barrel bedding

[dlraymond30]

i have an Aero upper and a Colt 11.5 that I am putting together that is sloppy as hell. it will fall right in and out of the upper. there is no tension holding the barrel extension to the upper so i was wondering what there is to use to bed the barrel to the upper other than loctite? I think i saw a guy on youtube use some brown substance in a brown squeez tube but that was a while ago and i can't find it now. What have you guys used and have you seen success?
also, since this is a short barrel im not worried too much about super duper precision but would like to see decent groupings... it is a colt barrel!!!

as always, i appreciate your guys opinions and info!

Darrin

[GH41]

i have an Aero upper and a Colt 11.5 that I am putting together that is sloppy as hell. it will fall right in and out of the upper. there is no tension holding the barrel extension to the upper so i was wondering what there is to use to bed the barrel to the upper other than loctite? I think i saw a guy on youtube use some brown substance in a brown squeez tube but that was a while ago and i can't find it now. What have you guys used and have you seen success?
also, since this is a short barrel im not worried too much about super duper precision but would like to see decent groupings... it is a colt barrel!!!

as always, i appreciate your guys opinions and info!

Darrin

What do you mean? "there is no tension holding the barrel extension to the upper" Are you not going to use a barrel nut? You are worrying about nothing. Put it together and shoot it.

[fedupflyer]

Glen Zideker, world class AR shooter, recommends bedding the barrel extension to the upper by using red loktite.

[GH41]

Glen Zideker, world class AR shooter, recommends bedding the barrel extension to the upper by using red loktite.

Who gives a crap what a world class AR shooter does to get a nut??? The OP is talking about mounting a so so Colt barrel on a cheap ass Aero receiver. Where do you guys come from???

[HeruMew]

Who gives a crap what a world class AR shooter does to get a nut??? The OP is talking about mounting a so so Colt barrel on a cheap ass Aero receiver. Where do you guys come from???

Preach, Brother GH41!

Hallelujah and AMEN.

Slide it in, nice and gentle. Then torque that sumb***h down to 40lbs. Do three cycles to get the stretch out.

Go fire the dang thing. If you insist on buying anything to put on the barrel, 3M Grease. But remember, it goes on the threads mostly...

[tehpwnag3]

The rifle isn't going to Camp Perry. Assemble it properly and don't give it a second thought.

[MegademiC]

Gotta say, this is the first I’ve heard of bedding an AR barrel.

That said, bcm uppers are reported to fit tighter. But I agree with theassemble to spec and forget.

What kind of groups do you expect with and without bedding? What’s the practical impact on your use?

[dlraymond30]

Thanks for the opinions guys. This is going to be a hard use/training class gun that will run at least half of the time suppressed. I'm not really worried about how loose the barrel is to the receiver... Just thought that since it isn't together yet and it would be cheap and easy to slather something on there to remove slop, why not do it? It's like running premium gas in your car... Not needed for basic function but COULD add to a slight bit of performance or in this case, accuracy...
Anyway, thanks again.

-Darrin

[tehpwnag3]

The barrel nut will squeeze the receiver tight to the barrel extension.

[HeruMew]

Thanks for the opinions guys. This is going to be a hard use/training class gun that will run at least half of the time suppressed. I'm not really worried about how loose the barrel is to the receiver... Just thought that since it isn't together yet and it would be cheap and easy to slather something on there to remove slop, why not do it? It's like running premium gas in your car... Not needed for basic function but COULD add to a slight bit of performance or in this case, accuracy...
Anyway, thanks again.

-Darrin

The biggest concern is that: if you're not popping rounds out to 800-900 yards, why? "Bedding", even though you can't really bed the barrel of an AR, would be more... Understandable? If that were the case.

If it's a usage rifle, use some grease around the extension and pop it on.

If it really is bugging you, get a BCM Blem upper for 74.99 and use the hair dryer to heat it up and put them together. The BCM is known to be a tighter fitting for the extension.

Nonetheless, you're worrying about something that's discernible. If you put Regular gas in a Ferrari, you will notice a difference.

In this particular example, it's not so mechanically the same as your analogy. You won't notice the difference for your classes.

Just trying to avoid your waste of cash, or hardships later if you wanna remove the barrel and it's loctited into place for no good reason.

Hope this makes sense and doesn't come off rude. We're just opinionated when people spend more time on tom foolery than just shooting the dang thing.

ETA: I should add. Bedding of most barrels happens on bolt action rifles to dampen or remove all barrel harmonics to avoid fluctuation.

The AR platform has been known to work best, in regards to barrel harmonics, when free floated as it removes a lot of the physical pressures that can impact barrel harmonics.

We're getting into deep, long range shooting concepts here. Long story short, unless you're mounting your AR into a full body stock in which you can cut cork and lay it out, your handguards will never give you grasp to "bed" the barrel to reduce harmonics.

YMMV, and I may be wrong. I have no real experience in it, and I am sure someone here does.