Stainless barrel; yay or nay?

[Hohn]

Right. It’s not more accurate because it’s stainless, it’s because it’s not chrome lined.

It’s a little more complicated than that. I’d put a Criterion chrome barrel against any cheap stainless barrel any day. But they have very uniform plating and lap each barrel.

It’s not that chrome barrels can’t be accurate, it’s that almost every application where chrome is used places durability far above accuracy. So making a superbly accurate chrome barrel is rarely a goal, and in those applications a chrome barrel is easily sufficiently accurate.

Match shooters take off stainless barrels with round counts in the low single digit thousands. 2k-3k is a common range for a service rifle barrel.

My DD S2W seems capable of shooting as accurately as reputable stainless barrels from WOA or CLE. Its 18” and heavy like the 20” svc rifle barrels.

[okie]

If there's still any question as to the suitability of stainless steel barrels for duty use, read this thread-
https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread...-a-Duty-Weapon

Pay particular attention to Post #15 by a0cake who has actual combat experience

The dude's absolutely right. I suspect there's some bias involved in how he collected his data points, because those numbers sound a little too good to be true, but in general solid advice.

I think the elephant in the room though is that 99.9% of people buying stainless barrels first and foremost don't need that level of precision, don't have the skill to use it even if they did (looking at myself here lol), aren't going to invest in high quality long range optics, aren't going to invest in high quality ammunition, etc. For that rare individual who wants to hit man sized targets past 300 yards, and has the skills and resources to make that happen, I'm sure stainless has its place.

Oh, and also worth noting that the Mk12 is HEAVY, and for good reason. It's almost a bull profile, and that's what makes it durable enough to work, and also why it can hold groups larger than five rounds. People buying lightweight stainless barrels thinking they're building a carbine capable of SPR style shooting have another thing coming.

[markm]

I'd probably never buy a SS barrel for AR. Most of the Chrome lined barrels will shoot around MOA with good 77s. High precision and High volume capability are somewhat mutually exclusive in my experience. I just don't shoot a gasser as good as a bolt gun in most cases.

[TacticalSpeed]

Ended up going with SS barrel for my 7.5" AR pistol.