faxon barrel break in?

[tdbru]

For any of you who have picked up a 4150 nitrided faxon gunner barrel, did you notice it took x number of rounds for the accuracy to settle in? is it common for an AR barrel to take x number of rounds to settle in? anyone know if it takes longer for a nitrided barrel to settle in? reason i ask is i was out at the range today. took my mini howa and a new build upper with a 20" faxon gunner 4150 nitrided barrel. the ammo shot about 1.5 MOA out of the Howa, which i'm still just getting going on, and about 4.5 MOA out of the AR which is a new upper build. haven't shot the upper before. it could be that that upper just doesn't like that one load too. of course there will likely be a "break in" period for the upper. just wondering if anyone could put a round count on it before any decisions are made. i just found it odd that there could be that much disparity out of the same ammo. of course another possibility is i just can't shoot an AR worth a hoot.
thx,
-tdbru

[Rosecrans1]

It is common for barrels and in particular, cheaper barrels, to need a period of rounds through them to settle in. My PSA 20" stainless, as an example, needed +300 rounds before the groups really tightened up. Faxon used to make very good barrels. Their quality is not as good though much better than some. (Think BCA and barrels that they make for other builders).
Top shelf barrels need very few if any break-in. This is why many here have recommended buying barrels from Lilja, Bartlein, etc. because in the end, by the time you feed 200 to 300 rounds through a cheaper barrel, you have spent what it would have cost to buy a quality barrel. And in many cases, cheaper barrels may NEVER shoot well.

[Wafavre2]

It is common for barrels and in particular, cheaper barrels, to need a period of rounds through them to settle in. My PSA 20" stainless, as an example, needed +300 rounds before the groups really tightened up. Faxon used to make very good barrels. Their quality is not as good though much better than some. (Think BCA and barrels that they make for other builders).
Top shelf barrels need very few if any break-in. This is why many here have recommended buying barrels from Lilja, Bartlein, etc. because in the end, by the time you feed 200 to 300 rounds through a cheaper barrel, you have spent what it would have cost to buy a quality barrel. And in many cases, cheaper barrels may NEVER shoot well.

+1

[blackhog]

[TexHill]

There is no break in on a properly nitrided or chrome lined barrel. The nitride and chrome lining processes make the barrel infinitely harder than an untreated barrel. You would have to fire well over 1,000 rounds to even start to see any appreciable wear.

[A5BLASTER]

For any of you who have picked up a 4150 nitrided faxon gunner barrel, did you notice it took x number of rounds for the accuracy to settle in? is it common for an AR barrel to take x number of rounds to settle in? anyone know if it takes longer for a nitrided barrel to settle in? reason i ask is i was out at the range today. took my mini howa and a new build upper with a 20" faxon gunner 4150 nitrided barrel. the ammo shot about 1.5 MOA out of the Howa, which i'm still just getting going on, and about 4.5 MOA out of the AR which is a new upper build. haven't shot the upper before. it could be that that upper just doesn't like that one load too. of course there will likely be a "break in" period for the upper. just wondering if anyone could put a round count on it before any decisions are made. i just found it odd that there could be that much disparity out of the same ammo. of course another possibility is i just can't shoot an AR worth a hoot.
thx,
-tdbru

200 to 300 rounds, dont let the barrel get more then barely warm to the touch, dont clean it till you have shoot all the rounds.

[js8588]

Sounds like you just own a Faxon barrel. Ever since Nate left the company, they've been questionable at best.

[Mesa1978]

Something about getting what you pay for... Good Luck OP. "Inexpensive" and accuracy usually don't go together. I hope your barrel does meet your expectations at some point.

[tdbru]

The reason for the faxon barrel, was i was trying to do a lightweight build. their Gunner profile/weight appeared to be about the lightest i could find in 20" length. my first AR i put together was 24" and ended up almost 12lbs. great for target shooting but too heavy to hunt with. with this upper build i went as light as i could find in a 20" bbl length. Still the rifle is 1oz. short of 9lbs. definitely not light, but 3 lbs. lighter. the mini howa is 7.5 lbs. much better. but i would like to hunt with the AR too. as part of the diet i was looking for a "pencil" barrel. the faxon gunner profile was the closest thing to that i could find. granted i'm just getting started with load development for this light upper, and have yet to put a variety through it, so it may like something else. bartlein, brux, krieger, etc. only seem to be making heavy barrels. and if that is where the market is, i get it. but i find it hard to believe that i am the only one who thinks the AR is way overweight (like me) and needs to go on a diet. it was originally designed to be a replacement for the M1 carbine (5 lbs) for the air force. i held an original COLT SP1 one time that a friend had. if i recall it was under 7 lbs. I think right around 6 lbs. nice and light weight and portable and sized appropriately for the varmint round it fired. of course i held another friends AR who what big in to service rifle shooting, went to Camp Perry every year, got his distinguished badge, etc. damn good shot. His match AR weighed 18lbs. had lead in the butt stock and under the handguards, etc. and of course a very heavy barrel, or so it seemed. so heavy is not a detriment to target shooting, to a point, but is not so compelling when trying to hike up and down the mountains with it. anyway the intent of the upper build was to be light weight. i have just started putting rounds through it. so i've got a long way to go wrt load development yet, but i just found it surprising that there would be that much disparity between the same load in 2 different rifles. and i recalled someone else on the forum saying after about 200 rounds their rifle was grouping much better. i realize that the nitride surface is much harder than bare steel and was wondering if these faxon nitrided barrels do also need some breaking in or not. i'm sure i'm not the only one on the forum to have a faxon 4150 nitrided barrel. i thought i might hear what others with the same barrel had to say about accuracy as the round count changed. as far as recommendations for better barrels, as mentioned, the better barrel makers only seem to be making the heavy match barrels. anyway, thanks for the replies. and just curious, for 20" barreled uppers, what full up rifle weight (rifle + optics + empty magazine + sling) are you guys seeing? i thought i spent a bunch and still ended up with an 8lb 15oz. rig.
thanks,
-tdbru

[grayfox]

Faxon is not terrible, as far as I'm concerned. It and Odin are the mid-priced ones I would choose if I were looking for that. And I've had both, and both were ok. Still have one or 2 of each. True my lilja is better but the faxon (my 16-er) fills a niche for me.
As far as breaking in a nitrided barrel, it's pretty much whatever it's going to be because of that super hardened nitrided surface. There might be some sharp edges that will break away during the first few shots, but by and large it's as smooth as whatever it was when the nitriding was applied. So the real trick is to find a nitrided barrel that started out smooth and good, then got the nitride treatment. Most times we don't get to specify that. Couple of guys back in the past got a barrel whose chamber was rough then nitrided... and that basically killed the barrel (I had one of those too).

I would treat it as pretty much "broken in" already and see how it shoots for you.
By the way if you want to go light, a 16" can do hunting pretty well out to 200+ yards... with the 129 ablr it will go even farther as far as KE and opening mushrooms are concerned.

[grayfox]

My 16-er weighs in at 7.8 lbs scope and all... with the mba-1 stock iirc.
Barrels only go about 2-3 oz per inch of length.

[tdbru]

thanks Grayfox. what is the mba-1 stock. i'll have to look it up. if say 3oz/in, going from 16 to 20 would add 12 oz. which would put your 16" with a 20" tube just a little over 8lbs. so perhaps i also need to look into a lighter weight stock assy. i wanted 20" as that is the longest lightweight barrel i could find. as mentioned before i want to squeeze as much mv out of this ctg as possible, given the other compromises. i plan on trying some different powders of course. i suspect with a long thin barrel (though this 20" faxon gunner profile is thicker and shorter than the Howa std barrel) i may have to work a bit more in the load development to find a good load that is near top velocity and acceptable accuracy. was hoping to find one load that grouped well out of both rifles, obviously.
-tdbru

[grayfox]

It is the Luth-AR-Mba-1 adjustable carbine-style stock. Not particularly the lightest weight. For as light as possible (but still workable for me) I use a magpul CTR adjustable stock... and a 1/4 or 1/2" stick-on magpul riser help (for cheek weld).

A 20" faxon will shoot handloaded 123 sst's to about 2510 with accuracy... somewhere 27.8-28.2 gr of AR comp is what I find after working up for the barrel.
100 gr ttsx will get to about 2695 with 8208 xbr... again a good node for me, accuracy wise.
I suspect you're a better shooter than I am so other loads may work for you too. But those are 2 that I like in my 20"-ers.

129 ablr's are good because they open up down to 1300 ft/s and have a great BC, plus the extra mass- good punch. A few on here swear by them
I keep them usually for my creed's however... in the Grendel you typically need to go with CFE or maybe Lever to get the most MV out of the ablr's.

Some of my AR wt comes from using 30mm scopes/mount with some magnif... for my not so young anymore eyes... 26-30 oz vice 16-17 for a 1"-er.

[High_n_Dry]

I also went for a light 18" build for hunting.
Although it was expensive, I went with the Smoke Composite handguard and stock. Great quality and I had it in 3 days! I haven't weighed it, but it is way lighter than my 16" 223.

https://www.smokecomposites.com

Another plus is that it looks pretty badass (at least in my eyes)!

[tdbru]

HnD,
what is your rig's weight with sling and with an empty magazine? I see smoke makes a low weight stock assy. would save about 10oz over what i have now. trying to decide if scratching off another 10oz is worth what they're asking. if it saved, say, 1.5 lbs. i might go for it. but for 10oz... i think i'm starting to hit the point of diminishing returns if you know what i mean.
thanks,
-tdbru