Hello! Newbie questions.

[IAHUNTER11]

Hello everyone. I am new here. I am an avid outdoorsman, hunting, shooting and so on. I have recently decided to build an AR-15. I have never owned one before. I have done a great deal of research recently. I have a few opinion questions with my build. I bought a lower and lower assembly kit last week. I went today and picked up a stripped upper. I want to do the entire build so it's exactly like I want instead of paying for things I will take off. I got home this evening and noticed that my new upper doesn't really have the same finish as my lower. Seems to be a little more dull. Is that normal? Idk how much I'm worried about it right now but if I can get one that will match I might change it. On the the next thing I've been considering. I have done a lot of research on barrels. I will mostly be target shooting and coyote hunting with this gun. Most shots will be 200 yards or less. The barrel I think I've decided on is an 18" 1 in 7 twist 416R Stainless steel with melonite. Might be a little over kill for what I want but would like some experienced opinions. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I look forward to being a part of this community.

[UWone77]

First of all welcome.

Generally, receivers from the same company will match pretty close. If you get and upper and lower from separate companies, their finishes will not usually match. Which companies did you go with? This is not a big deal, unless you are a little OCD (we all are) and want them to match perfectly. This doesn't affect the function of your gun.

A stainless barrel will easily do what you want it to do at 200 yards or less. In fact, I'd probably go 16" with a 1/8 twist. At 200 yards, you won't miss the extra velocity with a 16 vs 18. I'm sure some of our regular hunters will chime in.

[Ride4frnt]

The finish is normal. Best way to get the same finish is to buy upper and lower from same manufacturer, and even that can be a crapshoot. It doesn't make the gun function differently. If you're worried about it, have the whole set cerakoted.

My opinion on the barrel...if this is your first, and likely to be only for a while, go 16". It's got more mobility, less weight, and plenty of capability to shoot 200yds accurately. I love my 18" gun, but it's not the one I'm going to be carrying around out in the woods, or a carbine course, etc. It's pretty much a bench gun exclusively.

Edit: UW beat me to posting, as I pretty much mimicked what he said.

[GOST]

Welcome to Weapon Evolution. Anodizing can be hard to match. If you want a good match I'd recommend Cerakoting, the stuff is very durable. As far as barrels go if your wanting melonite you may want to checkout Triarc or Sionics, they are both getting good reviews and are well priced. Keep us updated on your rifle.

http://triarcsystems.com/product/16-track-barrel/

http://sionicsweaponsystems.com/stor...id_product=116

[IAHUNTER11]

Thanks for the info. Maybe I will go with 16". The lower I got is an anderson. I started thinking I will do it on the less expensive side but deciding I would like some quality components. The upper I'm not exactly sure. It was in a plastic bag. But it has a keyhole marking on the side. I think I remember somewhere reading that the keyhole is decent quality. I am thinking I want to go with a nickel boron bolt group.

[alamo5000]

Hello everyone. I am new here. I am an avid outdoorsman, hunting, shooting and so on. I have recently decided to build an AR-15. I have never owned one before. I have done a great deal of research recently. I have a few opinion questions with my build. I bought a lower and lower assembly kit last week. I went today and picked up a stripped upper. I want to do the entire build so it's exactly like I want instead of paying for things I will take off. I got home this evening and noticed that my new upper doesn't really have the same finish as my lower. Seems to be a little more dull. Is that normal? Idk how much I'm worried about it right now but if I can get one that will match I might change it. On the the next thing I've been considering. I have done a lot of research on barrels. I will mostly be target shooting and coyote hunting with this gun. Most shots will be 200 yards or less. The barrel I think I've decided on is an 18" 1 in 7 twist 416R Stainless steel with melonite. Might be a little over kill for what I want but would like some experienced opinions. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I look forward to being a part of this community.

Welcome to the forum.

I am still a FNG but I just built an AR myself from the ground up and I have gotten some great advice from members here. I have put a lot of leg work into deciding what I want and all that and all that homework really pays off. As for the barrel I don't think you would want or need an 18" for that range. It won't hurt anything but it won't really help either. It might even just be too long actually and might get in the way if you are in the brush or whatever. There are too many other factors involved than just 'length' when determining a quality barrel and what you are after.

Check out my thread that I just posted up. I have been testing and evaluating ammo/zeroing my optic/ and other stuff along those lines. My barrel is a 16" select medcon from Rainier Arms (it is also a 416R barrel) and today I shot a 3 shot group at 100 yards that was .7 inches. Pics are on the other thread. Your optic and all that needs to be determined too, but just length alone is not all there is to barrels.

I got turned on to Rainier and now I am preaching the gospel of Rainier to everyone. They live up to the hype. They aren't the only ones out there but they are great.

I can go into a lot of detail from stuff I have learned about Nitride vs Melonite vs other for treating of the barrels... as well as the types of metals involved.

[alamo5000]

Here is a link that really helped me... passing it around again.

http://www.defensereview.com/noveske...view-part-one/

After you get done with that one we can help discuss further other things that I have learned in my own research.

All in all here in the forum you will get some sound advice. Just keep in mind that there is not one 'correct answer' to every scenario. It all depends.

After doing my first build I think the most important thing you can do at this time is to specifically define what you want the gun to do (which you have sort of done). Having a clear vision for the purpose of your gun---defining that--- is vital. Not only how do you want it to look but what is it's job going to be (very specifically). After you sharpen that up some there are numerous very good and knowledgeable people here who can give you satisfactory options for your aims.

[IAHUNTER11]

I was doing a bit of research on barrels just now since I'm thinking 16" now. I ran across a company that talks very highly of their own barrels. They seem to be fairly prices so wondering if anyone has had any experience with the equipment from. Integrity Arms. I was looking at 4150 moly with melonite 1:8 twist.

[alamo5000]

I was doing a bit of research on barrels just now since I'm thinking 16" now. I ran across a company that talks very highly of their own barrels. They seem to be fairly prices so wondering if anyone has had any experience with the equipment from. Integrity Arms. I was looking at 4150 moly with melonite 1:8 twist.

Here is what I have learned about barrels. I will try to keep it sort of simple. Keep in mind I am the FNG who was asking all these same questions not too long ago so UWone77 might tease me still... but I was in your shoes not long ago.

Lets start with basic forms of metal. All metals have characteristics such as hardness and grain and fine-ness or whatever other kind of things you can think up. Softer metals are easier to mill and easier milling means you can have a much nicer more uniform bore tip to tail of the barrel. Hence most of the match barrels are made from a softer form a metal which would mean stainless steel. (There are more than one kind of stainless steel).

Other types of barrels are made from harder substances but because of their inheirent nature they can withstand a whole lot more abuse (say full automatic fire). There are various extremes here that I am trying to point out. They can still be pretty accurate but they won't match a truly well bored barrel from people who take their time to do it. So if you have the same guy taking the same about of care using one metal vs the other one will give more accuracy than the other.

Conversely and crappily made bore with a nicer metal will perform poorly when compared to a nicely bored metal done with materials that are harder to work with.

If you are going with 416R or some similar stainless steel, because it is softer it can have more flex under fire. All of them have flex under fire it just depends on how much and the barrel profile.

What those treatments such as nitride etc etc do is penetrate the metal and basically make a hardened surface on the metal in order to make it last longer. Nitride on a different kind of metal might make that barrel last forever under full auto fire... whereas with a different underlying metal the benefits might be different in nature.

With my particular barrel I called up Rainier Arms and they told me they tried Melonite and Nitride both on the 416R and those barrels had a 15 to 20% LESS barrel life. It was more than bare 416R but not used to its maximum potential.

In essence those treatments made the surface of the barrel TOO hard and when the inherent flex occurs during firing it would lead over time to cracking and eventually failure. Think softer core with a harder crust being constantly whipped around under fire...

What Rainier has done is created a proprietary system that gets to that sweet spot where it's hard enough to make the barrel life last, but it also allows for flex without the cracking. It substantially increases the barrel life of a stainless barrel of this nature. They told me to expect 12,000 to 15,000 rounds down range with their barrels with that proprietary treatment. This is substantial considering the untreated 416R would be half or less than half of that under the same shooting conditions.

Again though if you are shooting full auto the barrel just won't last. There was recently a thread where a guy machine gunned a melonited stainless barrel and he got to about 900 rounds or so before the barrel ruptured. If you shoot like I do though... more plinking... you will never really get that heat build up which in turn makes the barrel last longer.

As for twist 1:8 is fine. I am getting extremely good accuracy with 69 grain rounds. As I said just today I shot 3 shots into a .7 inch group today at 100 yards. 1:7 would be fine too but it's not going to make that much difference especially at 200 yards. You can shoot heavier grains with more twist but I can attest to the ability to shoot 69's through a 1:8. I would be very confident going well into the 70's on grain weight with a 1:8.

I am sure I can go heavier even still. But price out any 77 grain ammo... it's not cheap. Accuracy is a function of gun harmonics (vibrations), the bore being concentric end to end, and ammo. It's all a big soup if you're looking for accuracy. You can have a match grade everything but if you shoot crap ammo your shots won't be that good no matter what you do. Again, think soup not component.

In the end the people who make the barrels are going to determine if the bore has any inconsistencies in it. Good manufacturing is just that. Good. Poor is just that. Poor. You can get better performance from lesser quality materials that are machined properly than from higher quality materials that are machined poorly.

My goal when I built was to have an accurate rifle and I am satisfied with what I got. I also got a great barrel life. For me 10,000 plus rounds would be at least 5 years life (or more) for me. I could have bought a barrel that would have lasted me until I die but the trade off would be that I might not get those sub MOA shots that I obsess over. It's not a rule its just a concept.

[IAHUNTER11]

Thank you alamo!

[IAHUNTER11]

Thank you Gost. The sonic is in the price range I'm looking.

[Dstrbdmedic167]

As a first welcome! I have the same sentiments as others here on your first barrel. I've never used the above mentioned but on paper they look good. I can however promise that even if you think you've built this rifle exactly as you want you'll find something as you run you wish you'd have done differently. The great thing about the AR-15 platform is if you don't like something there is a part that will allow you to change it. Try it, run it and report back. Let us know if you have any more questions.

[GaSwamper]

Welcome, you'll find the 16'' to be great in the woods and fine for typical hunting shots especially predators in woodland terrain. If you were in open country with longer shots the 18''-20'' will give you an edge. I even shoot 200yds with a 10.5'' barrel chambered in .277 wolverine and have taken deer with it out to 150yds with ease. Do you do any other hunting besides the yotes?

[IAHUNTER11]

That is great advice. I've already run across changing things a lot and I've only just started. I can only imagine what the future of this build will bring. Haha thanks.

[GaSwamper]

I've met the owner of Integrity Arms and he seems to live up to the name. I've handled his barrels but never used one, they are good looking for the price point. He says they are done by the same people that do the ARPerformance barrels but I cannot confirm, if it's true my ARPerformance 6.8 is one of my most accurate.