AR Barrel Primer

The barrel is the weapon

Get the barrel right and everything else follows. The barrel, in many ways, is the weapon. Get it even slightly wrong and you’ll never be happy with the weapon. Don’t ask me how I know this.

In this article, we’ll work through selecting a barrel for your AR build. First is a listing of key choices you’ll have to make. Beyond this list of choices, you are in expert territory and probably don’t need this article to help you.

Many of the choices are “contained” within a barrel selection from a manufacturer. That means you select the decision criteria that matter to you. Then you look for a barrel that satisfies most or all of those criteria.