08-14-2014, 02:48 AM
For a barrel I would recommend anything by Lilja. I just this week got my first AR build done and had a chance to shoot it. After break in, the first group fired was 0.47 inches for 5 shots. The load was the very first one I tried, 123 AMAX, 31 grains CFE 223, 2.245 OAL in Hornady brass with CCI 41 primers. Average velocity from a Lilja AR24 barrel was 2658 fps for 50 rounds, The largest 5 shot group 0.75 inches. I also shot a box of factory Hornady 123gr SST. I ended up shooting those plus 25 of the previous mentioned handloads into 1 big group that measured 0.75 vertical spread and 1.5 horizontal spread. The factory load averaged 2608 for the 20 rounds. I am not at published max for my hand loads and I am sure I can safely get to 2700 fps with the 123 SST. The one thing I found interesting was that my hand loads had smaller extreme spreads and lower standard deviations than the factory ammo. I will get pictures posted sometime soon hopefully. The other recomendation I would make is regardless of what barrel you get load up some CFE 223 for your barrel break in. Copper removing powder makes barrel break in easy. I shot 10 rounds cleaning in between each shot. I then fired 60 rounds and cleaned the barrel. No evidence of copper fouling at all. I also used Tetra gun lube products which I have used for the last 20 years and in my experience it does what it says.