18" barrel AR-15: anyone have one? Why?

Search for posts by Zak Smith. You'll see a boat load of very nice 18" AR's. I've got one--not in the category of Zak's--It was a fun project after the ban ended. I took a 20" bushy barrel and had a machinist turn it to an A2 profile under the HG and cut and thread at 18". With a flash thingy on the end, it is about.5" shorter than a 20" rifle.

I think these guns do handle a bit better, but to "look" right, they need a good railed HG and some do dads hanging off of them.

I'm still debating if mine would look right with a less expensive adjustable stock on it.

Here's a pic:



--usp_fan

By all means, give it a collapsible stock!

18" is a good compromise, but too long for my tastes.

"Because it's there" usually works as a good justification for me....

I have never owned an AR with an 18" barrel. I do have the 20" AR and the 16" - the 20" is to heavy as a carry gun and the 16", while being a great carry gun, is so much louder then the 20". I think the 18" would be a great compromise.

I have never owned an AR with an 18" barrel. I do have the 20" AR and the 16" - the 20" is to heavy as a carry gun and the 16", while being a great carry gun, is so much louder then the 20". I think the 18" would be a great compromise.

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Aren't there any super light 20" barrels that could be used? I have the 20" HBAR at it is annoyingly heavy, it is really a target barrel. But it seems like you could get a very lightweight 20" if you wanted to.

I always liked the idea of an 18" -er in one of the 2 bigger calibers 6.8SPC or 6.5 Grendell to get a little more velocity while still handling well. I can't afford to like the idea too much though (or to look at Zak's pictures). :banghead:

Yeah I' m sure there are light weight 20" barrels if you want to sacrifice the features of a heavy bull barrel. I prefer a heavy bull barrel though. There is a guy named Dtec at predatormasters that does custom uppers and he does his own fluting and claims to really cut down the weight. I have never tried his product but he is well known to have a great product and very reasonable prices.

The major reason that most people I know use the 18" barrel (or 17" in some cases) is that you can consistently make power factor for 3-gun with a barrel that long and you can use a rifle-length gas system reliably (which is what the system was designed for originally).

Yup.
I had an 18.5" cut down from one of those 24" CAR A3s for my last foray into 3-gun because that was the shortest I figured would run with the rifle gas tube. Based on the JP guns. It shot as well as it did at full length.

(The action now wears a 28" barrel, I tried to turn it into a Long Range F-class gun when I lost interest in running around with carbine and shotgun.)

Bartholomew Roberts pretty much nailed it. Making "Minor" power factor with a 16" is not usually a problem unless the ammunition is underpowered commercial 55gr or lighter loads.

The main reason I use 17-18" barrels is that they allow use of a rifle-length gas system which results in a more mild recoil impulse (allowing faster follow-up shots). With a regular rifle-length float tube, they also seem to balance and "point" more naturally for some shooters. A little more velocity is also nice, but and inch plus or minus isn't really noticable.

17"
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18"
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Also note that the military's SPR is 18" (shown here with OPSINC suppressor)
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I think the new .308 autoloading DMR (based on the SR-25, but DPMS and Remington had models in the competition) has an 18" barrel too.

One of those might, might, get me interested in an AR type. Might.