I’ve been considering a lightweight barrel for some time, and I’m fairly deadset on purchasing one. The rifle it would be attached to would mostly be used for hunting, classes, and the range, and wouldn’t be used for rapid fire nor anything beyond 300m (I’ve got other ARs for those things). I think a lightweight barrel is perfect for my needs, other than one added variable: a suppressor.
The suppressor I’d be choosing would be either an AAC or Surefire mini. I’m trying to make a light, enjoyable rifle that’s easy to sling, so a mini from one of these brands was my first choice even before deciding on a lightweight barrel. From everything I’ve read, this has a double-bonus by decreasing the amount of weight put on the lightweight barrel, decreasing barrel droop.
I was wondering if you guys could help me with some other questions I had relating to this combination, though? For reference, I plan on running this gun suppressed 100% of the time (unless necessity demands otherwise), so POI shift doesn’t really bother me. It will be sighted in with the suppressor and hopefully stay that way.
Any anecdotal or objective evidence would be much appreciated.
14.7” or 16”? 14.7” seems like it would be better due to a shorter (and thus, stiffer) barrel, but I know it would be a bit harder on the suppressor. On top of that, I’d prefer 16” since I’m already used to the holds (all my other guns are 16”) and I like the flexibility of not having a pinned muzzle device, but the possible barrel droop worries me. Any insight on 14.7” vs. 16” for a LW barrel w/ suppressor?
Free floated or not? I wanted to throw an MOE handguard on here (don’t judge me!) because it’s light and, screw me, I like how it looks. However, I’ve also read that non-free-floated handguards like Magpul’s can help support the suppressed barrel as it gets hot and loses stiffness. Is there any truth to this?
LW barrels, especially with suppressors, have a reputation for not being able to be run hard due to heat build-up. Could someone define “hard” for me? Is hard a 30-round mag dump? 100 rounds straight? 15 rounds shot at 2 second intervals? Hard is so subjective and I was hoping someone might have some quantifiable criteria for what a LW barrel can really take before its groups open up?
Thanks, M4C. I’ve got 2 ARs and this will be my third, and as you can tell, I’ve got no experience with barrels of the LW variety. Any help you can provide would be much appreciated.
An AAC Mini4 weighs 13.5 oz and is 5.25 inches long and adds about 3 inches to the OAL of the rifle.
Assuming the CG of the suppressor is in it’s middle, that would put it’s CG approximately an inch ahead of the muzzle when mounted. On a 16 inch rifle, that would be 17" which means it has 14.3 in/lbs of arm on the barrel.
With a 14.7" barrel the arm is 13.2. Not much arm and not much difference between the two
(Equations: 17x13.5=229.5 in/ounces. Divide 229.5 by 16 to get 14.3 in/lbs after rounding. Use the same equation for the 14.7" barrel by substituting 15.7)
Do people have problems with a GOV contour and silencers? Because GOV contour is the same as lightweight under the handguards. In other words, don’t worry about a lightweight barrel.
I think do find a 14.5" with pinned muzzle device noticeably less muzzle heavy with a silencer on the end than a 16", but it’s not huge. If you are not sure what you want to do with the handguard then 16" sounds like the clear choice.
Thanks a bunch, Todd. This is all making me feel a lot better about my plans.
Any input on free float versus not? In the realm of a lightweight, suppressed barrel, that is. Still trying to figure out if the whole “non-free-floated handguards help support pencil barrels when they get hot” thing is true or rubbish. Feels like rubbish, but hey, I’d love to be wrong.
My wife is running a lightweight BCM 16" with an AAC Ranger 2. We haven’t had any issues in the last two 3gun matches she’s shot with it nor the 300 round rapid fire session we did.
This configuration was the result of a project to build the least muzzle-heavy configuration, intending to run it suppressed most or all of the time, and could be run reasonably hard. (i.e. didn’t use any titanium for the can)
If you’re planning to run suppressed 100% of the time, I’d recommend considering a thread-on Ranger 2 over the Mini4. It’ll be 2oz lighter, 3-4dB quieter, a little cheaper, and you’d only be giving up the Quick Attach. I haven’t found a lighter or shorter can that is both under 140dB and doesn’t use titanium.
If you want the lightest, least muzzle-heavy configuration possible, you’ll want to look at free float rails along with your pencil barrel. They can be lighter than plastic handguards if you select the right rail. The lightest ones I know of off hand are the Troy Alpha rails.
Some additional things to consider:
When my wife and I were planning out this rifle configuration, we found we had some decisions to make: Do we want adjustable gas? We did. This was going to be tricky for a lightweight barrel and our options were pretty much Spike’s Tactical, getting a gunsmith to rig up a switchblock to work, since Noveske doesn’t seem to offer one for use with pencil barrels, or a Innovative Arms WAR upper.
How were we going to handle iron sights? We decided we wanted to keep the stock iron sight rather than mount one on the free float handguard (no potential POA change issues when putting pressure on the handguard). This left the Innovative Arms WAR upper as the only gas adjustment option for a lightweight barrel that didn’t require mounting a front iron sight on the handguard. It also allowed us to put off the freefloat rail until next discretionary spending cycle.
Here’s a pic at a match before the WAR upper came in.
That is almost the EXACT type of rig I’m looking to put together. Thank you so much for your advice and insight, especially considering there’s already a proof-of-concept (your wife’s rifle) in existence. This is great.
And to be honest, I always ignored the Ranger line of AAC products. I thought that, because they were cheaper, they were made of worse materials and were of a lesser quality. I’m guessing that’s not the case, and it’s because the Ranger line lacks the quick detach system (which doesn’t bother me in the least)?
Ahhhh, so happy. Definitely going to pick up a Ranger, which saves me a ton of money too. Thank you so much.
The Ranger 2 is basically an M4-1000 with just a bit less internal volume and without the quick detach- there’s an extra (on average) 4oz of weight for the flash hider mount that isn’t mentioned in the stats for a QA suppressor. You pay a price in weight and length to have the quick attach.
It’s a little older tech on the baffles, but my Ranger 2 sounds indistinguishable from my buddy’s Surefire 556-212 on a 16" AR and my other friend’s AAC 762SDN on his 10.5" AR. Nice thick looking inconel blast baffle, too.
The Ranger 3 is going to be coming out at some point in the future, but it’s delayed. I’ve got one on order, but I’m so pleased with my current Ranger 2 I’m tempted to give up on the 3 and just grab another 2. The 3 will have the baffle stack from the current M4-2000 and will have wrench flats.
I recommend picking up a good strap wrench (nylon or seatbelt strap type, not the rubber strap type) and you’ll want to buy a bottle of Rocksett. Clean the threads with alcohol, apply plenty of Rocksett, install the suppressor, torque it with the strap wrench, let it set up for about 12 hours, and you’re good. When it’s time to punch the bore, just use the strap wrench to break the rocksett, remove the can, clean, and reinstall as mentioned above. I plan to do this every 3 months and whenever the rifle gets rained on.
I’m pretty pleased with the WAR upper too so far. Easy install if you have the tools, moving part is well designed and looks rugged, simple design, and it does reduce the velocity of the carrier group on the suppressed setting. Only worries are the proprietary gas tube and the fact that I had to unpin and slip the front sight forward to install it.
ETA: Clarification to my first post above: We did have ONE issue with the Ranger 2. The first time we dumped some mags through it to get it hot, it came lose about half a turn. It turns out I hadn’t applied the Rocksett correctly and there was barely any on the threads. You want to get it from the muzzle end of the threads all the way to the shoulder. Doesn’t hurt to just coat all the threads, either. I also believe I failed to sufficiently torque the can on. It’s a new toy and I was probably being too ginger with it, not wanting to prematurely wear the threads.
