’ve been doing slightly beefier bbls because it stiffens them up. I need all the help I can get!!!

[Texkitch]

My son just bought an AA 18 light. We put it together Friday and shot it yesterday. No issues cycling and Hornady black ELD 123s shot within moa at 100 yds. Really impressed. Going to work up handloads for it next.

[rabiddawg]

Your first decision is “what”not “who”.

What are you primarily going to be doing with it? Hunting? Go as light/short as you can. Target shooting from a bench or hunt only from box stands? Long/heavy is fine.

I really like my 16” fluted AA.

[aephilli822]

Your first decision is “what”not “who”.

What are you primarily going to be doing with it? Hunting? Go as light/short as you can. Target shooting from a bench or hunt only from box stands? Long/heavy is fine.

I really like my 16” fluted AA.

thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply.
I've got to learn to not post from the tablet because i don't add enough details
y'all talked me out of the Stoner, I already have a couple of the cheapo barrels from Sarco for "Wolf ammo blaster" duty (one is assembled and functions, but no accuracy testing yet)
I also have a locally built 16" carbine (barrel brand unknown to me as of yet) that covers the "Home Defense" need.
This (heavier walled/stiffer?) Lo-Pro upper is meant for an old Bushmaster rifle lower with 2-stage target trigger to fill the "Designated Marksman / Target Rifle / Long Range" role.
Brownells says their barrels are Satern, any opinions there?

[grayfox]

Do a search on here for the Satern barrels... kind of a toss-up/ roll the dice IMO, some say they got real good shooters but others not so much. Not to mention that Satern's may not be a SAAMI Grendel chamber (the SAAMI chamber has a "compound angle throat"), which (non-SAAMI), again IMO, could lead into problems down the road... it might not be a problem (to be fair) but I think you ought not to try to fix something (like the SAAMI design) when it doesn't need any fixing. It's ok if someone wants to go that route however, not trying to bash but just give you your options, plus $0.02 of my own opinions.

For your DMR style I'd suggest either an 18" 0r 20", depending on what you want to carry. I went 18" for mine... but then added a 20" Howa bolt action heavy barrel...
Grendels have a tendency to multiply when your back is turned...!!

[Kilco]

I've shot two separate 18" AA barrels and both would group SST handloads under an inch. Barrel quality is very good for the price.

[Greyling]

granite ridge has ballistic advantage barrels on sale, 20% off. dvor, a division of optics planet, has odin and faxon barrels on sale. I believe the odin is 18", adjustble gas block and a gas tube for 220 shipped. the faxon fluted hbar is maybe 250? and the faxon gunners are roughly 200. I would get any of those before AA simply because of the goofy thread pitch AA uses.

[aephilli822]

Dvor seems to be a "buy it now, and we'll order it from the company and send it to you when we get it" setup. Anybody dealt with them? Do they follow through? What I want is about 100 bucs cheaper thru them, but i've had places hold money for a few weeks then not deliver, it's a great way for them to earn interest off your money in the meantime.
thanks

[Greyling]

Yes, like optics planet, they do not carry inventory, but I have never had optics planet to take more than 3 weeks to deliver. I have never used dvor.