Hodge Defense 14.5” Barrel Accuracy: A Quick Look

[Molon]

Hodge Defense 14.5” Barrel Accuracy: A Quick Look




For decades after the AR-15 was first introduced to the “civilian” market, shooters basically had three choices for barrel contours/profiles in factory-built AR-15s: government profile, HBAR (heavy barrel) and the original “pencil” profile. (Not even John Wick slayed as many bad guys “with a pencil” as our soldiers did with the pencil profile Colt AR-15 barrel).


government profile




HBAR




John Wick profile



In the early 2000s, innovators such as John Noveske began offering alternative contours/profiles for their AR-15 barrels. These new contours were designed to offer improved weight distribution, with the attendant benefits, compared to the previously mentioned three profiles. For example, the Noveske medium-contour stainless-steel barrels offer reduced weight compared to an HBAR profile, while maintaining much of the accuracy of the HBAR profile.


Noveske 16” medium contour




Noveske’s N4 “light” contour barrels maintain the same weight as a government profile barrel of equal length, but with an improved contour. As an example, the 16” Noveske N4 light barrel has a stripped weight of 1 pound 12 ounces, the same weight as a stripped 16” Colt government profile barrel (6920).


Noveske 16” N4 light profile




Colt 16” government profile



In keeping with the approach to barrel contours of maintaining the same weight as a government profile barrel, while improving the weight distribution and in conjunction with additional improvements, Hodge Defense markets their own vision of such barrels and is now offering these barrels for sale to the general public. The stripped weight of the 14.5” Hodge Defense barrel is 1 pound, 8.5 ounces. For comparison, the stripped weight of a standard Colt 14.5” M4 barrel is 1 pound, 9 ounces.


14.5” Hodge defense



Colt M4 barrel (not stripped)



The 14.5” Hodge Defense barrel is manufactured by Fabrique Nationale, to secret-squirrel specifications, for Hodge Defense. This barrel is cold-hammer-forged and has a 1:7” twist. The barrel employs a mid-length gas system and has a 0.75“ gas block journal. The gas port on my barrel gauged at 0.075”.





A rather unique aspect of this barrel is found in the chamber. Located in the neck section of the chamber, is a ring of six triangular shaped “flutes“. The base of the triangle faces towards the breech end of the barrel.





I assembled the Hodge Defense barrel in a Bravo Company upper receiver and BCM MCMR 13” free-float hand-guard that has nearly perfect anodizing. I rounded-out this build with a JP Enterprises bolt, a Young Manufacturing bolt carrier and a BCM charging handle.









Shooting off of sandbags at a distance of 100 yards using match-grade hand-loads and a high-magnification scope, the Hodge Defense barrel produced a 10-shot group that had an extreme spread of 1.24”.










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[themonk]

As always, thanks for the post.

[opngrnd]

Thanks for the write up! The "flutes" are interesting.

[georgeib]

Thanks for the write up! The "flutes" are interesting.

Yes, indeed. Presumably there to aid in extraction? If they're intentional, it's curious that they aren't advertised.

[HoodBoogie]

Thanks for this. Just got my 14.5 Hodge together to shoot this weekend.

[TMS951]

Thanks for the write up. Interesting to see what a hodge barrel can do considering all the hype. For all the magic sauce in those barrels I guess I was expecting moa, so this performance is a tad underwhelming.

It would have been nice to have accuracy numbers for the other mentioned barrels as a comparison.

[Furbyballer]

You’re data matches my experience. I found it to be a sub moa barrel sometimes in 5 round tests, but when I shot 10 round groups it was almost always 1.2 moa.

[markm]

You’re data matches my experience. I found it to be a sub moa barrel sometimes in 5 round tests, but when I shot 10 round groups it was almost always 1.2 moa.

I don't know a thing about Hodge Defense, but I'll take a barrel that can hold 1.2 for 10 rounds all day long. It's not world class, but pretty damned good.

[themonk]

I don't know a thing about Hodge Defense, but I'll take a barrel that can hold 1.2 for 10 rounds all day long. It's not world class, but pretty damned good.

Its pretty awesome for a chrome lined barrel of that weight.

[pointblank4445]

Of the 6 I've had of the 14.5" Hodge barrels.

2x will print sub 1.5 MOA no matter what
1x would print sub MOA for 10 rounds and go to hell
2x were "meh" 3 MOA guns no matter what they got fed
1x was sub-MOA if it was clean but got super touchy like an worn out stainless.

Ultimately, they have great POTENTIAL...for what they are.