Hello from Pa

[ragin1]

Hi everyone. New to the AR world. Bought a S&W M&P last year and by spring I knew I wanted to build my own. I've settled on 2 must haves. The Grendel and the Creedmoor. I'm still a rookie and don't pretend to be anything else. I rely heavily on researching forum's and tech articles from the web. I usually am looking for why I will need to get x, y, and z, and why I can get along with just x and z, and why y will compliment them. Love this place. Just sayin.

I want to shoot the Grendel at around 900 yds. The Creedmoor will take me to 1200 yds.

I was thinking 20" barrel and am looking at the GM on the group buy.

Here is the rub. I'm a raw rookie when it comes to selecting pieces parts for the builds. I really want to do it right the first time. I'm 58 and don't have much time for mistakes left.

Almost everything I've read says I need to go to 20" to burn off the powder, and to keep stability out there. Then I read this,

https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2018/11/josh-wayner/challenging-what-you-think-you-know-about-barrel-length-velocity-and-accuracy/

Hope that links posts. My interest in this article is how length plays a part in accuracy. The gist is, it doesn't. What do you all think?

[A5BLASTER]

For going too 900 go with 20 inch and a min a 8 twist.

Oh and welcome to the horde sir.

[ragin1]

Thanks A5.

[VASCAR2]

Welcome to the forum ragin1! The most important part on an AR-15 is the barrel followed by a good trigger and clear sight picture. I’m a firm believer it is the Indian and not the arrow in most situations.


The Group Buy barrels get good reviews and the barrel profile makes for a very versatile AR-15. The specific butt stock, grip and hand guard are personal choice and generally don’t affect accuracy but are the user interface.

[Texas]

Welcome to the forum ragin1. You are still a spring chicken to some of us. If you are wanting to shoot long distance, I would recommend a fixed stock as opposed to a collapsible.
Barrel, Bolt and trigger are the accuracy items.

[RMiller]

Welcome!

[LRRPF52]

Thanks for posting that link. I noticed the maximum range they shot at was 900yds, with a lot of data recorded at 540yds.

Even with my 12" Grendel, 540yds would be boring if I wasn't using an AR15 pistol with a 1-4x scope from magazine monopod field expedient position.

If they were to have included twist rate changes (tighter to 1/9 on the .308), they would have realized even farther effective range with the .308 Win.

Todd Hodnett demonstrated that years ago with a 16" AR10 shooting at twice the normal range that .308s are normally shot at.