Daniel Defense light weight 16" barrel

[tylerradke]

Does anyone have any experience with DD lightweight 16" AR barrels? I am wanting a lighter profile 16" barrel but I don't want to give up a ton of accuracy.

 

[Avonac]

I worked at a place that had a bunch of them. They shoot great, as do BCM's. I'm a big fan of the lightweight barrels

 

[black max]

Check out the AIM Surplus 16" midlength gas barrel for a cheaper option that shoots as good. It comes with a pinned gas block as well. Mine has about 1500 rounds on it and has been a great shooter. I have heard that BA is making them for AIM.

 

[RUTGERS95]

I worked at a place that had a bunch of them. They shoot great, as do BCM's. I'm a big fan of the lightweight barrels

you have a lw bcm?

 

[GH41]

Does anyone have any experience with DD lightweight 16" AR barrels? I am wanting a lighter profile 16" barrel but I don't want to give up a ton of accuracy.

What kind of accuracy are you worried about giving up?

 

[Thorbeast]

I have a 14.5 dd lightweight barrel, it easily exceeded my expectations. Much more accurate than I was anticipating.

 

[Naaman]

Does anyone have any experience with DD lightweight 16" AR barrels? I am wanting a lighter profile 16" barrel but I don't want to give up a ton of accuracy.

We use the 14.5 lightweight DDs at work. They are excellent barrels. For what it's worth, the lightweight DDs don't heat up nearly as fast as the ELW BCMs (I have the ELW BCM of my own). Both are great and shoot straight. If DD is in your budget, I'd say get it.

 

[tylerradke]

What kind of accuracy are you worried about giving up?

Well I want an accurate barrel to start but I also want to be able to shoot more than 1 mag through it without it turning into a shotgun. Has anyone had one cryo treated? Does that help with heat or just cold bore shot?

 

[RUTGERS95]

Well I want an accurate barrel to start but I also want to be able to shoot more than 1 mag through it without it turning into a shotgun. Has anyone had one cryo treated? Does that help with heat or just cold bore shot?

I think that is a little bit played. While the heat dissipation is faster and will impact accuracy to a degree, you won't be stringing shot like some claim.

To be honest, I have found the 14.5 BA pencil barrels to be crazy accurate but will say, I wish I didn't sell my lw dd as I really liked that set up

 

[Naaman]

I think that is a little bit played. While the heat dissipation is faster and will impact accuracy to a degree, you won't be stringing shot like some claim.

To be honest, I have found the 14.5 BA pencil barrels to be crazy accurate but will say, I wish I didn't sell my lw dd as I really liked that set up

I would agree with the caveat that I'm not sure my shooting is to the level that I would notice a POI shift after the barrel heats up (haven't shot ARs far enough to know).

There is also some info here regarding barrel manufacturing that sheds some light on this... I'll see if I can dig it up.

 

[Naaman]

You really shouldn't have a problem with either. Like I said that light weight barrel I made for my wifes Browning Sako Safari. No point of impact shift and accuracy is excellent. So no accuracy issues.

POI impact shifts like I said.....to me that is a barrel with a lot of stress in the blank and or the barrel is bowed (what we called a barrel with a bend in it) which also will have stress in it. As the barrel heats up don't make any sight adjustments etc...and if the groups/shots are wandering let the barrel cool. If the first shots after it sat for a bit starts out right at the same point as before and again as it heats up the shots wander....that to me is a blank with a lot of stress in it. The steel has a memory. When it cools it goes back to it's original point of aim. When it does this there is nothing you can really do about it. It is what it is.

This is all assuming there are no bedding issues with the stock, ammo is good, scope is good and the guy pulling the trigger is doing his part.

Later, Frank

There it is ^^^^

From the rest of the content in the thread, the only reason there will be a POI shift is due to imperfections in the barrel (the metal itself).

If you want to ensure no POI shift, seems like you need something that has rock solid QC before it goes out the door (not sure what odds that gets you, though... others will certainly know more than me).

 

[IWillNotComply]

This is great information. Does anyone have any recommendations for places that might have DD lightweight barrels in stock?

 

[Mute]

I wouldn't choose one if I were target shooting, but if I just needed to hit minute of man and not mag dumping constantly, the lightweight barrel should be fine and DD's quality is good.

 

[Frank Green]

There it is ^^^^

From the rest of the content in the thread, the only reason there will be a POI shift is due to imperfections in the barrel (the metal itself).

If you want to ensure no POI shift, seems like you need something that has rock solid QC before it goes out the door (not sure what odds that gets you, though... others will certainly know more than me).

Not to say it is a QC problem/issue. What I would call residual stress in the blank is the one thing that no barrel maker can measure/check for per say. It can happen to us as well but it's not a common thing with a cut rifled barrel. As we are not inducing any stress into the barrel during rifling.

For us if the blank has a lot of residual stress it will show up during contouring...if that happens will see it and the barrel gets scrapped at that point in time. It will never even make it to bore reaming let alone rifling.

 

[Naaman]

Not to say it is a QC problem/issue. What I would call residual stress in the blank is the one thing that no barrel maker can measure/check for per say. It can happen to us as well but it's not a common thing with a cut rifled barrel. As we are not inducing any stress into the barrel during rifling.

For us if the blank has a lot of residual stress it will show up during contouring...if that happens will see it and the barrel gets scrapped at that point in time. It will never even make it to bore reaming let alone rifling.

Good to know! Thanks.