difference between match barrel and not

[constructor]

www.riflebarrels.com/borescope_hi.asx DSL or hi speed

www.riflebarrels.com/borescope_lo.asx dial up or lo speed


All you have to do is look in the barrel with a borescope.

A custom build is a lot different than a custom match barrel. Anyone can slap different parts together and call it a custom build.
A custom match barrel is first a match grade blank, air-gauged and lapped to very tight tolerances, commonly used by benchrest competitors. Very very few ARs have real match grade barrels.

These companies make match grade blanks but must be finished by a smith.
Krieger (not Criteron)
Bartlein
Broughton
Douglas stainless
Shilen stainless
Pac Nor
Hart
Lilja
After starting with a quality blank it is chambered to very tight concentricty tolerances, the chambers should be within .0005, that is 1/2 of 1/1000th.
some production chambers are out of concentricity by .020 or 40 times what a true benchrest grade barrel is.
Companies that I KNOW build custom AR barrels.
Frank White Compass Lake Eng.
Accuracy Speaks
White Oak Precision-a div of WOA using Shilen blanks
MSTN-may use PRI barrels
PRI
AR-Performance- edit- we no longer have time to machine custom barrels
GA Precision


There may be others but I have seen these in my hand and checked the chambers, I know they are capable of 1/2MOA

[JesseJames]

That is a HUGE difference!

The standard barrel looks like a sewer pipe compared to the match grade barrel.

[constructor]

That is a HUGE difference!

The standard barrel looks like a sewer pipe compared to the match grade barrel.

rumble strips on the hwy,

[Ratdog68]

Amazing..... HUGE difference ! I hate to think that my Remington 700 barrels might look like that.

[OC455]

WOW! Never knew.....amazing in the difference!

[QuicksilverJPR]

Never scoped one, but the way accuracy is guaranteed with some of the match barrels, I knew they had to be a hell of a lot better than standard production...

It's almost silly the difference between them!

[constructor]

Most production barrels aren't as bad as the one shown with gouges and flattened lands but, they aren't lapped and don't come close to looking like polished stainless.

[68WJ]

It's like looking at pond water under a microscope. You know there is stuff in it, but it looks clean... until the magnification hits.

[jroz]

can fire lapping significantly hone a barrel enough to get close to the performance without the cost?

[constructor]

can fire lapping significantly hone a barrel enough to get close to the performance without the cost?

Tubbs will help take off the sharp edges but, lapping can't make a non match barrel a match barrel.
Match barrels are air gauged and lapped so they are uniform to .0005 in bore size from end to end, they are held to tighter tolerance on straightness too. Production companies making AR barrels do not bother to check straightness or unifomity at all, some companies producing barrels they call "match grade" have a bow in them visible with the light shake test, high end barrel makers like Krieger will not let a barrel out if it has a bow in the bore. In 17 years I have never seen a Krieger with a bow in it, I have seen bowed or crooked bores in every other brand.