Screaming Deals on Armalite Barrels

#51
I like nitride barrels and have plenty of them from Criterion, Lothar Walther, AR15Performance, Armalite, and Rainier. They all shoot good to great. I know the Rainier, LW, and ARP barrels weren’t lapped, and the Armalite 308 barrels descriptions are sketchy. The Criterion’s are lapped and don’t shoot any better than the rest.

I’d finish the build, shoot a couple hundred rounds through it, then decide if it met my accuracy requirements.
 
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#52
Rapidaffliction said:
I believe these to be made by Tactical Kinetics... I took bought one... I have it mounted in a SOLGW upper, paired with a SOLGW lower, and all other parts being FCD... I was excited about it at first... But now I'm seriously second guessing my choices... What was I thinking... Right now the barrel is mounted & torqued... I haven't put the gas block/tube yet or handguard ... I'm wondering if I should continue, or take the loss; and remove the barrel.... I don't know... I'm just not getting the warm and fuzzy off of this barrel now....

I've attached what the company sent me... And it appears that they do not lap these barrels before nitriding...
Click to expand...
These are sub $100 barrels. If they shoot 2 MOA or better, you're beating mil standard M4s. Build it, shoot it, get good with it.
 
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#53
JS8588 said:
Do I have any idea if these are any good? No, no I do not. Feel free to discuss in the comments. Nevertheless, I thought I'd share these deals with the Hide.

AIM Surplus has Armalite branded 16 inch Nitrided 416r Stainless barrels on sale for $89.99. https://aimsurplus.com/products/armalite-16in-223556-mid-length-ar15-barrel-12x28

1:7 Twist, 556 Chamber, Midlength gas. Came to $104.71 shipped for me.

While researching these for any information (I found none), I stumbled across even cheaper Armalite OEM barrels.

(Presumably) 4150 (listed as CRMO) 1:8 twist, 223 Wylde, Carbine Gas HBARs for...$50.

Came to $75 shipped. I still ordered one. I have no idea if they're chrome-lined, nitrided, or neither.

I have no earthly idea what I'm going to do with them, but for the price, I couldn't pass it up.
Click to expand...
how is the hbar barrel? any details?
 
#54
Trigger Monkey said:
Why do you believe these are made by TK? Why do you think they don’t lap them before nitriding them?

I read the sell sheet but there wasn’t anything on it that would make me pause for concern.
Click to expand...
Well I followed a lead... A review on AIM said the guy thought that they were TK... So I emailed TK... I gave them a general description of the barrel and he said that it sounded like their such and such barrel .. it just so happened that that model number is the same model number as the item number of the barrel on AIM... Plus if you go to TK website, their print/text on other barrels; it's just like what is on the Armalite barrel, and gold in color... But it looks to be imprinted the same... I know it's not lapped, because he said that they did not lap their barrels... Which, to me; it seems strange to nitride a barrel without doing something form of lapping... Even if it's just some type of hydro lap..

You know, I don't want to make anyone second guess themselves, and I don't want to put out negative thoughts.. I guess one mass barrel manufacturer is the same as another... It's just that I've invested so much into this rifle... I'm second-guessing the barrel... I never actually intended to build this particular rifle with this barrel. In fact I just bought it for the same reason everyone else did... It seemed like a good deal. All the parts I put on this rifle, I actually had intended for a Colt... But specialized armament was taking so long, I just started building a different rifle... But I have five different builds going on right now, so like I say, I'm not going to go off and buy another $400 barrel... I guess I'm "stuck" with this one... It's funny, I was feeling absolutely great about this barrel until less than 24 hours ago... And then somehow, I started feeling different... Then I started looking around I found all this.
 

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#56
Rapidaffliction said:
Well I followed a lead... A review on AIM said the guy thought that they were TK... So I emailed TK... I gave them a general description of the barrel and he said that it sounded like their such and such barrel .. it just so happened that that model number is the same model number as the item number of the barrel on AIM... Plus if you go to TK website, their print/text on other barrels; it's just like what is on the Armalite barrel, and gold in color... But it looks to be imprinted the same... I know it's not lapped, because he said that they did not lap their barrels... Which, to me; it seems strange to nitride a barrel without doing something form of lapping... Even if it's just some type of hydro lap..

You know, I don't want to make anyone second guess themselves, and I don't want to put out negative thoughts.. I guess one mass barrel manufacturer is the same as another... It's just that I've invested so much into this rifle... I'm second-guessing the barrel... I never actually intended to build this particular rifle with this barrel. In fact I just bought it for the same reason everyone else did... It seemed like a good deal. All the parts I put on this rifle, I actually had intended for a Colt... But specialized armament was taking so long, I just started building a different rifle... But I have five different builds going on right now, so like I say, I'm not going to go off and buy another $400 barrel... I guess I'm "stuck" with this one... It's funny, I was feeling absolutely great about this barrel until less than 24 hours ago... And then somehow, I started feeling different... Then I started looking around I found all this.
Click to expand...
WTF would you be using a discounted barrel on a build you put so much stock in? That should be your first question to yourself.
 
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#57
Rapidaffliction said:
Well I followed a lead... A review on AIM said the guy thought that they were TK... So I emailed TK... I gave them a general description of the barrel and he said that it sounded like their such and such barrel .. it just so happened that that model number is the same model number as the item number of the barrel on AIM... Plus if you go to TK website, their print/text on other barrels; it's just like what is on the Armalite barrel, and gold in color... But it looks to be imprinted the same... I know it's not lapped, because he said that they did not lap their barrels... Which, to me; it seems strange to nitride a barrel without doing something form of lapping... Even if it's just some type of hydro lap..

You know, I don't want to make anyone second guess themselves, and I don't want to put out negative thoughts.. I guess one mass barrel manufacturer is the same as another... It's just that I've invested so much into this rifle... I'm second-guessing the barrel... I never actually intended to build this particular rifle with this barrel. In fact I just bought it for the same reason everyone else did... It seemed like a good deal. All the parts I put on this rifle, I actually had intended for a Colt... But specialized armament was taking so long, I just started building a different rifle... But I have five different builds going on right now, so like I say, I'm not going to go off and buy another $400 barrel... I guess I'm "stuck" with this one... It's funny, I was feeling absolutely great about this barrel until less than 24 hours ago... And then somehow, I started feeling different... Then I started looking around I found all this.
Click to expand...
Tactical Kinetics barrels seem to be 4150. The AIM Barrels are 416r. FWIW.
 
#58
db2000 said:
WTF would you be using a discounted barrel on a build you put so much stock in? That should be your first question to yourself.
Click to expand...
Well, ArmaLite has been having a lot of different fire sales here and there lately.... I guess I thought it was, but overstock type deal, and like I said really just bought the barrel to have, and ended up using it on this... I've been reading excellent accuracy reports on their M15 tac series, and several different reports saying that ArmaLite was making barrels in house now... So. That's why... It wasn't planned to use it, I just ended up using it...
 
#59
JS8588 said:
Tactical Kinetics barrels seem to be 4150. The AIM Barrels are 416r. FWIW.
Click to expand...
Well maybe it's a coincidence that the model number on Aims website is XTK2217... And that the TK rep stated in response to the general description that, "sounds like you're talking about our tk2217... They do have one stainless barrel that I saw.. it didn't have the same specs though... But there again you know I guess I'm talking semantics... they're just like any other job shop I guess... I guess they're just as capable as anyone else... I guess the thing is bothering me is the fact that it's not lapped before nitriding ... Then I thought that maybe they made the barrel, sent it to ArmaLite, and then ArmaLite finished it,. By laughing and sending to nitride... Thing that I read a lot of things lately talking about the fact that ArmaLite triple laps all of their stainless barrels... Who knows. I'll try it.
 
#60
JS8588 said:
Currently sitting in the parts drawer. Nitrided as best I can tell. Neither it nor the barrel from AIM Surplus were dimpled for gas block installation, so I'll be sending them off to ADCO before building them out. May or may not get them DLC coated too.
Click to expand...
I use the SLR jig... It does pretty good for dimple work... I don't have a pinning though... I have been kind of interested in getting one.
 
#62
JS8588 said:
Currently sitting in the parts drawer. Nitrided as best I can tell. Neither it nor the barrel from AIM Surplus were dimpled for gas block installation, so I'll be sending them off to ADCO before building them out. May or may not get them DLC coated too.
Click to expand...

You can dimple it yourself it's not hard (having removed a couple stripped gas blocks I'm not sure it's necessary either tbh)

These barrels are already nitrided right so why DLC coat it????

Anyways barrels are made by OEM companies very few firearm manufacturers actually make their own they'll farm it out to another company
 
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#63
BCP said:
You can dimple it yourself it's not hard (having removed a couple stripped gas blocks I'm not sure it's necessary either tbh)

These barrels are already nitrided right so why DLC coat it????

Anyways barrels are made by OEM companies very few firearm manufacturers actually make their own they'll farm it out to another company
Click to expand...
I don't trust myself to install a forward assist with a roll pin let alone drill a dimple into a barrel.

Why get it DLC coated? Because the spot of bare metal where the barrel is dimpled will drive my guntism nuts.
 
#65
BCP said:
You can dimple it yourself it's not hard (having removed a couple stripped gas blocks I'm not sure it's necessary either tbh)

These barrels are already nitrided right so why DLC coat it????

Anyways barrels are made by OEM companies very few firearm manufacturers actually make their own they'll farm it out to another company
Click to expand...
You know I'll tell you what's the gun to kind of make me nervous about the barrel... Besides things that are retail, ArmaLite sells all of their old stock or unneeded stock through every gun part dot com.... Yet, aim had this... So now I've begun questioning myself, worthy barrels rejected by ArmaLite? And then tk had to make some kind of money off of them, so they sold them to aim... Whether it could be maybe the gasport was too big or too small for their need, or something was actually wrong with it... Unfortunately I do not have a borescope... At least not one that will fit in there....

I did try to find out before I even bought the barrel, why it was that aim had them in the first place... How they came upon them... But ... Whatever... That one review on AIM said the guy got 1.36 from a 10 shot group... I think that's pretty good I guess...
 
#66
Rapidaffliction said:
You know I'll tell you what's the gun to kind of make me nervous about the barrel... Besides things that are retail, ArmaLite sells all of their old stock or unneeded stock through every gun part dot com.... Yet, aim had this... So now I've begun questioning myself, worthy barrels rejected by ArmaLite? And then tk had to make some kind of money off of them, so they sold them to aim... Whether it could be maybe the gasport was too big or too small for their need, or something was actually wrong with it... Unfortunately I do not have a borescope... At least not one that will fit in there....

I did try to find out before I even bought the barrel, why it was that aim had them in the first place... How they came upon them... But ... Whatever... That one review on AIM said the guy got 1.36 from a 10 shot group... I think that's pretty good I guess...
Click to expand...
Are you actually poor? Like, you have $200 in your combined savings/checking?

Or are you just a cheap bastard? Someone that just feels poor if you don’t contribute $X to your 401k every month?

Poor —> install barrel and shoot

Cheap bastard —> unclench anus and buy an actual known quantity barrel which is probably going to be a bunch more money. Otherwise you’ll whinge privately (and publicly) for the rest of your days.

I mean, you can uninstall the thing later. It’s not welded in there?

Edit: I see the barrel is already installed but you haven’t finished putting other parts on it. Wtf. The gun isn’t going to explode with that barrel. What do you have to lose? A bit of time and perhaps a low amount a cash? C’mon man.

Do you look at ice on the sidewalk and freeze up with all of the potential route choices?
 
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#69
Rapidaffliction said:
You know I'll tell you what's the gun to kind of make me nervous about the barrel... Besides things that are retail, ArmaLite sells all of their old stock or unneeded stock through every gun part dot com.... Yet, aim had this... So now I've begun questioning myself, worthy barrels rejected by ArmaLite? And then tk had to make some kind of money off of them, so they sold them to aim... Whether it could be maybe the gasport was too big or too small for their need, or something was actually wrong with it... Unfortunately I do not have a borescope... At least not one that will fit in there....

I did try to find out before I even bought the barrel, why it was that aim had them in the first place... How they came upon them... But ... Whatever... That one review on AIM said the guy got 1.36 from a 10 shot group... I think that's pretty good I guess...
Click to expand...
Stop overthinking and shoot the damn thing. I get it. I have pretty bad autism when it comes to gun stuff. You paid basically nothing for it. Go shoot.
 
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#71
Yeah @Rapidaffliction I’m not trying to be a dick. There are several on this forum that are waaaay better at that than I lol

Most all have been there in Waffleland. Me included.

Paper everywhere with notes, colored markers, Excel chaos, can’t sleep, staring off into space for 10min or longer at a time, butt hurts on the toilet ‘cause you’ve been there so long looking at your phone, 500 browser tabs open, etc.

Sometimes you just have to rip the bandage off, you know? Like a friend tells you to stfu with a smile on his face because he knows it’s good for you to make a decision & get moving.

Friendly Drill Sargent,
Carbon
 
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#72
carbonbased said:
Yeah @Rapidaffliction I’m not trying to be a dick. There are several on this forum that are waaaay better at that than I lol

Most all have been there in Waffleland. Me included.

Paper everywhere with notes, colored markers, Excel chaos, can’t sleep, staring off into space for 10min or longer at a time, butt hurts on the toilet ‘cause you’ve been there so long looking at your phone, 500 browser tabs open, etc.

Sometimes you just have to rip the bandage off, you know? Like a friend tells you to stfu with a smile on his face because he knows it’s good for you to make a decision & get moving.

Friendly Drill Sargent,
Carbon
Click to expand...
Carbon, I was just messing.. of course there was truth to what you were saying. And the content is was I was more or less looking for. I've since bought a SOLGW spr barrel. and I'll replace the TK barrel with this new one. I don't know what I was thinking...
 
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#74
lash said:
FWIW, I bought a low end complete AR from Armalite years ago, called Eagle Arms. Whole rifle new was well under $500. I picked it up as a truck gun and it has been great. Chromed Armalite barrel shoots better than a few much more expensive barrels have. I wouldn’t trade it.
Click to expand...
The issue is not Armalite... Personally, I believe in Armalite. I know they get a bad rap from a lot of people... But they are at a time in their existence, where they're really trying to prove themselves... I've heard a lot of good things about their barrels... The thing I would like to know though, is why these barrels are not on Armalite rifles..

I believe these barrels were rejected for one reason or another. Orrr, Aim wouldn't have them. It may be nothing, or it may be that it was cosmetic... Maybe ArmaLite did not like the contour after all...

I do know this... I looked at mine with a borelight last night, it looks grainy... So I cleaned it.. it still looks grainy. But, I'll get around to using it on something...
 
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#75
Well, I decided over the weekend that I NEED a hard use 11.5. I was looking at criterion hybrids, but remembered this thread. I ordered an 11.5 Armalite HBar, parked and chrome lined, from EGP. $80 to my door.

I tend to be the "put it together and shoot it" sort, so I'll update soon. I'll find out whether I saved myself $200 or threw away $80. Lol.
 
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#76
I bought one of these barrels in January. I just got it put in an upper this weekend. I just went out and shot it on my lunch break. Thus far (20 rounds) it seems to be ok. I was able to get a 5 round group of about 5/8" at 100 using 69 gr Match Burners. My 55 grain burner rounds are coming in at about 1"-1.5". I chronoed the 1st 5 of the 69 grain rounds and it seems to shoot about 40fps faster than my BA barrels.
 
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#77
owtlaw said:
I bought one of these barrels in January. I just got it put in an upper this weekend. I just went out and shot it on my lunch break. Thus far (20 rounds) it seems to be ok. I was able to get a 5 round group of about 5/8" at 100 using 69 gr Match Burners. My 55 grain burner rounds are coming in at about 1"-1.5". I chronoed the 1st 5 of the 69 grain rounds and it seems to shoot about 40fps faster than my BA barrels.
Click to expand...
Well that's great. As usual, I'm sure I was making something out of nothing...something that would have been just fine... I'll probably use this for a binary lower...(That I haven't built yet.)
 
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#78
owtlaw said:
I bought one of these barrels in January. I just got it put in an upper this weekend. I just went out and shot it on my lunch break. Thus far (20 rounds) it seems to be ok. I was able to get a 5 round group of about 5/8" at 100 using 69 gr Match Burners. My 55 grain burner rounds are coming in at about 1"-1.5". I chronoed the 1st 5 of the 69 grain rounds and it seems to shoot about 40fps faster than my BA barrels.
Click to expand...
I think it may be because of the chrome lining. I have a 14.5 criterion chrome lined and am getting 3000 fps out of m193. I decided to put together a 16" and used a BA Hanson barrel. Exact same velocity. My criterion 12.5 gets me 2900 fps out of the same ammo.
 
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#79
Rapidaffliction said:
You know I'll tell you what's the gun to kind of make me nervous about the barrel... Besides things that are retail, ArmaLite sells all of their old stock or unneeded stock through every gun part dot com.... Yet, aim had this... So now I've begun questioning myself, worthy barrels rejected by ArmaLite? And then tk had to make some kind of money off of them, so they sold them to aim... Whether it could be maybe the gasport was too big or too small for their need, or something was actually wrong with it... Unfortunately I do not have a borescope... At least not one that will fit in there....

I did try to find out before I even bought the barrel, why it was that aim had them in the first place... How they came upon them... But ... Whatever... That one review on AIM said the guy got 1.36 from a 10 shot group... I think that's pretty good I guess...
Click to expand...

DSG used to sell Mega reciever sets, barrels, and BCG’s at smoking prices.

Just because they’re on sale doesn’t mean they’re junk.
 
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#80
Jsp556 said:
DSG used to sell Mega reciever sets, barrels, and BCG’s at smoking prices.

Just because they’re on sale doesn’t mean they’re junk.
Click to expand...
Absolutely... And that's what I thought I was on to... Can't tell you how many times I bought something for pennies on the dollar...that normally had a high sell price .... But like I said.... I believe that every gun part dot com has the exclusive on Armalite parts... As far as overstock, or surplus-type parts.... Basically all the non retailed parts... I really think these barrels were rejected by ArmaLite... Now, does that mean that they were rejected because of a flaw? Not necessarily... It could be that ArmaLite stipulated a .090 gas port, and got a .097 gas port, it could be that some of the "custom contours" didn't turn out custom enough...

Aside from that, there's lots of things that are really great, but sell for really cheap... Just because they're not on people's radar, or they're just not the flavor of the month... Like Tikka for example... How many rednecks have never heard of a Tikka...? a bunch. ....or Meopta... Etc...

When I first saw that barrel, bells went off, I just knew that it was going to be a great barrel, and that I had stumbled on some kind of fluke of a find...and that I would just get it for some type of use in the future...just to have... Then I kind of psyched myself up too positive, and decide to use it for an upper tier build... But I don't think I should have done that... Heck, I even bought an ArmaLite adjustable gas block off of EGP to go with it... but I ended up not feeling good about that, either. So anyway... I removed it today. And I have a SOLGW SPR barrel on the way... It's not quite what I was thinking of but... At least it fits the theme with the rest of the rifle... Being SOLGW receivers.

I would have been interested in trying Griffin Armaments HEDP barrel, as well... But I'll have to wait for quite some time before I can try that out.... I'm pretty close on four builds, and have started cataloging parts on a fifth build, an URGI clone....and I am tentatively planning another with left over parts... So, I get it...
 
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