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+--- Thread: Best barrel material for new Grendel build (/showthread.php?tid=24192)
Best barrel material for new Grendel build - NDSwede - 01-23-2022
Hello everyone, Im getting ready to order my first Grendel barrel. I can get it in stainless, parkerized, or nitrited. Is one better than another?
This wont be a high volume shooter. Maybe a couple hundred rounds per year. If I shoot out the barrel Ill just buy another one. My criteria are:
1. Accuracy
2. Rust resistant
3. Looks good
Mainly interested if one type is more accurate than another?
Thanks for your help.
Best barrel material for new Grendel build - grayfox - 01-23-2022
As to the "best" material to use, you need only to look at the best barrel makers. Krieger, Bartlein, Lilja... that's what pro shooters use. Plus a few more that I might have left out. But in the grendel world, these are probably your top ones.
They all pretty much use SS if I recall. Can't think of ever hearing another but maybe, maybe sometimes a really good chrome moly.
And, the barrel maker is arguably more important than the steel.
To get a quality barrel you need to go to the quality makers.
Lilja, there's a dealer on here. Also Precision Firearms is on here, they deal in all of those barrels.
Nitriding. Well, this is a metal-chemical approach and can come out a pretty good barrel, but the case here is that any imperfections in the steel before the nitride bath, will still be there after. So can be good but won't be on a par with the 3 mentioned above.
Best barrel material for new Grendel build - VASCAR2 - 01-23-2022
6.5 Grendel is a low pressure round and is not a barrel burner. At 200-500 rounds a year a stainless steel 6.5 Grendel barrel will last 10-15 years. Precision Firearms, Lilja and JP get good reviews. Wilson Combat barrels get good reviews as does LaRue Tactical who offers a Nitride barrel. The LaRue Ultimate upper is a good value for a complete upper. Odin Works stainless steel barrels get good reviews for mass produced barrels.
https://www.larue.com/products/larue-complete-18-6-5-grendel-match-grade-upper/
Best barrel material for new Grendel build - Mesa1978 - 01-23-2022
Stainless
Best barrel material for new Grendel build - Klem - 01-23-2022
Swede,
All Olympic, and serious Bench Rest, F/TR shooters use stainless barrels. You will never see anything else.
It's not just the type of steel that will determine a barrel's precision potential, but the chambering also.
The barrel is the key limiter as to how well a gun can shoot. Regardless of pouring money, time and effort into an anything else you cannot get a barrel to shoot better than its potential. The difference between a barrel from a reputable manufacturer and rack grade is not a lot (relative to the rest of the gun and ammo) so my advice would be to always buy the best barrel available. If you are shooting 500/year then it will last a lifetime so don't skimp for your own sake.
'Looks good' is of no consequence to anything. What it looks like has no bearing on the reason it exists.
Best barrel material for new Grendel build - NDSwede - 01-24-2022
It looks like the consensus is stainless.
Thank you.
Best barrel material for new Grendel build - tdbru - 01-24-2022
NDS,
I will be the lone contrarian. Brux 4150. after fitting and chambering and break in of the leade, then take it off and get it nitrided and re-installed.
Brux barrels are top shelf barrels. Just as the others mentioned here. Reason i like 4150 is that it is a bit tougher steel. If I recall, the barrel makers won't make #1 or FWT tapers in SS because SS loses 50% of it's tensile strength at arctic (-40) temperatures. I think I remember seeing this on the Pac-Nor web site at one time, or was it the Krieger web site. not sure. It's not a big deal for a bull barrel but if you are making a light AR and want a pencil barrel profile, it's something to consider. Also regarding throat erosion, generally SS resists throat erosion (checking and heat cracking) better than CM, but, when SS does erode to failure, typically a chunk will come off of the alligator hide. So accuracy will slowly degrade as throat erosion progresses and then all of a sudden it goes south in a step function. CM on the other hand, accuracy just continually degrades as throat erosion takes it's toll but doesn't get the chunks come out of the alligator heat checking so no step function in accuracy degradation.
Since throat erosion is the primary cause of a barrel's degradation in accuracy, it's what to think about. Just as an aside though, CM resists bore wear from the bullet sliding across the surface better than SS does, but accuracy degrades due to throat erosion long before you see rifling wear out due to just the number of bullets down the barrel.
Chrome lining is good at reducing the throat erosion by 50% but it can have adverse effects on potential accuracy if its' not done really well. the top match barrels are not chrome lined and one is just expected to replace the barrel to maintain peak accuracy when the barrel has enough throat erosion that accuracy starts to degrade past one's allowable limit.
In general, one will see accuracy degradation past the acceptable point before the throat erosion is so bad that chunks start to break off on SS barrels.
best of luck to you.
-tdbru