Observations on the Accuracy of a 20” Lothar Walther AR-15 Barrel

[Molon]

Observations on the Accuracy of a 20” Lothar Walther AR-15 Barrel








I’ve used a 20” stainless-steel Lothar Walther barrel for evaluating the accuracy (technically precision) of several different 5.56mm/223 Remington factory loads now. Prior to firing each of these factory loads, I’ve fired a 10-shot control group using some of my “generic” hand-loads; by generic, I mean that these hand-loads were not “tuned” for this specific barrel. The targets that will be shown below are a collection of some of these 10-shot control groups.

I purchased this 20” Lothar Walther barrel directly from Lothar Walther. The barrel is manufactured from LW50 stainless steel. The Lothar Walther website states that LW50 was developed “in 1994-95 as a safe alternative to 416R and to solve durability problems associated with 416R.”

Lothar Walther barrels are produced using button rifling. This barrel has traditional rifling (not polygonal rifling) and has a 1:8” twist rate. The barrel has a 223 Wylde chamber, “M4” feed-ramps and a recessed target crown.














I installed this Lothar Walther barrel in a LaRue Tactical Stealth upper receiver with “M4” feed-ramps.









The barrel was free-floated with a LaRue Tactical 12” railed handguard.









All shooting was conducted from a concrete bench-rest from a distance of 100 yards (confirmed with a laser rangefinder.) The free-float handguard of the rifle rested in a Sinclair Windage Benchrest, while the stock of the rifle rested in a Protektor bunny-ear rear bag.

Sighting was accomplished via a Leupold VARI-X III set at 25X magnification and adjusted to be parallax-free at 100 yards. A mirage shield was attached to the objective-bell of the scope. Wind conditions on the shooting range were continuously monitored using a Wind Probe. The set-up was very similar to that pictured below.

















Finally, the 10-shot control groups . . .















































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Lastly, for any Internet Commandos in our viewing audience, here's a pic of a 3-shot group fired from the Lothar Walther barrel. The group has an extreme spread of 0.183".









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[Mrgunsngear]

Awesome write up as always. Thing is a tac driver.

[Colt guy]

Nice write up.

Are you planning on turning a load for this barrel?

Looking at your groups the v-max 50 grain looked the most interesting and not that it was the smallest group it was not.

But it looks like the wind was effecting you the most with very little vertical spread and some horizontal form a cross wind wind.

I would be very interested in what the barrel can do with a bit of tuning with a hand load.

[dbain99]

The whole time reviewing your pics and info I was eager to finish just so I could ask what you best 3 shot group measured!!!
Thanks for pulling a vacuum on my sails!


Sent via telegraph with the same fingers I use to sip whiskey.

[TF82]

So its like, pretty precise then, huh? I toyed around with picking up a Lothar-Walther barrel for my scoped rifle since they seem to be an outstanding value, especially on the secondary market. I eventually concluded that, since I'm currently the weak link behind a Colt SOCOM barrel, it would have just been throwing money at vanity. One thing I wondered though is, how are the gas ports on the Lothar-Walther barrels?

[titsonritz]

So if you were recommending the "ultimate precision barrel" how would this Lothar Walther barrel stack up, what would be "the best" out there?

Nice shooting.

[friendlyfireisnt]

That is one fantastic barrel.

[Brahmzy]

That is one fantastic shooter.

[Molon]

So if you were recommending the "ultimate precision barrel" how would this Lothar Walther barrel stack up, what would be "the best" out there?

I don't know about "the best", but my Krieger barreled AR-15s have turned in the smallest groups that I've obtained with a semi-automatic AR-15 . . .









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[K1tt3n5]

Woah.