Centurion Arms barrels

[AR-10]

Are these any good?

They are offering an almost complete VIS upper (no BCG or CH) with a hammer forged 14.5" lightweight middy barrel for $875.

I was looking at the exact same barrel from Daniel Defense, but if I were to pay retail for a DD barrel and the same VIS upper I'd be dishing out around $1000.

So, if you include the cost of a low-pro gas block, gas tube, birdcage (which I wouldn't use anyway) plus assembly - this looks like a deal that is too good to be true:

http://www.centurionarms.com/index.p...art&Itemid=134

Granted you still need some additional components to finish it but I'm not too keen on buying uppers from companies that I don't know anything about, especially if I don't know where the barrel came from.

[Stickman]

Centurion Arms carries very high quality equipment. I own some of it myself, and plan on getting more. I would use and recommend it for duty use without hesitation. I'm not sure I can give higher praise.

[TehLlama]

The bundled uppers with URX or Lite rail aren't too shabby either. I'm quite thrilled with my Mk12/Lite12 upper.

[Aragorn]

I have a 16" Lightweight CHF barrel from them and absolutely love it. Chose it over a Noveske 14.5" Afghan actually, though mostly for the weight. An N4 may would have made the decision more difficult, but I very likely would have still gone with the Centurion. Seems like I read somewhere that their blanks come from FN.

[AR-10]

Very good to hear, I wasn't expecting to read that these guys have so many uppers out there already. Before today I didn't even know about this place.

Can any of you explain what they mean by taper bore?

I noticed that in the barrel specs.

[Uglyduck]

Monty absolutely makes top notch rifles, you can't go wrong with centurion products. Rumor has it Reed Knight of Knights Armament has one of his Mk12's in his safe. He probably has one of everything in his safe but for a guy with enough cash to buy whatever he wants and that company to pick one up says something. His CHF 2x chrome lined barrels are a really tough to beat in accuracy and durability. Tapered bore means the bore becomes narrow from chamber to muzzle. Thats the simple definition and I don't have the expertise to explain the physics it imparts on a projectile other than I understand its intent is to improve accuracy on chrome lined barrels.

[AR-10]

I think I'm gonna order one.

I originally wanted to put a Colt M4 HBAR in a carbine VIS but after playing around with my current build I have realized that I need more handguard space and I'm probably better off selling my HBAR and buying a lightweight middy.

That's why I've been looking at DD's barrels, then I saw these Centurion uppers.

These guys are selling exactly what I need, except for the muzzle device but who cares I'm gonna pin something else to the barrel anyway.

I've even got a spare BCG and CH so I would only need front and rear backups and a red dot.

Thanks for the info, guys.

[Specialized Armament]

Monty absolutely makes top notch rifles, you can't go wrong with centurion products. Rumor has it Reed Knight of Knights Armament has one of his Mk12's in his safe. He probably has one of everything in his safe but for a guy with enough cash to buy whatever he wants and that company to pick one up says something. His CHF 2x chrome lined barrels are a really tough to beat in accuracy and durability. Tapered bore means the bore becomes narrow from chamber to muzzle. Thats the simple definition and I don't have the expertise to explain the physics it imparts on a projectile other than I understand its intent is to improve accuracy on chrome lined barrels.

Seriously? I would love to hear about the science behind this (if there is any)...

[Paulo_Santos]

Not too much help, but this is what I found about the tapered bores:

The idea of tapering a bore to improve accuracy and velocity is not a new concept. The German Army designed its famous 88mm cannon with the tapered bores in order to gain the super-high velocities that made them such infamous tank killers. In the United States, the old Springfield Armory also conducted substantial R&D on taper-bored weapons with positive performance results. In fact, the research published since the 1940's has consistently identified a tapered bore as the ideal bore configuration for both accuracy and power.

[AR-10]

I've never heard of a tapered bore in an AR barrel, which is why I asked.

Just curious, do they start out a little loose at the chamber end while tapering down to a normal bore size at the muzzle end or do the barrels start out normal and get extra tight at the muzzle end?

In a shotgun, a tapered bore makes sense. Here, not so much.

[Quib]

Interesting concept. This is the first I've heard of it.

So as the projectile gets closer to the muzzle I take it pressure increases due to the continually decreasing volume of the bore? This increase in pressure and decrease in diameter of the rifling account for the increase in accuracy?

[Uglyduck]

I'm in the same boat and couldn't find much information regarding the science behind this.

Here's a quote from M4C where Monty explains the rationale behind Centurions tapered bore. It doesn't explain how it works however.

The taper bore is that the bore dimension is slightly smaller at the muzzle end this help accuracy. You may notice that the match shooters will not use standard chrome lined barrels since chrome can not be laid consistently through the bore there will always be variations in the chrome thickness. The taper bore gets tighter as the you get closer to the muzzle this negates any negative affects of chrome lining inconsistencies and ensures that it will not have any negative effects on accuracy.

So the taper bore is to enhance accuracy on chrome lined barrels

...

Source thread

[Quib]

That’s definitely interesting.

I’ve heard of, and learned about tapered aircraft engine cylinder bores, where the intent in a taper towards the top of the cylinder was to keep cylinder pressures consistent at the hottest portion of the cylinder, the head. The taper was designed in to keep the bore diameter consistent at higher temps due to cylinder head expansion.

I wonder if this reasoning has any impact in the design of the tapered rifle bore as well?

[AR-10]

I've been doing some research on this company, many, many shooters are giving the SPR uppers high praise.

I'm actually debating whether or not I should just get a 16" instead and not have to deal with pinning my flash hider.

[Specialized Armament]

Am I understanding this correctly?

Barrels can't be chromed to a consistent thickness and this fact has a negative effect on accuracy. To negate this shortcoming, we made our barrels with tapered bores and doubled the thickness of the chrome which increases accuracy and triples the life of the barrel.

The only science behind the tapered bore is the science of marketing. IMRO...