Replacing the barrel on my Medium weight 14.5 inch run and gun upper

faylix

faylix

Newbie Shooter
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Minuteman
Sep 26, 2024
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Boston
#1
Thinking ahead to this summer, I want to replace the barrel on my run and gun upper.

Currently she has an odin works 14.5 pencil barrel in 223 wylde. I'd like to stick with the 223 wylde setup.

I'm thinking something along the lines of:

- V7 14.5 inch barrel in regular weight (interested in them after reading about them here)

- Noveske 14.5 afghan ( expensive but excellent)

- proof - carbon or SS (heard many good things)

- criterion (no first hand knowledge)

- Something from Knights? - I'm no KAC fanboy, I don't even know if you can get just a KAC barrel - but they always do excellent in 3rd party testing.

What am I missing? What other barrels should I look at? Accuracy is great, the ability to run hard and be put away wet is also pretty high on the list. I'll be running an adjustable gas block and probably a surefire comp and blast diverter.

I recently picked up a WOA barrel for my 20" AR and love it. I don't see anything shorter than a 16 inch on WOA's website though.
 
#6
BCP said:
What's wrong with whatever you have right now?
Click to expand...
TonyTheTiger said:
What's wrong with the Odin? I've generally heard good things about them.
For your purposes I'd be looking at a Criterion CORE if I was dead set on a new barrel.
Click to expand...
It's pretty shot out at this point. Served as my summer blaster for close to three years now. For a short period of time it even ran with three holes. It did classes, I used it to advertise our shop, let customers shoot it, my buddies borrowed her for carbine classes.

Don't get me wrong it did excellent service. I even put a 1-10x on it for a while and experimented with it at 200 yards. She did great at everything I asked her to do. I just think it's time to retire her and try something else now.


I like SOLGW, I even have a personal connection with the owner. I just didn't think their barrels were all that special - more broadsword than rapier.

I'm def open to hearing more about them.
 
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#9
I like the criterion barrels. They behave themselves well when the get hot and they're pretty dang accurate. I have two core barrels and two hybrid barrels. Overall, I prefer the hybrid barrels. They hold a tighter group longer and are a smidgen more accurate.

Of course, these days, you could get anything from a wide range of manufacturers and be good to go. My preference for hard use is chrome lined.
 
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#10
V7 barrels are awesome. I have three of them. The two 14.5's started life as 16's. I had them cut to 14.5 and threaded 5/8x24 to maintain a little more metal around the muzzle. Pinned and welded the V7 Furion on both.

The 18" is the least accurate of the three shoots average 10 round groups of 3/4" at 100 yards. Mine all seem to like 77gn Matchkings loaded by every manufacturer that uses them in factory ammo and my 69 gn hand loads keep my bolt guns honest out to 500 yards.

I have had way better luck with V7 than Noveske
 
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#13
While my Criterion Hybrid doesn't shoot as small of groups as my Proof, it does have only a 1-8 with a thick reticle compared to the Proof's 5-22 MOAR-T. It will shoot under an inch for 5 at 100 so I am not unhappy.

Someone else mentioned the Criterion barrels behave and that is my opinion too. I have never run a skinny barrel so can't offer any opinion on the CORE but I won't hesitate to buy another Criterion.

My main reason for the Criterion Hybrid was because I always wanted to try one due to reputation and because you can get a 16" RLGS which mine is. If I wanted a pencil barrel due to mental deficiency, I probably would get the CORE but you can't get a manly RLGS on it.

I have also had a pair of good shooting Odin barrels so they would be on my list if I were undecided.
 
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#14
I wholeheartedly recommend Criterion. I’ve got a good buddy that is just very cheap. When I built him his first AR I gave him a Faxon gunner that I had on for a week before my Criterion arrived. My Hybrid shoots incredibly a couple years later meanwhile his groups are definitely opening up. He shoots ALOT. I will probably end up buying the Criterion Core for him for his birthday and installing it. They make a fantastic run and gun or high use barrel. Mine shoots 0.8 MOA with 77 grain handloads.
 
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