Red X or Surplus Ammo for a budget 7.5" barrel?

[Notlongago]

Anyone Out there have experience with either company?

[thecolter]

A friend of mine bought one of the $100 surplus arms 7.5" barrels against my advisement. It is absolutely not a quality barrel. The finish was horrible with the parkerizing being uneven / not covering some areas.

The bore looked like my nasty surplus Mosin Nagant, not smooth at all. It appears the bore / chamber are parkerized as well. The chamber also required reaming even though it was stamped '5.56mm'.

We haven't put any rounds through it yet, but my expectations are very low in regards to accuracy potential.

There are FAR better options out there.

[Notlongago]

A friend of mine bought one of the $100 surplus arms 7.5" barrels against my advisement. It is absolutely not a quality barrel. The finish was horrible with the parkerizing being uneven / not covering some areas.

The bore looked like my nasty surplus Mosin Nagant, not smooth at all. It appears the bore / chamber are parkerized as well. The chamber also required reaming even though it was stamped '5.56mm'.

We haven't put any rounds through it yet, but my expectations are very low in regards to accuracy potential.

There are FAR better options out there.

Care to post any of those..im having a helluva time

[Notlongago]

Bump...I am really looking for a sub 150 7.5" barrel

[FJ540MN]

You could have someone cut down a heavy barrel if they have a lathe. That's my plan when my new lower's show up. I only paid $170 for the one I'm chopping, but the main reason for cutting it down is that I'm tired of having a 14.5" barrel on a non-sbr'd gun and I want a pistol anyway. I like playing with brakes, and it's a pain.

[broberts001]

I had the Red-X 7.5" upper on an AR Pistol and had very good luck with it. I was very happy with their quality for a budget pistol.

-Bryan

[Notlongago]

I had the Red-X 7.5" upper on an AR Pistol and had very good luck with it. I was very happy with their quality for a budget pistol.

-Bryan

Im thinking this is the route Im going with. About a year ago Red-X had a terrible reputation, but lately I have heard many good things from them.

[FJ540MN]

Got a redx 300blk 7.5" barrel and there's a couple things worth noting on it.

The barrel extension is .998", which is the absolute minimum to remain in spec. It fits loose in my upper, but it's still a good part. I would prefer it .9995" (max diameter), as the upper's minimum is .9999 for the first inch. Tight is good here. We got sloppy seconds instead.

The crown is a goofy ass counter bore that looks like it was done after the barrel came out of the lathe.



Ironically, the counter bore was concentric to the bore which makes me think it was piloted (which is why I think it was done as a second Op on the barrel). The threads on the other hand, were .004 out of round which is excessive in my opinion. Not enough to have a baffle strike, but the reason you can't have tight tolerances on your baffles none the less.

So being a machinist, I fixed the crown with a nice 11 degree one.



Maybe I would've been better off spending the 150 on the reamer instead.

[FJ540MN]

Just to update this a little more - the redx barrel is drilled .093 from the factory, and was unable to reliably cycle my 1800fps 155gr SMK loads (major short stroking) even with a carbine buffer (3.6oz) and AR15 BCG.

I've drilled it out to .099 now, but haven't been back to the range to test it. Given the short dwell time, I'm not convinced this will be large enough, so it may end up getting drilled bigger in the future. I'll update with findings.

[AFshirt]

Adco has short 9mm barrels in stock for 160. I'd go with them.