14.5 mid length and Grendel newb questions

[Arnanderson]

Grendel newb here. Looking at SBR barrels and wondering if anyone had a 14.5 mid length, and whether that was preferable to carbine length. What about a 13.7"?

Also, I was gong to pick up a Sabre Defense chrome-lined 14.5 carbine length and either leave it alone or cut to 12.5. Does anyone have experience with this barrel and know how accurate it is? Thanks! Cool forum here.

[LRRPF52]

My perspective on 14.5" Grendel is this:

If you are going SBR route, one popular reason to go 14.5" might be to clone an M4 profile if you're into that.

If you want a more compact AR15 with the ballistic potential of this cartridge, 14.5" doesn't make a lot of sense because you aren't going to see a noticeable performance increase between an 11"- 12.5" and a 14.5".

The 14.5" is so close to 16", that you might as well just go 16" instead of SBR or pistol.

The Saber Defense barrels were good, but some of them sold on the after-market were short-chambered, which is kinda hard to correct when they're chrome-lined.

I wouldn't cut a 14.5" MLGS too short without opening the gas port.

[Jakegsxr11]

The advantage to 14.5 is you can permanently attach a 1.5" flash hider or brake and that counts as 16" overall. It is no longer an sbr at that point.

[Arnanderson]

i like 14.5's because they line up well with a 13" rail. I will probably eventually own a 12.5, a 14.5, and a 16. I was just wondering if mid length gas works well with 13-15" Grendel barrels.

The reason I was looking at the Sabres is because current barrel makers(that I perceive as "good") seem to only put out stainless barrels. I am looking for a quality CMV preferably nitrided but chrome-lined is ok too.

[Tipsymutt]

Hi there. No real SBR Info, but a while ago I had an 18" fluted Sabre barrel with their "gill brake" that shot lights out. It was easily sub moa with good ammo and hand loads. I foolishly traded it and had been looking for another since. Luckily, I came across a new one on evil bay a little while ago. Haven't mounted it up yet, but hopefully she is a shooter.