Screaming Deals on Armalite Barrels

[Jsp556]

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.

 

[JS8588]

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...

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.

 

[RUTGERS95]

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.

https://everygunpart.com/oem/armalite-ar15-16in-barrel-blem-15101640-armalite-parts-1jlyrs-k1kh-00.html

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.

how is the hbar barrel? any details?

 

[Rapidaffliction]

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.

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.

 

[JS8588]

how is the hbar barrel? any details?

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.

 

[db2000]

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.

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.

 

[JS8588]

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.

Tactical Kinetics barrels seem to be 4150. The AIM Barrels are 416r. FWIW.

 

[Rapidaffliction]

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.

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...

 

[Rapidaffliction]

Tactical Kinetics barrels seem to be 4150. The AIM Barrels are 416r. FWIW.

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.

 

[Rapidaffliction]

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.

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.

 

[GhostFace]

Choot it just choot it....


Then decide if you like it or not.