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Thread: Standard hand guard or free float?

  1. #11
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    You are sending yourself on a wild goose chase trying to get better groups with 55 gr FMJ fodder. I believe that M193 is 2.5 moa ammo in the first place? Work up a load with some SMKs and watch that WOA barrel get better than 1 moa accuracy.

    I save 55 gr FMJ to push down my chrome lined carbine barrel. I am under no illusions that I am going to get tight groups out of a 16 inch chrome lined M4 profile barrel. I shoot for combat accuracy, and for fun.

    For my ARs with stainless match grade barrels I won't fire 55 gr FMJ from the barrel. I paid good money for a match grade barrel, and match barrels don't last forever like chrome lined barrels. You get (depending on the barrel) 2-4,000 rounds before it starts to lose some of its accuracy potential. With a match grade barrel I work up a load and then that's what i shoot from it.

    By all means free float the barrel, but don't go looking for better groups from 55 gr FMJ just because the barrel is floated. Shoot better ammo.

  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zanshin View Post
    You are sending yourself on a wild goose chase trying to get better groups with 55 gr FMJ fodder. I believe that M193 is 2.5 moa ammo in the first place? Work up a load with some SMKs and watch that WOA barrel get better than 1 moa accuracy.

    I save 55 gr FMJ to push down my chrome lined carbine barrel. I am under no illusions that I am going to get tight groups out of a 16 inch chrome lined M4 profile barrel. I shoot for combat accuracy, and for fun.

    For my ARs with stainless match grade barrels I won't fire 55 gr FMJ from the barrel. I paid good money for a match grade barrel, and match barrels don't last forever like chrome lined barrels. You get (depending on the barrel) 2-4,000 rounds before it starts to lose some of its accuracy potential. With a match grade barrel I work up a load and then that's what i shoot from it.

    By all means free float the barrel, but don't go looking for better groups from 55 gr FMJ just because the barrel is floated. Shoot better ammo.
    Well, guess I'm discovering the breadth of my ignorance. I assumed that a stainless barrel would be more resilient than a chrome lined alternative. I really don't need "match grade" accuracy. So what's the "combat grade accuracy" life of a stainless barrel?

    PC

  3. #13
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    I think the point he's making is that if you throw less than stellar ammo down the pipe, the barrel is not the weak point in the accuracy equation it's the ammo. A high-quality stainless barrel *might* group M193 tighter than an issue M4 barrel will, but it's only going to be able to improve the group size so much.

    ammo+barrel+optic+shooter=accuracy

    (there are lots of little sub-sets in there (overall firearm, trigger, etc.) but those four are the big ones IMHO.

  4. #14
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    I'm glad Rob is doing an in-depth article on this. For me it's not so much about accuracy lost or gained but about weight and tactile feel. I just don't feel the trade off in weight with most rails is worth it, then they don't feel good in hand so heavy rubber covers are added. When all is said and done there's a desire to lighten up with the pencil bbls.

  5. #15
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    For my ARs with stainless match grade barrels I won't fire 55 gr FMJ from the barrel. I paid good money for a match grade barrel, and match barrels don't last forever like chrome lined barrels. You get (depending on the barrel) 2-4,000 rounds before it starts to lose some of its accuracy potential. With a match grade barrel I work up a load and then that's what i shoot from it.

    2-400 rounds for a stainless barrel?

  6. #16
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    Keep in mind that accuracy is relative to the shooter.

    If you are a match shooter or an accuracy nut who must shoot sub-moa groups, your useful "life" out of a match grade barrel is going to be much shorter than someone who isn't measuring success by fractions of an inch. Serious highpower shooters shoot a barrel for one season, and then swap the barrel to a practice upper for the next season. In that way every year they shoot a brand new barrel in competition, and last year's barrel for practice.

    When I say that a match barrel gets shot out in 2,000-4,000 rounds, that is by match shooter standards. If you are a casual shooter looking for good accuracy the barrel will last long past that. You just won't notice the accuracy loss, but it will be there for those who shoot well enough to notice it. Even so, when a match barrel starts to "go", sometimes it is not even noticeable at short distances (100-200 yards).

    I didn't mean to scare you about the quality of a stainless barrel. Plenty of military issue rifles have SS barrels.. pretty much anything accurized like an Mk12, SDM-R, etc. Its the guns that shoot auto that have the chrome lined barrels.

    I was just trying to point out what Rob said more clearly in far less words. The weak link in your shooting is not the lack of a free float rail. It is crappy ammo. If want to shoot 55 gr FMJ for fun have at it (we all do). If you want to see what you and your rifle can "do", you need to shoot better ammo.

  7. #17
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    If you plan on mounting a bipod on it then I would say that a free floating rail would be the way to go.

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