Newbe advise

[roto-prop]

I am currently working the details out for a barrel from Satern Machine. I have been thinking about 18" barrel 8.75 twist. I am not sure about length if I should extend it to 19" or 20". The twist rate and if I should go mid or rifle on the gas port? I would like to be able to carry the rifle around abit for hunting. But it will be used down at the gun club a fair bit to. I may wish to add a supressor at a later date.Can fluting effect the integrity of the barrel. This is the first barrel I have ever had custome made. Any thoughts or opinions would be welcomed.

[GrantMan]

The only experience I have are with the 18" barrels and I do like them. For general target shooting and varmint/predator hunting they work good. I rarely ever shoot over 600 yds and the 18" handles that fine.

I have a 18" CSS Hbar and a AA Hbar fluted barrel. The fluted barrel would definitely be more comfortable to carry on long hikes and shoots accurate enough for my purposes.

I doubt Satern would flute their barrels if it would effect the integrity of the barrel.

[roto-prop]

Thank you for your input. The 6.5 grendel is a great cartridge and Steve over at Satern is very skilled I am sure what ever I decide on will exceed my capabilities. I probably will not be shooting very much over 600 yards.

[MikeinGa]

Thank you for your input. The 6.5 grendel is a great cartridge and Steve over at Satern is very skilled I am sure what ever I decide on will exceed my capabilities. I probably will not be shooting very much over 600 yards.

I would go with a 20" fluted barrel for 600 yards. I have been told by my barrel guy, that a fluted barrel is lighter, stronger, and cooler running. Satern makes great barrels. That's IMHO.

Mike

[roto-prop]

I ordered a 18" barrel from Satern now just waiting for all the different parts to arrive!!!

[mk402]

I am also getting ready to order a 6.5 barrel and am torn between 18" and 20". I want to use it for deer / coyote hunting but will also spend most of its time at the range. What gas length did you go with for the 18 and why?

Also... does anyone here have any experience with Black Hole Weaponry barrels?

[roto-prop]

I have taken more deer with my Browning Lever action chambered in .308 , The 6x6 white tail I have mounted on my wall I took with that gun at about 400 yards. I would be losing about 50 feet per second at the muzzel dropping from 20" down to 18" but with the 6.5 grendel I should not lose any accuracy just a little volacity. I rather doubt that I will ever try to take any game beyond 600 yards. Any shooting that I do beyond that range will be to punch holes in paper the 50 feet second loss going 18" instead of twenty is not that critical to me if it was I think I would go with a 24". But on the other hand when I am out hunting the differance between the 20" and the 18" will be quite real as far as managing the rifle goes. I would like to get a nice muley to go with my white tail with this gun. When I was trying to decide between midlength gas or rifle length gas my reserch showed the optimum dwell time on the ar15 to be about 0.200 mila second on the 18" barrel the midlength gas gives you about a 0.234 dwell time and a rifle length gas port on the 18" barrel gives you about a 0.131 dwell time. The mid length gas port is closer to optimum although just slightly longer than the 0.200 optimum dwell time. I will fine tune " slow the bolt and carrier down slightly" with a h3 buffer and a ajustable gas block. There is a very good article on ar15 barrels that explains how the ar15 gas system works and explains the dwell time much better than I am able to it has graphs and tables very good reading if you want to understand how the system works so you can actually make a informed decision. here is a link to it. http://www.ar15barrels.com/prod/operation.shtml

[WillD]

Good article, I needed that! Thanks Roto-Prop.

-Will-