Re: ABS Carbon Fiber wrapped Barrels
Hey Guys,
I have owned over a dozen ABS barrels. I have never had a bad ABS barrel.
In short, the pro's:
Very lightweight
Extremely rapid heat dissipation
Long barrel life due to heat being dissipated so quickly
The con's:
In very high demand, thus -
Expensive (running $900 and up these days)
Extreme waiting time (often +12 months) unless you can find one in stock.
Tiny percentage of gunsmiths are experienced with ABS barrels. (my ¢2 - use someone who has worked with ABS barrels)
Commonsense consequences of using ABS barrels:
An ABS barrel conducts heat away from the steel barrel core at such a high rate that you will see this heat mirage through your medium to high power rifle scope. The extremely rapid heat dissipation means I highly recommend the use of a mirage band on an ABS barreled rifle.
Roedale Precision Mirage bands Exceptions to this are lightweight hunting rifles that you are only going to fire a few rounds in a row.
- or -
an AR that uses iron sights, non-magnifying sights or very low power scopes (Eotech, Aimpoint, Acog) that are designed for "run and gun" type work. My favorite ever AR was an extremely lightweight AR that I mounted a 4x Acog on. I hardly noticed the weight of that rifle even when I carried it all day long.
Also:
Extremely light weight barrels mean that that your fundamentals of marksmanship become much more critical. Think about this. You are switching from a 14 - 20 pound purposely-made-heavy tactical rifle, to as light-weight rifle as possible. Your bad habits that you have been able to compensate for with that heavy beast will become very apparent with your ABS barreled rifle.
My advice? find an ABS barrel/rifle for sale or have Jense precision build you a rifle from the ground up.
Good shooting!