I’m thinking about getting a lightweight Daniel Defense. I will primarily use it suppressed with a Surefire mini socom. Is the lightweight profile going to handle the weight well or will it heat up and cause poi shifts worse that a .gov profile? Also if anyone has a picture of a ddm4 LW barrel with any Surefire muzzle device I’m curious how it mates up to the thinner barrel.
Any other thoughts pro or con?
Here’s soom pictures for you. First is a bcm standard profile with a surefire socom flash hider and the last two are a dd lightweight 14.5 with socom brake. As far as poi shift I can’t tell you.
How much interface is that? Is the spacer and shims solidly sandwiched or too much overhang or not enough material on the barrel shoulder? Is this a concern?
The shims overhang the barrel shoulder slightly but not enough for concern. They’re solid I’m not worried about it. I’m on month eight of my suppressor wait hopefully ill be able to answer your other questions soon.
How thick is the LW barrel on the chamber side of the block? How does it compare with the .gov profile at that point? What diameter gas block is used? Specifically I want to know about daniel defense LW profile.
From my understanding (and I’m sure you can search this further) is the only difference in the lightweight profile is forward of the gas block. Meaning the government profile and lightweight are the same until the gas block. Then the government steps up the thickness. My dd lightweight barrel uses a .625 gas block( govt should be a .750). Haven’t had a chance to shoot it yet either (waiting on a rail) otherwise I could be of more help.
I use a DD 14.5" LW with an AAC M4-2000, occasionally a 762-SDN-6, and a 2-MOA Aimpoint. With those cans and sight I have to try very hard to notice any material shift in the POI no matter how hot it gets.
MikeN
I run a Gemtech Halo, which is a pretty heavy can, on a lightweight barrel. I don’t have any issues with shim overhang,etc… as I use a Smith Vortex which requires no shim for mounting. At first I ran it on a Standard A2 w/ a peel washer. As for issues, I had none with POI or anything else, even when introducing heavy rates of fire, mag dumps, etc… My barrel came from Model 1 Sales and you mention a DD barrel, so you should be just fine. Good luck in your endeavor.
WS6,
I can’t tell you how much of a POI shift you’ll get with a can on the end but I can give you some results I had when I did a test for POI shift on my DD 14.5 CHF LW. I keep meaning to start a thread on this or just add to Trident’s thread about said barrel but just can’t get the time to do it.
Distance was 100 yards. Shooting from the prone with a Harris. Rifle has a Geissele SD-C and a Leupold VX-6. Was shooting Hornady 55g V-Max and the barrel is free floated. With that said I was able to get a 10 round group 1.1"…and yes I have pics. 
Started off cold bore with that group at about 65°. Next I did a 30 round mag dump and the laser thermometer read 261° at the gas block and a little cooler just forward of the barrel nut.
Interestingly and contrary to what many think, my second group after the mag dump did not open up. I shot another 10 round group at 1.1". Well technically a 9 shot group. I called one of the shots. Anyway the group didn’t open but the POI shifted about one inch down and right. Or an inch shift towards the 4 o’clock position. Now this is conjecture but I’d imagine you’d get an even bigger shift with a can on it. Not sure if this helps much but these were my findings.
-Jax
Very informative! Thanks!
You’re welcome.
-Jax
…and this is why I only have one LW barreled rifle. Though my test was nowhere near as scientific as Jax’s, I’ve experienced the same thing. While shooting on my buddy’s deer lease, I could easily pop beer bottle caps at 25 yards or so with my cold DDM4V1LW and irons. So we decide to try to cut down a rotting elm tree by shooting it (yes, I know). I dumped 3 mags in about 2 minutes into the tree. I loaded my next mag and couldn’t hit those same bottle caps for the life of me. The POI had shifted lower by at least an 3/4" at only 25 yards. I only buy govt. profile barrels now.
I hope to be trying this out soon with a 14.5 DD CHF barrel. Suppressor should be here in about 2-3 months or so. I will be using the lightweight barrel only because this upper will be shot probably 95% of the time suppressed.
When your suppressor stamp comes back, please do follow up. I’m waiting on a Surefire SOCOM 556RC, currently. I have a 14.5" DD CHF mid-length that currently wears a BCE 1.5. If it doesn’t get a crazy POI shift with the suppressor, I will change out the muzzle device in favor of a Surefire so that I can mount the suppressor should I choose to. If it gets crazy shifts, I won’t waste my time and money switching it out. Thanks!
The only reason we went to anything heavier than a Pencil Barrel is because your average Grunt will use his rifle for all kinds of stuff he isn’t supposed to. The barrel becomes a wedge, a seat, even a shovel at times. For everyone else a light weight barrel is optimal unless you’re one of those guys obsessed with punching perfect holes in paper. Most of you have 16in. rifles. It’s a 250 meter platform pragmatically and a pencil barrel is just fine and dandy for that. If you can get all your shots into a head sized target, then what else matters?
YGTBSM, right?
Where are you getting this stuff?
