How to improve my barrel?

[rtr]

I shoot a 20in Colt HBAR, I am about to have a cooley comp installed, in addition I'd like to take some weight off the barrel to make the gun better balanced and lighter. My gunsmith suggests we shave some of the barrel under the handguard and cut it to 19in, any shorter he thinks may cause problems. So what is this the best way to maintain an accurate yet lighter gun, or should I go another route?

[warpspeed]

Most of the barrels I've seen have been fluted to remove weight.

[ErikW]

As long as you are taking it apart you should re-assemble it with a free-floating handguard.

[PacMan]

Lighter is not necessarily better, I had a 20" HBAR barrel turned down to std. A2 profile, found out that I now have a tendency to overswing and "herky jerky" during target transition I'm a lot smoother with my other AR, which is a full heavy barrel profile.

[rtr]

Thanks for the suggestions, gun already has a JP free float handguard, the reason I don't like heavy is that when shooting off hand or lightly supported say against a post I find my arms tire and the gun tends to swing a lot.

[Bronco]

You might consider a light contour barrel such as Bushmasters M16A2 Gov. type 20". This is a PRE-BAN barrel but if your gun is pre-ban this is a nice setup. I get 1/2 moa out of mine plus it can be had in a 1 in 7 twist so you can shoot heavy bullets if you so desire.

[Chriss Grube]

The weight difference isn't really going to be that much. There is only so much metal you can take off w/o causing problems. If it is just from getting tired holding it rather than trying to improve transitions and balance, I would suggest that you work on upper body strength instead. It isn't the easy answer but will improve all of your shooting too.

[kdmoore]

I'm going the same route. I'd disagree (respectfully) with Chriss G. The weight makes a huge difference. Especially the weight out front. Working out and working on technique will obviously help too.

Lots of folks take their bbls' down to 18" and do it without problems. You might contact Bennie Hill at triangle shooting sports to do some of your work? Also, you can get a lot of weight off under the handguards, 1 lb OR MORE depending on how thin you want to go. If you can try someones out, you might avoid going too light (you give up accuracy and also stability/smooth swing as PACMAN pointed out).

There is the new SPR type uppers. They settled on a mid weight bbl at 18 IIRC. The ones I see come with the "I can hang more stuff on my gun than you" handguards.

My plans are for an 18 inch bbl, JP comp, and .75 to .8 inches under the handguards. I currently have a 20" HBAR from BM with the comp on it. so my path is very close to yours. I'm going to shoot with mine for a bit before I order my changes.

You can calculate the weight that fluting or shaving will get you, look up the weight of steel and calculate the weight of the tube that you'll remove, but I still think that you really want to test drive the thing first.

GL, YMMV, etc

[Religious Shooter]

When you guys are talking about weight, take into consideration that practice and the match are two different things.

When you practice, you are out there for 1-3 hours doing drills and sometimes going harder than you would at a match (The more you sweat, the less you "bleed" philosophy of training ). An HBAR will become tiring during practice. But at a match, you are looking at spurts of only one to three minutes max. Sure you are walking the rest of the time taping stuff. But your arms aren't really doing squat.

If you get a chance, try a heavy vs. a light gun when you are fresh and see which one works better for you.

The only other thing I can recommend that hasn't already been mentioned is to use the Final Finish system to tune up the barrel. I think KurtM posted somewhere in this forum that he used it on some used barrels (albeit with an M1A) with some good accuracy increases.

[uscbigdawg]

I cut down my barrel down to 18" with a Cooley Comp. The other big weight shaver was to use an Olympic Ultra Match barrel. The rifle now is light and the transitions are fast and sharp. If a light gun is bouncing around it's 'cause you ain't holding on to it. It's .223 after all.

I used to run a 'heavy' rifle, and it was great for groupin' and plinkin' (and now varmintin'). However, for the running that we do (especially inside houses) lighter is better.

I would say fluting is overkill. It definitely has a lot of gee-whiz factor to it, but probably not needed. Practice holding, getting into and out of positions and let the strength come (although weight training is always good). Hi-power and Service Rifle shooters practice holding position, why shouldn't we? And, before everyone fires back, I know we don't shoot the same game, but that argument works both ways. Run 20 yards and then shoot shots offhand. Practicing holding position is good.

Just my two Lincoln's.

Rich

[rtr]

Sounds like it's one of those personal preference things in some ways. I'd love to get all strong and buff, but I barely have enough time to get any shooting in, so I think I'm gonna go with my original plan, if it doesn't work I'll post so everyone can say "I told you so"

[chp5]

nevermind - started a new thread.

[kellyn]

It's definitely a personal preference thing. What ever you want is what you should get. Before they allowed comps on Limited rifles, I used to run 15 lb AR and I won short range hoser stages at major matches with it and both Kurt and I have had success with full sized heavy .308 rifles. And neither one of us is a body builder type. I'm sure the AR that I won the 2001 USPSA Open rifle Championship with was the heaviest rifle there (It had full contour Douglas 1 in 9 barrel that I was able to get a smoking deal on - a moment of silence please as that barrel gave up the ghost in 2002). Weight soaks up recoil and steadies muzzles, particularly shooting offhand. But it's tougher to manage in tight confines or on long extended courses of fire. I've since moved away from the really heavy guns as 1) comps are now legal limited and 2) they are a disadvantage at a very few 3 gun matches - North American Tactical being the best example.

If you like heavy, get heavy. If you like light, get light. If you want medium, get medium. But don't make the mistake that any one of them is not competitive. My latest Limited rifle (AR) has a JP upper with a 20 in barrel with their medium contour barrel. It feels a just bit light to me but it sure shoots good.

Fluting is just for cool go-fast good looks. If you want to take off weight, turn the barrel down.

[TMC]

I just switched from a Bushmaster 20" HBAR upper with a JP comp to a complete JP upper with a 20" med-weight JP comp barrel and low mass operating system. It feels much lighter, probally a pound or more, but shoots softer. I'm guessing the better fit of the comp and the alum. bolt carrier softent the recoil. It was dead steady shooting IPSC targets at 180 yards off the bipod last weekend and was easy to move hosing 15 ipsc target at 10-15 yards in under 8 seconds. I love it.

As Ferris Bueler says, "if you have the means I highly recommend picking one up".

I was where you are, comtemplating turning the HBAR down but then just popped for the full upper. It shoots better AND has the snob factor, which should never be underestimated.

[George]

I ran a heavy barrel Eagle 20" with a buttstock full of lead shot to keep it shooting smooth (1989 comp and heavy bolt). I love that rifle.

Went and got a JP CTR-02 upper with LMOS and a lightweight bbl and man that thing is light fast and recoiless. I love that rifle.

I prefer the JP now, but still think I would shoot fine with the Eagle, it's just a matter of what you wanna make work as long as "you" can make the shots quickly in the first place.

But if I could only have one, it would have to be the CTR-02 with LMOS, so there!

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Regards,