Need opinions on my choice of 18" barrels

[daswulf79]

I am about to buy an 18" 5.56 barrel for my build. Right now in my budget I have found a Blackhole Weaponry 18" 1:8 twist rifle gas system poly barrel and a Wilson Arms 18" stainless 1:8 twist mid length gas system barrel. I am just getting into longer distance shooting and I am on a budget so I am working with what I have. What barrel would be best? Thanks.

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[BCP]

White Oak make the most consistent under 300buck stainless barrels on the market. I'm not sure I'd call it a long distance rifle but I don't think that you will go wrong with them.

 

[MarkCO]

White Oak make the most consistent under 300buck stainless barrels on the market.

Except for the Nordic. They use the same Wilson Arms blanks, but the Nordic has a few things that make them softer shooting and less finicky. In 18" I would not even consider a mid-length. If you want 5.56, the BHW barrels are good shooters. If the Wylde is appealing, you will have to exclude the BHW.

 

[jasonfaz]

+1 on going rifle length over mid. I'd also go 1 in 7" twist rather than 8 especially for distance shooting with the 5.56. Wilson Combat makes a 5.56 18" 1-7" twist at $275....

 

[BoilerUP]

1:8 is plenty of stabilization for 77s.

I have a BHW 18" 1:8 rifle gas 5.56 tube and it is consistently sub-MOA with 8208XBR and 77 Noslers, probably capable of 0.5-0.75 if I was any kind of competent driving a gas gun.

WOA tube from Brownells is a good option too.

 

[tickled pink]

This is the WOA upper that I have on order. I am having it full length fluted to save some weight.

White Oak Armament

This is what we both hope for:

White Oak Armament « Accuracy Nut ? The quest for the highest firearm accuracy possible

 

[tickled pink]

It has been many years since I was playing with the bench rest guys. We used to shoot group size at 100 & 200 yards. We also shot for score at the same distances except we shot at a different kind of target. I could not find the exact one we used, but you can use this one to play with. I put a black dot in the center of the green circle which is a little smaller then 1/8". The object is to touch the black dot in the center with one bullet on each target. We used the lower right target as your sighting target which you could shoot at it as many times as needed. The target here is on an 8+1/2" X 11" paper.

OK now that you have the target set up at 100 yds. and are sighted in and ready to shoot for the black dot. The lower right target is used to help you with the wind. FIRST shoot at the lower right dot and lets say your bullet hits just outside the green at 5 o'clock. Then you immediately aim at 10 o'clock the same distance outside the green and shoot. If everything is going well your first bullet for score will hit the black dot. (GREAT). Then you aim and shoot at the dot in the lower right target and note where the bullet hits. If it hits the black dot you immediately aim at the black dot on the next blank target. Then you repeat this on the other 3 blank targets. Hitting a Dot is an "X" which are the tie breakers. This will also help you keep your groups 1/2" or less. The wind can move your bullet 3/4".

You need a very accurate rifle to hit all 5 black dots. The one I was shooting at the time is a 6mm Norma BR. and would consistently shoot in the low .1" groups. I only hit 5 for 5 dots once at 100 yds. and 5 for 5 at 200 yds. once. I have hit 4 for 5 at each range quite a few times though.

If you hit the GREEN it equals 10 points and if you hit a Dot you get 10+1X. That is how it is scored. If my memory is lacking please correct me. Thanks.

If the "Accuracy Nut" above had shot at his twenty 1/2" dots using this system to overcome the wind he had a much better chance of hitting all 20 target "DOTS".

White Oak Armament « Accuracy Nut ? The quest for the highest firearm accuracy possible

The NRA has the target we used, but I could not find it.

 

[jake6547]

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[Crosshair]

The Blackhole 18" barrel with free stripped upper deal from Surplus Ammo is a pretty good value for a budget 5.56 build: Blackhole Weaponry AR-15 18" Mid-Length Stainless Steel 5.56 1:8 Poly Barrel - Surplus Ammo

I'd rather it used a rifle length gas system, but with tuning you can dial in the middy 18" setup decently well. I like 1:8 twist, as I occasionally shoot cheap 55gr stuff, and then up to 75's/77's.

 

[tickled pink]

I called WOA today and asked what my 18" Varmint Upper was and I was told that the gas block is Custom and 1" less than a rifle length.

 

[RichS]

I was told yesterday by a rep from BHW that despite the barrel markings that the 18" rifle gas barrels at Surplus Arms do indeed have a Wylde chamber.

 

[346ci]

For the costs, you won't beat these: 18" 5.56 SPR 3 Gun barrel, 4150 CMV, Wylde chamber

However, they are not in stock but if you are willing to wait, well worth it. I have 4 of the ARPs in 6.8 and .223W, really good shooters.

I don't have any trigger time with the BHW pipes but from what I have seen, hard to go wrong with those either.

 

[Mil.Dot]

I don't think you can go wrong with any of the barrels mentioned, including White Oak, Black Hole, Nordic, or AR15 Performance. WOA may have the bests reputation, simply because they have consistently produced great barrels for a long time, relatively speaking.

To add a couple more options around the $250 price range, Rainier Match barrels should perform very similar to the White Oak barrels. You could also try out the Odin Works 18" DMR or 3-gun barrel, I have not used them, but there is a reasonable chance the will perform similarly to the other barrels mentioned. Joe Bob's has both the Rainier Match and Odin Works barrels in stock now with free shipping. Daniel Defense 18" S2W barrels are supposedly very accurate (nitrided). Only downside is they have a midlength gas system, but I trust DD to size the gas port relatively well.

Honestly, there is a good chance any of these barrels will have very similar accuracy potential with good ammo. With cheap ammo, they will all group similarly poorly . . .

I would personally go with WOA as my first choice, because there is a very good probability you wont find the other options shooting any better (Rainier and Nordic close seconds).

 

[tickled pink]

Here are some to look at:

White Oak Armament | AR-15 Barrels