Proof Research Barrel Review and Range Report

[AustinTom]

I recently bought one of the 20" PR barrels from midway. Figured I'd do a little review, as I'm just back from the range shooting out for the first time. The barrel is nicely finished, having 4 lands and grooves. It's a 1:8 twist barrel, rifle length gas, stainless steel. It tapers from about 1" at the extension to .850 before the .750 gas block. It comes in nice packaging, and has a good manual. I believe it to have the SAAMI chamber, and it uses the .136" bolt face depth. It is a much heavier barrel than the 20" Faxon I had been using. I didn't think to weigh it before installing it ion the gun.

Be aware the Midway barrels are a different profile than the ones listed on Proof Research's website. Those have a .875 gas journal.

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Okay on to the range report. I brought three different kinds of ammo: Hornady Black 123 ELD-M factory loads, American Eagle 120 OTM factory loads, and some handloads with 8208xbr and Sierra 107 SMK's.

I fired a total of 66 rounds, using the AE 120's to break in the barrel per PR's specs.

Here are some accuracy results:

All groups fired at 100 yards, 5 shot groups.

AE 120's
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Hornady Black
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My handloads at 27.9 grains powder
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My handloads at 28.5 grains powder
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There were some other groups of handholds ranging from 2 moa to .8 moa but these two were the best.
I'll continue to update this thread as I shoot it more. I hope this information helps anyone who may be on the fence about getting one of these.

Austin

[Kswhitetails]

Whoosh. The sound of the investment just dissolved in the glorious golden glow of the results! Very nice groups. Congratulations.

[centerfire]

Nice review. Did you happen to measure the comparator length with the ELDM? I'm wondering if all of the Proof barrels have a throat length close to magazine length?

[Blakeh1]

[AustinTom]

Here are some groups with the Faxon. All of these are with the factory Hornady black ammo. The best I ever got was just under an inch five shot. It shot Hornady black the "best" of all the factory ammo except the new federal gold medal bergers. I haven't had a chance to try those. I contacted Faxon about it and the best they could tell me was "try handloading". I'm really not happy with the barrel or the company at this point. I do have a couple of their 5.56 barrels that are extremely accurate. Like 1-1/2 moa 30 shot groups with 55 grain American eagle plinking ammo. Which is why I bought their Grendel barrel in the first place.

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[AustinTom]

Nice review. Did you happen to measure the comparator length with the ELDM? I'm wondering if all of the Proof barrels have a throat length close to magazine length?

I don't have the comparator yet. I seated a dummy bullet long on the lands and measured that against the loads I made and am pretty sure I've got about .107" jump right now. So I don't really think the throat length is very close to mag length. But I will get that set up and figure it out in the next couple weeks.

Austin

[Blakeh1]

Here are some groups with the Faxon. All of these are with the factory Hornady black ammo. The best I ever got was just under an inch five shot. It shot Hornady black the "best" of all the factory ammo except the new federal gold medal bergers. I haven't had a chance to try those. I contacted Faxon about it and the best they could tell me was "try handloading". I'm really not happy with the barrel or the company at this point. I do have a couple of their 5.56 barrels that are extremely accurate. Like 1-1/2 moa 30 shot groups with 55 grain American eagle plinking ammo. Which is why I bought their Grendel barrel in the first place.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]11410[/ATTACH]

Gotcha, was that bedded in the receiver? And how was the fit?

[AustinTom]

Gotcha, was that bedded in the receiver? And how was the fit?

Yup bedded with blue loctite. I also used the brownells receiver squaring rod. The upper is an Odin Works billet. The Faxon also fit in a lot tighter than the Proof for whatever that really means given the results. I had to use a heat gun to remove it as I didn't want to smack anything with a mallet.

[Blakeh1]

Yup bedded with blue loctite. I also used the brownells receiver squaring rod. The upper is an Odin Works billet. The Faxon also fit in a lot tighter than the Proof for whatever that really means given the results. I had to use a heat gun to remove it as I didn't want to smack anything with a mallet.

[StoneHendge]

Nothing like a Proof Barrel to keep one's ego in check. The low shot in the bottom group wasn't perchance the fourth shot, was it?

[AustinTom]

I can't remember which shot it was. I was pretty impressed with all the groups out of it considering just three weeks ago I shot the shotgun looking target with the Faxon barrel. I guess next is playing with seating depth and trying out different bullets powders. Although I'll probably use this load for next months match.

[klr]

Nice shooting with that PR barrel!

I wonder what the chamber looks like in the Faxon barrel? It would be interesting to see a chamber cast. Or at least blackening a bullet with a Sharpie, seat it long in a dummy round, and see how it contacts the rifling.

[rovpilot337]

Very nice. I have been on the fence between the PR from Midway and an Odin Works 20". I am going to give the PR a go.

[AustinTom]

Made it back to the range yesterday to do some more work on the loads I'm making. The gun shot really well, but this morning I decided to clean it up a bit. Got a good picture of the crown.

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Also noticed something about the extension that I decided need to be mentioned here. The feed ramps are much larger than typical M4 ramps.

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Proof research's website calls them Grendel ramps which makes me believe they are tuned to the larger diameter of the bullets to not scratch them as they feed in. Something I found interesting. I'm not sure if any of the other barrel manufacturers do this, but the Faxon does not (not trying to make this a Faxon barrel thread, just the only other Grendel barrel I have yet).

I have some more bullet types and powders to test here should have some more accuracy results in the coming weeks.

Austin

[centerfire]

Mine are the same way. The ledge left from wide ramps caught my attention. Loaded cases eject with almost no marks.