Building a New AR

kcb346 · February 10, 2011, 05:52:47 PM

I am going to be building a new AR. I will be sticking with .223 in 55g and am going for a varminter bull bbl 1-7 or 1-8 twist. At this point my only question is what length bbl to go with, 20 or 24in? Any ideas?

This should be good!!!

topdawg · February 10, 2011, 06:20:02 PM

i would go with the 20 in.. mine has a 24 fluted bull barrel and it gets pretty heavy every now and then. if i could of got a 20 in. at the time i would have

kcb346 · February 10, 2011, 06:26:23 PM

I'm not concerned with the weight, more so the accuracy. I plan on using this one as, sit in one spot, rifle. I want to keep tight groups out to 400yds.

WldWldWest · February 10, 2011, 06:27:25 PM

Casey, I have everything from an SBR to a 24" AR and personally I like the 18" in 223 and 308 as you dont see much if any velocity change from 18-20" and to be honest you get really good performance from a 16" in these thickets we hunt in.
With that said I think its mostly gonna be personal preference unless you plan on pushing it to extreme ranges which you can do easily with a 1/7 twist and 68gr. up to 77gr boolit.You may have a lil trouble finding a 55gr bullet that will shoot very well out of a 1/7 twist as they tend to want the heavier bullets

I have amassed quite abit of load data on the heavier end of the spectrum but not so much on the light end as I mostly shoot whatever Wally world has at the time when I shoot my 1/9 twist rifles they seem to like about everything from 50-69gr.

WWW

kcb346 · February 10, 2011, 07:40:46 PM

So, for 55g I should go with the 1/9? My Bushmaster 16"bbl is 1/7 and is pretty good out to 400yds w/55g Vmax. I am wanting to push it farther. Not so sure I can.

FozzyBear · February 10, 2011, 07:55:47 PM

I would go with the 1/9 and the 24'' if it was me . But it your chose. This is the guy that I would ask.

Geoffrey A Corn
9520 E 450 S
Oakland City , IN. 47660

(812)-749-6416

FozzyBear · February 10, 2011, 08:02:18 PM

I forgot he is a bilder for Armalite.

WldWldWest · February 10, 2011, 08:07:06 PM

Quote from: kcb346 on February 10, 2011, 07:40:46 PM
So, for 55g I should go with the 1/9? My Bushmaster 16"bbl is 1/7 and is pretty good out to 400yds w/55g Vmax. I am wanting to push it farther. Not so sure I can.

With the 1/9 you definantly have a wider selection of bullet weight's and usually it's on the lighter side. I have heard of a few people that get good performance with a 1/7 with light bullets but is not the norm by any means.

If I was gonna stretch a 223 out past 400yds I would go with a heavier bullet and a faster twist 1/7 or 1/8.

Just my opinion and remember, Ya get what ya pay for

securpro · February 10, 2011, 08:17:54 PM

I am with WWW on this one and personally I can't tell a big difference between the 18 and the 20 either,I hunt with a 16'' 1/9 and I'm good out to 330 which is the farthest I've shot it and I'm happy with that...

Actually I am thinking about building a light weight 16'' upper just because of weight issues,My goal is to be able to call em in to within 10 yds and I dont need a gun that shoots at 400yrds to kill a coyote that close. The farthest kill I've ever had was about 50yrds most closer than that.. The first coyote I had ever killed I shot at about 10ft and he dropped about 5ft from me

now that was exciting

nor-cal yote · February 13, 2011, 03:37:02 PM

I am in the process of building one also, I went with a Franklin lower, Franklin's are made here in Ca that are ca legal

The magazine release has to have a tool to release the mag(bullet button) the lower is stamped Ca legal. I am thinking of going for the .204 upper. I have 2 rifles in .204 and really like it so far. I have a bush master in .223 but had to leave it in Montana when I moved down here for work.

Roundman · February 13, 2011, 07:50:36 PM

What trigger you gonna put in it?

kcb346 · February 16, 2011, 02:03:37 PM

Don't know.