better AK barrel?

[jason41987]

hey everyone.. ive been looking a lot at AK barrels lately.. and well, they all seem to be a very light, thin contour, under 0.6" at the gas block vs .750" at the gas block for an AR15 which fires a much smaller bullet.. so there seems to be more meat on the AR15 barrel... but looking at a set of barrel dimensions for the AR15 it seems to be closer to .615 between the chamber and the gas block...

well, anyway, id like to find an AK barrel with better accuracy.. and am even entertaining the idea of having one made from a blank... my question is, what would be a better contour to go with for a little more accuracy and rigidity in the barrel without adding too much weight?

seems the contour as it goes now is .908 around the chamber, .594 at the gas block, and .575 at the front sight base

by comparison, an RPK barrel is .908 at the chamber, .884 at the rear sight base, .789 at the gas block

so would it be better to use an RPK contoured barrel cut to the standard 16" length with the muzzle threaded for a standard flash supressor, or go with a custom contour entirely, keeping in mind the restrictions at the chamber, rear sight block, and gas block?...

should i go with a new barrel, id like one to be made from a quality manufacturer, and not some relatively cheap barrel made with military quality control standards

 

[jason41987]

i just noticed the yugo M70 barrel contours are somewhere in between that of the AKM and the RPK... would this mean the yugo M70 rifles use the equivelant of a medium contour barrel?

 

[fatcat4620]

Check the vepr rifles contour, the might be thicker.

 

[henschman]

The contour of the barrel isn't what makes it more or less accurate -- it is the quality of construction. IME the Russians and Chinese make the best barrels.

The M-16 and M4 barrels are heavier profile at the gas block on out -- not under the handguard though. It is a half-assed split-the-baby choice that was caused by the Marines' desire for a heavy barrel but the Army's desire to still be able to mount an M203 without modification. The ones with the heavier barrels are not any more accurate than the old A1s with pencil profile barrels. And the older ones are a lot nicer to carry and point better, too.

A heavy-barreled AK seems pointless to me. It would be a poor choice for a precision rifle based on caliber alone, aside from several other factors that do not lend themselves to accurate medium and long range fire.

 

[jason41987]

henschman.. you assume its going to remain in an AK caliber... and assume i dont like a challenge of breaking a stereotype such as one the AK has... also you should know AK barrels are pretty thin, and this aids in the whip effect theyre responsible for which does cause inaccuracies as well

despite that.. im not looking for this light contour the AKMs originally have, and i dont think im looking for the h-bar setup the RPKs have.. id like to find common ground between the two

well.. obviously the barrel will need a .908 diameter around the chamber, so it actually fits in the rifle...

then are the rear sight base is another limiting factor... .694 for an AKM, .740 for a yugo, and .884 for the RPK.. however, it does appear a rear sight block can be machine out to fit a barrel should this be anything but one of these contours

and we also have the gas blocks at .594, .630, .789

hmm... wonder if i should go with an intermediate contour, and just machine out the gas block and rear sight block to fit?.. and this will be for contouring a high quality custom barrel blank