Cutting down an 18" SPR barrel

[rackham1]

This is a question about a future build, so mods please move if needed.

I cleared the debris off my workbench and found myself in possession of an unfired WOA barrel... 18" SPR profile, midlength gas, with a "matched" WOA bolt. I WANT to assemble a 16" upper and am considering cutting this barrel down. But I don't have any experience with WOA barrels... would cutting one down be some kind of sacrilege?

My reason for not wanting 18" is I don't believe there's anything the 18" will do that 16" can't (at least for me), and therefore want to get a little weight off the front end. Also, I'm concerned about running midlength gas on a barrel that long... I find a lot of opinions that the "best" gas for 18" is intermediate or rifle, but I haven't been able to find any objective support for using midlength on 18".

The upper will be my wife's and primary purpose will be recreational target shooting out to 400 yards (she's a good bench shooter). Secondary purpose will be carbine training for her in the near future (why I want to get a little weight/length off the end) and backup HD to my own AR. I've currently got a spare trijicon 3-9x I can use on this upper but figuring I'll sell it off and replace with some version of a 1-4x.

I already plan to send this barrel off to ADCO to pin a low-pro gas block, so the only added cost is cutting it down ($55). However, I might be able to sell off the WOA for enough to get a standard 16" BCM barrel (for example) and just shave the FSB. That should fit our needs just fine (and will be lighter still), but it's more time and trouble compared to the barrel that's already in my hands.

So would love some opinions based on experience with WOA barrels and/or 18" midlengths. Are WOA barrels nice enough that cutting this one down would be a "waste"?

[TahoeLT]

Just my opinion, but: I'm not sure that they are so amazing that you would be comitting sacrilege, but there are folks who would be happy to trade you another 16" barrel for that one! If you want an 18" barrel WOA is a good bet, but for a 16" there are plenty of other options that don't involve cutting down a perfectly good barrel.

[fallenromeo]

The barrel is only 265 brand new. My vote is to just cut it. You will most likely be out of pocket about the same amount to cut it as you would be to sell it at a loss and buy a new BCM barrel or something similar.