Hey guys, I’m looking to make a 3rd rifle in an SPR configuration. I’ve been looking at barrels in the 18 to 20" department and have more or less settled on the BCM SPR as it seems to be a great bang for your buck. Anyone have any thoughts on these things before I make the purchase? I put the link below for the barrel.
http://www.bravocompanyusa.com/BCM-18-SPR-SS410-Barrel-with-Rifle-Length-Gas-p/bcm-recbrl%2018ss.htm
Awesome barrels, gotta wait till there back in stock though. My next AR will have a BCM SS410 barrel guaranteed.
Well, BCM has a solid reputation, and you can’t go wrong purchasing one of their products. I have one of their 18" SPR Mk12 Mod 0 uppers (this one), but I have not had enough time behind the trigger to give a realistic report of its performance.
I was wondering, how far do you plan on shooting?
Additionally, I’d take a moment and read the following threads, maybe they can be of some use to you:
https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=88665
Steady,
thanks for the reply! I’ll read those tomorrow evening. Presently I am looking for a spr/ranch rifle hybrid. Last month i ended up in a situation where there were 5 coyotes eating one of my calves at about 300 yards. I lacked the right equipment for the job and only got 2 of them. My 2 current ranch rifles are a gorgeous sako vixen 223 bolt gun which regularly shoots .5 moa and a custom AR I built 2 years ago on 14 inch barrel. As much as i love the sako, it’s a bolt gun and lacks the rapid fire that the colt has, however, I made poor decisions on the build and I’m lucky if I can get 4moa with it. So the dream is a balance of hard core accuracy and rapid fire capability, maybe a little tacticool factor as well to appease my inner mall ninja har har.
At the moment I have everything for the build but a barrel.
Upper:
Larue Stealth upper
Larue BCG
Troy industries alpha rail
PRI frontsight/gasblock combo
ARMS inc low pro precision rear sight
Surefire 215a flash hider
Harris bipod
Lower
Larue stealth lower
A2 stock
Timney trigger group
Magpul Moe grip
Here are some more barrels that I am looking at as well. I’m no sniper or expert shot so it doesn’t really seem realistic to justify a 450 dollar barrel when a 260/300 will do though…
http://www.whiteoakarmament.com/xcart/product.php?productid=17518&cat=250&page=2
http://www.centurionarms.net/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=139
http://www.bravocompanyusa.com/BCM-18-SPR-SS410-Barrel-with-Rifle-Length-Gas-p/bcm-recbrl%2018ss.htm
Any of those will serve you well…
-Rainman
Out of the choices listed, I’d personally would be looking at either the Noveske or Centurion. When it comes to stainless barrels, Noveske definitely is known for quality. I’m not saying BCM isn’t good, but perhaps stainless barrels aren’t their main focus.
I subscribe to the “buy once, cry once” philosophy, and if I had to purchase my SPR upper again, I would have gone with a Noveske barrel. And even that choice would be decided by random drawing if the options were Centurion, Noveske, and WOA. You won’t go wrong with any of them, long story short.
The BCM barrels are very high quality, especially for the money. You can’t go wrong with any of those choices, but the BCM is a great barrel and if you are on a budget it is a good choice in place of the more expensive barrels.
Call Kevin O’Neill at High Caliber Sales (KJO on the forums) and talk to him about the Mk12 barrels he has. While the BCM barrels are certainly excellent barrels, they’re not on the same level as the Mk12 ones.
You can find his number on his website, highcalibersales.com
Last time I talked to him he had a few in stock right now.
This mean speaks the truth. Those barrels shoot lazer beams and Kevin is an amazing person.
I have a couple of the 410SS barrels. I shot one in a Magpul SPR course and it did very well.
Still – I’d be interested to know what make the mk12 barrels so much better.
They’re sourced from Douglas, the general specs are here at the top of the page.
On hypothetical paper they might not seem like fried gold, but in actual use they far surpass just about anything else available for an AR.
Right – I’m familiar with highcalibersales.com and that page. I’m trying to understand what makes them so much better than any other 1:7 twist 18" stainless steel barrel.
I’m not saying it isn’t better – clearly there is something subtle that sets them apart.
Is it the chamber? Crown? Rifling? etc.
Honestly you’d have to call and ask, I’m going to refrain from offering conjecture. I do know for a fact is that they shoot better than other barrels. Whether the Mk262 specific chamber, a special rifling profile, the crown used, the barrel profile, or magical fairies does it, I couldn’t tell you. I’ll ask Kevin when he gets in touch to ship my upper, perhaps he or Alan can give specifics.
I have that same barrel, except mine is ion bonded.
It’s more accurate than I could ever be.
Just had 3 BCM SS410 barrels melonited by H&M metal processing, all three are shooting 1/2 MOA with 75gr and 77gr MATCH ammo, I’m not so sure a Mk12 barrel is better than these.
I had mine ionbonded by club custom guns and I agree – it is very very accurate. This is why I’d like to get info on what makes the douglas barrels so much better.
Robb, can you talk a little bit about doing this process on brand new VS. “broken in” barrels? I don’t know about you but I tend to see best accuracy begin at around 500 rounds, give or take, out of SS barrels. When the accuracy starts to drop off is harder to predict and obviously is dependent on how the rounds are expended. So maybe shooting the barrels a bit before sending them off to be nitrided is a good idea? Are there any special considerations that you know of, IE, thoroughly de-coppering the bore? Any insight you have into this would be appreciated.
Also, have you seen an increase in corrosion with the nitrided Stainless? As far as I know, nitrided SS barrels are harder and more resistant to throat erosion, but are more prone to corrosion. Is this true in theory, and if so, has it been relevant in practice?
I’m debating experimenting with this, but I’m wondering if I shouldn’t just get a regular chrome-moly match barrel and have it done rather than do the Stainless.
Thanks.
I shot 120 rounds through my 18" SS410, 2500 rounds through one 16" SS410 and about 1200 rounds through the other SS410 before having them melonited. I was warned that the barrels should have a little wear on them before meloniting other wise if there was some imperfections in the barrel and it wasn’t shot-in a bit the accuracy may suffer for a very long time. It also will verify that the barrel was accurate before the treatment.
I cleaned the barrels with Wipe-Out Patch-Out for four days (making sure i got all the copper out) before sending them to be melonited. Which reminds be I need to buy more.
My BCM 20" Gov Profile just printed 1.5" at 100yds with a 4X32 ACOG! (10 shot group)