Les Baer Barrels

[gophernuts]

The title says it all. Any thoughts on these, they look heavy as hell. How much do these uppers weigh?

[philmurphy]

The title says it all. Any thoughts on these, they look heavy as hell. How much do these uppers weigh?

Nuts,

Les Baer is all about accuracy. He doesn't cater to the spray crowd. He makes his own barrels, or so he says. Call him and ask.

Phil

[ss355]

I have a Les Baer barrel. I don't know how much the bare barrel weighs, but I can tell ya it's a pretty darned heavy tube. It's 1.048" in diameter and has a straight profile behind the gas block. I don't have the measurement in front of the gas block, but it's slightly less than the gas block journal diameter of .936", and that's a straight profile, too.

[noone]

I have no reason to doubt that Les Baer uses fine barrels regardless of whether he makes or buys them. But the accuracy of his rifles is gained from much, MUCH more than just a good barrel. Baer, and all other rifle smiths get great accuracy by combining a lot of little things that each contribute a little, tiny bit toward the accuracy.

If we take an un-tuned rifle that shoots 2 inch groups at 100 yards with a good barrel, and do 18 different things that individually reduce group size by only one sixteenth of an inch each, that same rifle now shoots seven eighths of an inch groups at 100 yards as a result of doing the little things. So by using a really fine barrel, and similar attention to detail, half inch groups are not too difficult to obtain.

[squin]

I have a 24" 264 LBC barreled upper from Precision Firearms. This is a bull barrel so its not light weight, but it shoots very well from a bipod or bench rest. My rifle consistently shoots 5 shot groups under .5 MOA. This past weekend had best groups hovering around .4MOA or a little less shooting 123 gr SMKs in front of 29.1 gr AA2520.

[cecil1021]

I too have an LCB 20 inch barreled upper by precision firearms.Best group so far,100 gr.nosler B/T over28.5 of benchmark/Fed 205m/C.O.A.L.,2.220/5 shot avg. M/V-2668 f.p.s. w/ S.D. of 10.14. 1 ragged hole. Almost as good was 123 scenar over 31.8 BLC-2/Fed 205m C.O.A.L.2.263 avg. M/V-2478 w/S.D.7.28,4 in 1 hole with 1 I probably pulled.Like the BLC-2 but trying loads with 123 matchkings & scenars over benchmark,8208-xbr,H4895&varget to have loads not temp. sensitive.

[AndrewX]

I'm considering building/buying a 6.5/.264 upper and I'm debating a number of issues before I start; barrel maker, length and contour, what chamber (AA vs. LBC) and ultimately who should do the work. Since both of you are up and running with excellent results, I'd like to ask you a couple of questions: Why did you choose Precision over LBC? Did you consider any other gunsmiths? What other components did you use? Obviously, you both are satisfied with the results.

Noone makes an excellent point regarding build technique contributing to the end result. But I wonder if those things are as difficult to execute properly on an AR as they are on an M1A/M1? Having not built an upper yet, it's new territory for me so I need to answer the question whether to leave it to a professional or allow an amateur (myself) to try. If I move forward myself, I'll probably buy Glen Zediker's book as a guide. Any other suggestions on where to look?

To answer Gophernuts' question on weight, the LBC barrels look to be about the same contour as a Shilen (and many others) Heavy Varmint who lists their weights as 4lbs. 8oz. for a 24" and 4lbs. 2oz. for a 20". The Heavy Varmint contour adds a full pound from their NM Service Rifle contour (all for .223).

Any and all advice is welcome.

[bwaites]

Andrew, there are multiple good barrel makers, including all of those listed above.

Chambering questions are always about as flammable as asking about proper break in procedures, you'll get as many opinions as there are chambers. That said, AA's chamber has been proven through millions upon millions of fired rounds. It was arrived at after years of research into what would best serve an AR exposed to lots of different kinds of ammunition.

Les Baer's chamber, I have been reliably told, was designed to maximize the benefits of the 123 AMAX. People have reported that it shoots that bullet extremely well, but I haven't seen many reports about others, which may simply be a function of the smaller number of rifles out there and the fact that their owners don't spend much time on forums.

AA builds great stuff, Les Baer builds great stuff. It would be difficult for me to believe that anyone who hasn't wrenched together a fair number of rifles would get the same results as AA or Les Baer does, unless he just got very lucky!

I personally love the "lego toys for big boys" aspect of AR's, and I've built some for myself and sons that work fine, but if I want a precision tool, I would have it built by someone who has built enough to know all the little skills to make it one.

Good luck with your choices!

[Norsk]

I can tell you the reason I went with precision firearms. Customer service. Well that and what seemed like a very nice grendel upper. I spoke with Mark on a saturday on the phone(he answered my call while at a show) asked him a few questions about the different uppers they sell and let him go. Monday morning I get a call from him to see if I had anymore questions. I was kind of shocked. I ended up ordering one of there neptune II uppers but they will build you just about anything you want however you want. I dont have it yet so I cant say how well it shoots but they told me with the right ammo it would shot .5 or better.