Honest truth about ss barrels?

[ra2bach]

girls... girls! calm down...

spring is just around the corner and we'll all be able to get out and shoot a lot more so just hang in there, ok?..

my constructive input into this thread is that I had a 1/8 Douglass SS match grade barrel on my match service rifle with about 2800 rounds on it before I began to suspect it was opening up with the 69 and 77 gr SMK's I handloaded.

it's possible that it was me that was losing my touch but since this was at the "bargain" end of matchgrade SS barrel spectrum, I didn't feel like it owed me anything more. at that point, I sold it for a song to a kid that was just getting into highpower and I'm sure it served his needs well for the next 2-3000 rds but I can't give any further input than that so take it for what that's worth...

[constructor]

10,000 rounds, maybe more.

Centurion makes good barrels. Some people think they're as good as Noveske.

Kreiger Criterion are button rifled barrels, Krieger are cut rifled but yes both seem to be as accurate as the Noveske/PacNor barrels and the stainless is harder, the Criterion are 410 stainless.

[sniperfrog]

I think he was talking about Centurion Arms, not Criterion. Centurion uses Douglas SS blanks and FN hammer forged in their CL barrels.

[BaileyMoto]

Stainless in my mk12 (less than 1" groups at 200 yards) and Chrome in my m4ergy.

[KevinB]

I had a Douglas barrel in the weapon below.














It lasted about 18k before the groups really opened up, it was not babied whatsoever, however it did not do mag dumps of auto fire other than 2 times to verify reliability with Mk262.

It went to Afghan and Iraq, as well as classes and some Army stuff

[Alpha Sierra]

Never did, and I didn't claim a "peak accuracy" to 10,000 rounds. The original poster came up with the first mention of a 10k life.



This whole f'n thread is a flame war between tactical class and target/precision class shooters, and their expectation of their equipment.

For MY uses, I fully expect a 10,000 life from my Noveske barrel. I would tell someone on a tactical (ish) forum the same.

This isn't a high power or a benchrest forum. Those shooters will have a MUCH different expectation from their equipment. If this question was asked on sniper hide or brian enos, of course its going to be a different number.

The target audience here isn't high power, benchrest or the like.

When the question is posted on a subforum dedicated to PRECISION rifles, the accuracy standard is assumed to be that of a high level of PRECISION.

So yes, the standards of accuracy for highpower competition are highly appropriate to this discussion.

Perhaps you can't shoot that well? Could that be the reason for your annoyance with this thread?

[xamoel]

The older the barrel, the rougher the throat becomes due to flame erosion, and the more damage the bullet jacket suffers. That damage creates inaccuracy in two ways.

How about some sort of flash hider, or compensator? Wouldn't that reduce the amount of flame erosion of the throat, but erode the comp instead?

If this is an insanely stupid idea, let me know ;-)

[mizer67]

How about some sort of flash hider, or compensator? Wouldn't that reduce the amount of flame erosion of the throat, but erode the comp instead?

If this is an insanely stupid idea, let me know ;-)

You're thinking about muzzle erosion, and no.

[xamoel]

Right, thanks for clarifying that!

[Sgt_Gold]

I'll be the first one to agree that M855 is not capable of dependably repeatable MOA accuracy. The non concentric nature of the steel penetrator makes it impossible to rely on lot to lot accuracy the way I do with match grade ammunition. The fact is I have done this twice. Once at the NYARNG TAG match in 2007, and again at the MAC 1 match in 2008. The accuracy I obtained I also saw out of other rifles at these same matches, which leads me to believe that the particular lot of ammo we were using was especially concentric. I also see many of the same shooters at these matches, and I know many of them hand pick their rifles. Think of this as a less scientific version of the way FN selects chrome lined sniper rifle barrels.

Even when fired from bolt-actioned, machine-rested test barrels at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, M855 isn’t capable of producing anything near MOA accuracy; so it certainly isn’t capable of producing MOA accuracy from chrome-lined, government profiled barrels fired on semi-automatic from an M16A2 or M4.