Observations on the Accuracy of a 20” Lothar Walther AR-15 Barrel

[Molon]

Observations on the Accuracy of a 20” Lothar Walther AR-15 Barrel








I’ve used a 20” stainless-steel Lothar Walther barrel for evaluating the accuracy (technically precision) of several different 5.56mm/223 Remington factory loads now. Prior to firing each of these factory loads, I’ve fired a 10-shot control group using some of my “generic” hand-loads; by generic, I mean that these hand-loads were not “tuned” for this specific barrel. The targets that will be shown below are a collection of some of these 10-shot control groups.

I purchased this 20” Lothar Walther barrel directly from Lothar Walther. The barrel is manufactured from LW50 stainless steel. The Lothar Walther website states that LW50 was developed “in 1994-95 as a safe alternative to 416R and to solve durability problems associated with 416R.”

Lothar Walther barrels are produced using button rifling. This barrel has traditional rifling (not polygonal rifling) and has a 1:8” twist rate. The barrel has a 223 Wylde chamber, “M4” feed-ramps and a recessed target crown.














I installed this Lothar Walther barrel in a LaRue Tactical Stealth upper receiver with “M4” feed-ramps.









The barrel was free-floated with a LaRue Tactical 12” railed handguard.









All shooting was conducted from a concrete bench-rest from a distance of 100 yards (confirmed with a laser rangefinder.) The free-float handguard of the rifle rested in a Sinclair Windage Benchrest, while the stock of the rifle rested in a Protektor bunny-ear rear bag.

Sighting was accomplished via a Leupold VARI-X III set at 25X magnification and adjusted to be parallax-free at 100 yards. A mirage shield was attached to the objective-bell of the scope. Wind conditions on the shooting range were continuously monitored using a Wind Probe. The set-up was very similar to that pictured below.

















Finally, the 10-shot control groups . . .















































.......


Lastly, for any Internet Commandos in our viewing audience, here's a pic of a 3-shot group fired from the Lothar Walther barrel. The group has an extreme spread of 0.183".









...

[schambers]

Nice writeup and nice to see that the barrel performs well with a variety of ammunition. I'm considering building up another long range AR so this barrel will definitely be on the radar.

Out of curiosity, was the bolt matched to the barrel?