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Ballistic advantage Hanson Barrels

O

owtlaw

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Full Member
Minuteman
Feb 27, 2013
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#1
I have been eyeing these for a while now. Supposedly they are designed to shoot longer strings of fire without deviating too much from the heat. What is the consensus on these barrels? I am thinking this would make a good barrel for multigun and for black rifle match's.
 
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#3
TonyTheTiger said:
Is there supposed to be a link here?
Regardless, you won't find many glowing BA reviews here. If you've already decided you're getting one and are searching for some confirmation bias this won't go well.
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I haven't decided on anything yet. Mostly just curiosity. I've also been looking at the Odin Works barrels as well. Maybe that would be the better choice.
 
#4
owtlaw said:
I have been eyeing these for a while now. Supposedly they are designed to shoot longer strings of fire without deviating too much from the heat. What is the consensus on these barrels? I am thinking this would make a good barrel for multigun and for black rifle match's.
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What is the intended purpose for the rifle? What caliber? Length?

Ballistic Advantage does not have the greatest of reputations, from my experience/reviews I have read. No direct experience though...
 
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#10
owtlaw said:
? I am thinking this would make a good barrel for multigun and for black rifle match's.
Click to expand...
Funny thing about that, the accuracy required of a rifle varies significantly from one multigun match to the next. You can have a bay stage match easily won with a 3 moa rifle, then travel to a match in the southwest that requires a legit 1 moa capable rifle to do well. And plenty of match types in between. I wouldn't intentionally build a 3 moa rifle, but I also wouldn't go all out on a custom Bartlein either, considering how fast multigun can kill a barrel.
 
#12
The way I look at Ballistic Advantage is how their business-to-business clients use them:

Mass produced carbines and rifles to meet demand for higher volume sales, lower price point units.

Somebody has to fill that space, so the expectation of accuracy or precision with them is misplaced.

This isn’t saying they are garbage or gold, just pointing out the basic reality of supply and demand, and how that affects quality.
 
#13
LRRPF52 said:
The way I look at Ballistic Advantage is how their business-to-business clients use them:

Mass produced carbines and rifles to meet demand for higher volume sales, lower price point units.

Somebody has to fill that space, so the expectation of accuracy or precision with them is misplaced.

This isn’t saying they are garbage or gold, just pointing out the basic reality of supply and demand, and how that affects quality.
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Vast majority of barrels are mass production. Green Mountain produces approx 15,000 per month and there's also Wilson, ER Shaw, Bulldog, Mossberg OEMs too. Ballistic Advantage deserves credit they were able to get into that market and do really well, also they were among the first to offer an accuracy guarantee of 1MOA. It was all started by one guy in his garage sort of thing and now they have a hundred or more employees and I think a hammer forging machine too.
 
#14
I've used a bunch of BA barrels. My main problem with them is the inconsistency. Some were over gassed, some undergassed, some pretty darned accurate, some not so much.

If you're considering them because of price, maybe consider rosco barrels as well. After having been down this road, I just watch for sales and stick with the likes of Criterion and Geissele for hard use barrels that shoot better than chromelined should.

For reasonably priced precision barrels, I’ve had good luck with white oak.

Oddly, my last barrel find (due to a thread here) is an Armalite chromelined barrel that I got for $80 shipped that shoots about as well as any of my Criterions do.
 
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#17
Watch_this71 said:
My LGS put my 18 inch Hanson MATCH barrel in a lathe and it looked like a piece of spaghetti as it turned.

I scrapped thst barrel and went with a SOLGW and haven't had one issue with it in over a year.
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Does anyone else want to tell him, or should I?
 
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#18
mudholestomper said:
Does anyone else want to tell him, or should I?
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do-it.gif
 
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#19
Have 2 12.5 ba hanson barrels in 5.56. Both shoot fine for their purpose. They are both easily 1 inch or a little less at 50 yards with a red dot, bulk loading 62g fusion and varget load with mixed brass.

They aren't precision barrels, but there was a guy selling on gunbroker for about 100 each to my door. These 2 do their job well enough for me
 
#21
Watch_this71 said:
My LGS put my 18 inch Hanson MATCH barrel in a lathe and it looked like a piece of spaghetti as it turned.

I scrapped thst barrel and went with a SOLGW and haven't had one issue with it in over a year.
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Doesn’t BA make solgw barrels? Lol

Good job getting rid of that piece of shit BA barrel and replacing it with another piece of shit BA barrel
 
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#25
SOLGW barrels may be made by BA, but they are not the same. Like everything else, they're made to meet a price point. SOLGW holds their barrels to tighter tolerances and QC.

I've used way more BA barrels than SOLGW barrels, but tbe sons barrels I have used posed no problems in neither accuracy nor gassing. If it wasn't for my preference for chromelined, I wouldn't have a problem with using the sons barrels.
 
#26
owtlaw said:
I have been eyeing these for a while now. Supposedly they are designed to shoot longer strings of fire without deviating too much from the heat. What is the consensus on these barrels? I am thinking this would make a good barrel for multigun and for black rifle match's.
Click to expand...
I just reread the original post. Man, it's funny how your mind can just go off on tangents.

I am big on this. How a barrel acts during long strings of fire. I know that as a barrel heats up, the groups are going to get bigger. What I can't live with is a wondering point of impact. This is why I don't shoot BA or Faxon any longer. I don't care that a hard use rig can put 3 rounds into a sub MOA group. What I do care about is that all of my rounds land on target, within reason.

For me, I consider reasonable to be within 2 MOA with decent ammunition for strings of fire over 20 rounds. It may be an arbitrary standard, but knowing that my rig will do it gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

My goto barrel is Criterion Hybrid. It's a meaty barrel, but not overly so. My favorite rig is a 12.5. It's handy and handles well. This rig will regularly put 3 rounds into a 2" dot over 11 successive targets. I see that as a composite of 33 rounds into 2" or less with transitions every 3 rounds.

I'm sure that there are other barrels out there that will do this, but I'm sticking to what works for me. I've never been able to accomplish this with a BA barrel.

I'll take a barrel that'll shoot 2 MOA no matter what over a barrel that will shoot sub MOA for 3 and then go to crap when it heats up.
 
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