I am trying to sort out my understanding of the BCM barrel offerings.
It appears they offer both a standard non-hammer forged (less expensive) 16" AR-15 barrel, as well as a hammer forged version (more expensive), both in the Government profile (no M203 cut).
In the M4 contour (has a M203 cut) BCM appears to only offer the non-hammer forged barrel.
In the Lightweight profile, it also appears they only offer a non-hammer forged version.
If my understanding is accurate I wonder why. If BCM is having some of its barrels hammer forged, why not all of them? The price difference is not huge. Or maybe they are planning in the future to have a hammer forged and non-hammer forged version of each barrel model. (?)
Just for comparison, it appears that in the Lightweight profile, Daniel Defense only offers the hammer forged version, for around 60 bucks more than BCM.
Also just for comparison, Colt offers a lightweight profile barrel which is not hammer forged for about $120 more than BCM, and Centurion offers a heavier lightweight profile barrel which is hammer forged for about $100 more than BCM. Meanwhile, all of Sabre’s barrels are button rifled.
So I can understand that a company would prefer one manufacturing method over the other, but the mix and match approach has me confused, especially when the price difference is not significant.
Please advise.