Red X Arms barrel opinions?

[Tuflehundon]

My Wife picked me up a Bushmaster XM15 20" really cheap for Christmas.m I am planning to do some mods to it in January. I don't technically get it till Christmas. For now I am just gathering the parts I want to swap out. For now I have a MagPul CTR stock, MagPul ASAP sling attachment point, MagPul MS2 sling, MagPul MBUS sights, MagPul MIAD grip, and several PMags.

When I get paid again I am ordering a YHM Free Float rail system, lo profile gas block, and a Miculek Comp.

I was looking at Brownells.com and I saw the Red X Arms barrel. These are the ones I was looking at:

http://www.brownells.com/rifle-parts/barrel-parts/rifle-barrels/ar15-m16-stainless-steel-barrels-prod55015.aspx?avs|Make_3=AR-15/M4

I have done the normal Google Searches on them and have found little into on them. But the little I am finding is pretty good. Anyone here have any experience with there barrels? I would definitely get a 20" barrel. Figured of they are decent barrels, it may be worth the purchase at that price. $130 for HBAR contour and $154 for HBAR Fluted contour.

Or is there another good heavy barrel out there for close to the same price? Wouldn't mind spending $200ish. Much more than that and I don't think it would be worth it right now. It would have to be chambered in either 5.56 or 223 Wylde so that I can use both 5.56 NATO and 223 Rem. This way in a SHTF situation, I could use either.

Little background: I will be using the rifle for 3gun, but also for hunting, general shooting, and SHTF situations. Don't really mind weight, carried M60E3's, M240G's, M40A1's and even the M82A1 as a Marine. Standard M16A2' always felt super light to me and almost like a toy. Adding a lb or to isn't going to hurt me. Might even do some long range competitions with it. That's what got me thinking about heavy barrels.

[danish]

Skip those barrels and go to Rainier Arms. Their Select barrels are in your $200ish price range and are backed by an excellent company. These are probably the best deal right now for a quality barrel at an affordable price...

[PursuitSS]

There have been favorable and UNFAVORABLE reports on AR15.com they are running about about 50/50 here are a few I found:

I thought i would share this with you since some of our members have been looking at their products. I have read some good reviews and some bad reviews of their stuff and this is what has happened with the 16" s.s. upper i bought from them.

I happen to work in a store that has a very good sporting goods department, firearms being the best selling products by far. Like a lot of stores we have had trouble keeping ar's in stock and started stocking redx uppers and new frontier lowers so our customers would have something they could buy while we waited on our complete ar's to trickle in.

I got the redx upper and a new frontier lower just because i guess, didn't really need any more ar's but they were sitting there staring at me everyday and so they came home with me. The next day i headed to the range to start the break in, the upper wouldn't feed from any of my mags so i fed it single shot cleaning after every round. On the tenth round the take down pin came out in two pieces so home i came. I called new frontier and they sent a new the next day. Back to the range and the same problem, new pin again and back to the range, same problem. At this point new frontier asked me to return the lower so they could replace it with another one, they sent it overnite, there was no charge for any of the parts they were sending me. Back to the range and ten rounds later broken pins again.

This time i contact both redx and new frontier and ask for any help or thoughts on what was causing this. New frontier replies that this has not happened before and they just don't know what is causing this but will help in ant way they can. Neil from redx arms replies that all composite lowers are garbage and that using one voided my warranty and he would never repair the upper because of it. That was interesting since i had not asked for warranty work, simply thoughts on what might be causing the breakage. I can't really express the way Neil put it here without being censored.

I decided to take the upper and lower down to our store and there i try the lower on every single ar upper we have including the redx uppers that are on the rack. It fits perfectly on all of them, then i take the upper and try it on the lowers we have and it won't fit on the lowers. I then take the lower to a very good gun smith who after checking it over says that it's out of spec enough on the pin holes that it will break the pins every time i put new ones in. This information i send to Neil at redx and the reply isn't worth typing out here, but pretty much came to eat sh*t and bark at the moon.

All this before i even can get the unit broken in. I'll add here that the chamber was so tight that it wouldn' release the spent casing, since i had no warranty i corrected that with a lot of work with steel wool. now it won't release the round if you go into battery and then try to remove the round by hand. When you do get the round out it is so scarred that i won't try firing it. This is just a brief run down of my dealing with Neil and redx, you can read the whole thing over on predatormasters.com just search for "a tale of two companies" 5/18/12 on page 10 at the moment. I hope you have better luck with Neils products than me. blue

AND:

So I purchased a Red X Arms stainless steel fluted barrel. Did a little research and most people had good luck from what I could see. I went ahead and bought one. BIG mistake. I had Reaper Tactical which is a local guy build the rifle for me. When he went to head space it he said it was tight but should be fine. I was having a problem with the rifle stove piping the shells. So I went to a shoot that Reaper Tactical put on at a local gun range. I had the owner shoot my rifle and he experienced the problem. We tried swapping everything over from a different AR he had there. It came down to the barrel. He took the rifle back and tried to contact Red X Arms via email and phone with out any luck. They replied to him by email finally asking what ammo we were using. I really was hoping they would stand behind there product as it was a new barrel. So Reaper Tactical reamed the chamber to spec with a Reamer trying to solve the problem. When fired it was over gassing now due to the gas port in the barrel being to large. This barrel was either a screw up one off or this is simply just a poor product. But seeing as RED X ARMS is not helping us at all I am guessing that the barrels they make are just plain crap. So people be aware. This company will NOT stand behind there product at all. I am forced to buy another barrel now.

PS, we could get the rifle to cycle properly by clocking the gas block to lower the amount of gas pushing the bolt back. The repair is obvioulsly an adjustable gas block or buy a descent barrel. I don't like band aid fixes so I'm buying a new barrel.

AND

Minnesota BBB has them rated an "F"

http://www.bbb.org/minnesota/business-reviews/archery-equipment-and-supplies/red-x-arms-in-starbuck-mn-96318441

AND

This is a cut & paste from their warranty, notice that you can't use Israeli or Korean ammo. Winchester has ammo manufactured in both of those countries, also NO reloads.

Only the use of SAAMI Ammunition is recomended and will be covered under the warranty. The use of reloaded ammunition will void warranty. Also the use of Israeli, Korean, Chinese, Potugese, PMP, South African Produced Surplus, Wolf, Norinco, Any Steel Cased, Lacquer Coated ammunition voids warranty. The use of the ammunition have been known to cause a range of problems and damage to the rifle/parts. They also may be unsafe to yourself and cause harm to you or others.

Edited December 10, 2012 by PursuitSS

[Tuflehundon]

After some thinking, and reading some of the reviews I have been able to find (they were hard to find), I have decided to hold off for a while before free floating the barrel, and buying a heavy match barrel. I'm just going to get a MagPul MOE handguard for now. Then I will start to save up the cash to get a better barrel and rail system. May as well do it right the first time.

[Shooter115]

Well I can tell you this. They are based about 20 miles from my house here in MN. I have ordered some parts off their website just cause they offer free shipping and they are pretty affordible. I've gotten a stripped upper that was fine and have gotten some small parts like gas tubes and such. Not the best communication level, but it's a really small operation. Nothing to complain about and I would order from them again.

Barrels no, but my dad has used a few for guys looking to build uber cheap truck guns. I have had the chance to look them over first hand though at a couple gun shows. They are made from Mossberg blanks. The examples I saw looked pretty rough and still had machine chippings in the bore. A couple had pretty good burrs from drilling the gas ports. When I started asking the owner some technical questions on bore and chamber dimensions he looked at me like I was from Mars and had no idea what they were using for reamers. They would work, but I passed.

If your looking for a cheap GOOD barrel, I would suggest the DPMS Mk12 barrel made by Wilson which is on sale at Midway for $160 on a fairly regular basis

[P.E. Kelley]

Maybe I am missing the point…is something wrong with the stock bullet spinner on the XM15?

I know lots of us like to change parts 'cause we can, but if it were me, I'd see if I shoots (please use good ammo)

and then buy a forend (not a freekin cheese grater bristling with ATAS rails) and a good trigger and comp

and shoot the crap out of it!

[Tuflehundon]

Maybe I am missing the point…is something wrong with the stock bullet spinner on the XM15?

I know lots of us like to change parts 'cause we can, but if it were me, I'd see if I shoots (please use good ammo)

and then buy a forend (not a freekin cheese grater bristling with ATAS rails) and a good trigger and comp

and shoot the crap out of it!

It does shoot fairly well. And for 3gun it should be just fine. I am mainly thinking about going with a heavy barrel so I can do some long range competitions with it also. I do plan to buy a railed forend, but it'll be one of the ones were you can add rails only were you need them, and the rest will be slick. Don't need to add much to it, just a light and a foregrip.

Edited December 13, 2012 by Tuflehundon