Accuracy Evaluation of a Bravo Company 14.5” Barrel
The focus of this article is the cold hammer forged (BFH) version of Bravo Company’s 14.5” barrel with a mid-length gas system. As can be seen in the pic above, this barrel has a government profile. This is a chrome-lined, NATO chambered barrel with a 1:7” twist. Bravo Company states that these barrels have been high-pressure/magnetic particle tested according to the current mil-spec.
I conducted an accuracy (technically, precision) evaluation of the Bravo Company 14.5” BFH mid-length barrel following my usual protocol. This accuracy evaluation used statistically significant shot-group sizes and every single shot in a fired group was included in the measurements. There was absolutely no use of any Group Reduction Techniques (e.g. fliers, target movement, Butterfly Shots).
The shooting set-up will be described in detail below. As many of the significant variables as was practicable were controlled for. Pictures of shot-groups are posted for documentation.
All shooting was conducted from a concrete bench-rest from a distance of 100 yards (confirmed with a laser rangefinder.) The Bravo Company 14.5” barrel used in this evaluation was free-floated during testing using a Daniel Defense Omega free-float railed handguard. The free-float handguard of the rifle rested in a Sinclair Windage Benchrest, while the stock of the rifle rested in a Protektor bunny-ear rear bag. Sighting was accomplished via a Leupold VARI-X III set at 25X magnification and adjusted to be parallax-free at 100 yards. A mirage shade was attached to the objective-bell of the scope. Wind conditions on the shooting range were continuously monitored using a Wind Probe. The set-up was very similar to that pictured below.
For this evaluation, I used one of my standard match-grade hand-loads topped with Sierra 55 grain BlitzKings. When fired from my Krieger barreled AR-15s, this load has produced ½ MOA 10-shot groups at 100 yards.
Three, 10-shot groups were fired in a row from the Bravo Company 14.5” barrel from a distance of 100 yards with the resulting extreme spreads:
1.58”
1.96”
1.50”
for an average 10-shot group extreme spread of 1.68”. The three, 10-shot groups were over-layed on each other using RSI Shooting Lab to form a 30-shot composite group. The mean radius of the 30-shot composite group was 0.49”
The smallest 10-shot group . . .
The 30-shot composite group . . .
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Some additional data for comparison. (All barrels were free-floated during testing.)
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