Barrel questions

Sorry, not enough info there. Too general. It all depends on your application.

What do you want to do?

Quentin said:

Sorry, not enough info there. Too general. It all depends on your application.

What do you want to do?

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Sorry about that. I'm looking to build an AR to take out when we go shooting and send some rounds down range. But it would be nice if we ever went varminting if it could still hold its own.

Well you don't need a heavy barrel for that, many of us go light profile and never look back.

I'd get 1/7" twist (good for 55gr and up) but if you're going to use very light varmint rounds (say 50gr and under) then 1/8 or 1/9 would be better.

Back off rookie, you need to hand roll your rounds to find out what your stick likes.

Every gun has a sweet spot with relation to bullet weight and charge.

Stick around and you will put 10 ring hits on your distant kills.

cane

OP, what Cane says is very true. I was talking about generalities but individual barrels do vary from the pack. Once you make a decision on a rifle you have to find loads that its barrel likes. The more accuracy you demand, the more important this becomes. If you're a 2MOA guy then you'll find lots of solutions but if you want sub MOA it's going to take effort on your part.

the proper rate of twist is related to the legth of the bullet- which generally is related to the WEIGHT of the bullet. Mo' is not always bettah. The right twist for what you are shooting is the goal.

ACCURACY is obtained by REPEATABILITY. When you fire a rifle, the barrel whips- left/right/up/down. A heavy stiff barrel whips less. Goal is for the muzzle to be in the identical position each shot when the bullet exits the barrel. Stiffer barrel increases the odds of being in same position.

c3shooter said:

the proper rate of twist is related to the legth of the bullet- which generally is related to the WEIGHT of the bullet. Mo' is not always bettah. The right twist for what you are shooting is the goal.

ACCURACY is obtained by REPEATABILITY. When you fire a rifle, the barrel whips- left/right/up/down. A heavy stiff barrel whips less. Goal is for the muzzle to be in the identical position each shot when the bullet exits the barrel. Stiffer barrel increases the odds of being in same position.

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VERY helpful. Thank you. I want accuracy. It will mainly be target/precision shooting. But also small game shooting

if you want to shoot bullets 50 and under you need a 1-12 twist which really dont show up on ar15 barrels. most ar15 nowadays are 1-7 1-8 1-9. each twist rate does different thingsto different weight bullets and each barrel is different even when made on the exact same machinery. so when your talking super accurate applications you need to handload and work up loads just for that rifle.

i have two ar15 i use for target shooting exclusively neither likes exactly the same load as the other.

for example, i know my bcm lightweight middy is decent at 100yards with 55grain bullets it goes from 1.5 moa at 100 to 6 moa at 300 with 55grain loads. it stays right at 1 moa with 69 grain loads all the way to 300yards

Thanks for the help guys! I plan on loading my own. My dad and i handload everything we shoot (except .22 of course)