14.5 pin and weld - an experiences with it?

[lazyengineer]

I've always thought a 14.5 seemed like a lot of hassle for 1.5 inches. Figured either go 16 and forego the hassle or go 12 if you really want a short barrel.


What's the appeal of 14.5? (Better yet, 14.7, cuz then you can pin and weld a standard A2 to make 16-inch legal length.)

The reality that the 12" option is about to go away, I imagine is a big one. Times are changing, and the likelyhood of the pistol brace still being called a pistol brace and not a stock 2 years from now, is pretty low.

So, 14.5" pin and weld pragmatially means only 2.5 more inches of barrel length. Which is less then half the delta change of going to a full 16" Barrel, so still light and handy, for the most part. And you can run a real stock now. Also, unlike 5.56, 12" ballisitics out of Grendel are actually pretty phenominal, with 1000 ft-lb hit out to 150 plus yards. And the incremental increase in terminal range with Grendel isn't that much with barrel length increase. The incremental perfomance jump going from 12 to 14.5, is a bigger jump than going from 14.5 to 16; and is still close to the handyness of a 12"

If you are a guy who markets and sell Grendel barrels, the dead market of the 14.5" (14.7) barrel, is about to change. If Faxon made one of their light GUNNER profile barrels with integrated 1-piece muzzle break for 16"; that's what I'd have on order right now. They don't, only in 5.56. And in 5.56, that extra 1.5"of barrel actually does make a notable difference in extending the terminal ballistics high-performance range considerably. But in Grendel, I definately want a 14.5 pin and weld light contour BBL.