08-04-2014, 02:56 AM
The law of diminishing returns is at play with barrels. You can get a cheapy and unless you are in competition where the tightest group wins you will likely to be satisfied. Occassionally you get a dud but there's less chance of that the more you pay. Like most consumables really. And that's what you need to see barrels as, consumables. Buy them, use them and dispose of them when their accuracy falls below your definition of accurate.
In F Class where I shoot we have a saying, 'The golden age' of a barrel. This is the first 300 rounds of a new quality barrel where that person has the most chance of winning competitions than anyone else. Then the barrel drops to reasonable relative accurate for another 3,000 rds, give or take the loads and caliber. Committed F Class shooters change their barrels annually at least. Spend enough time in that lurk and you end up with a bunch of still perfectly usable and reasonably accurate barrels in the safe but none of them will win any competitions.
I will mirror the sentiment of others. For your AR, get a good stainless match drop-in barrel and if/when it doesn't meet your needs get another one. Like servicing a car. Don't worry that this will be the only barrel you will ever own. Swapping out barrels is pretty easy if you have never done it before and there are plenty of Youtube videos that tutorial this and we can advise here.
Lilja is a supporter of this forum and a ready place for off-the-shelf best-quality barrels. Shilen also sells a couple of best-quality drop-in Grendel barrels. You can buy 6.5mm best-quality in un-profiled blanks from other reputable manufacturers like Kreiger, Archer, Tru-Flyte, Bartlein, to name a few but you will then need to get someone to profile and chamber with barrel extension etc. This will all cost time and money and if thinking this then a quality gunsmith like Precision Firearms has plenty of experience and advice here.
In F Class where I shoot we have a saying, 'The golden age' of a barrel. This is the first 300 rounds of a new quality barrel where that person has the most chance of winning competitions than anyone else. Then the barrel drops to reasonable relative accurate for another 3,000 rds, give or take the loads and caliber. Committed F Class shooters change their barrels annually at least. Spend enough time in that lurk and you end up with a bunch of still perfectly usable and reasonably accurate barrels in the safe but none of them will win any competitions.
I will mirror the sentiment of others. For your AR, get a good stainless match drop-in barrel and if/when it doesn't meet your needs get another one. Like servicing a car. Don't worry that this will be the only barrel you will ever own. Swapping out barrels is pretty easy if you have never done it before and there are plenty of Youtube videos that tutorial this and we can advise here.
Lilja is a supporter of this forum and a ready place for off-the-shelf best-quality barrels. Shilen also sells a couple of best-quality drop-in Grendel barrels. You can buy 6.5mm best-quality in un-profiled blanks from other reputable manufacturers like Kreiger, Archer, Tru-Flyte, Bartlein, to name a few but you will then need to get someone to profile and chamber with barrel extension etc. This will all cost time and money and if thinking this then a quality gunsmith like Precision Firearms has plenty of experience and advice here.