Why so hard to get a standard 20" A2 barrel?

I think black hole weaponry has them or you could try white oak armory

Try Palmetto State Armory, I got my A2 barreled upper from them earlier this year.

Bushmaster LLC usually has them in stock with 1-9" twist and you can also order with 1-7" twist but may have to wait.
I have been extremely satisfied ith the quality of their barrels which I suspect are actually made by Yankee Hill Manufacturing.
http://www.bushmaster.com/products.asp?cat=7

Try Fulton Armory. Maybe Bravo Co.

barrel

I have a Bushmaster barrel in a RRA upper. Only Gvt. profile I could find at the time but that was a couple of years ago.
Verry happy with it.

20" A2 profile barrels just aren't as popular (read don't sale as many) as the "cool" M4 profile barrels. You're going to have to do some work to find one. Some of the options if you gotta have it right now are: 1) find a FN surplus A2 barrel on gunbroker, etc. 2) over pay for a NOS Colt A2 barrel on gunbroker 3) dumb luck on gunbroker, AR15.com, or on here finding someone selling a 20" .gov profile barrel.

You'll just have to keep shopping and when you see one jump. A few more sources: PKfirearms offered a FN 20" but are out; you'll never get a new Bushmaster 20" barrel so don't bother; PSA offered a 20" FN and their own brand (almost A2 profile) 20" barrel; Delton offered a 20" gov profile; Windham said they were looking at a run of 20" barrels but no ETA. High Standard offers an A2 barrel but the one I got was rough, I'd stay away.

ETA: don't worry about the F FSB, it'll work with an A2 upper though the post may be buried a little.

Armalite. They're chrome lined mil spec CMV with M4 ramps. I'm not sure if they're Govt or HBAR, but I know they're 1:9.

Why do you want 1:7 anyway? Unless you're gonna shoot 69 gr. +, it's not needed. All of mine are 1:9, except my 1:8 BCM.

OK, I got you a lead on a A2 barrel, chrome lined, 1:7 twist with FSB installed if you want one right now. Brownells has the High Standards in stock. My issue(s) with mine were: 1) FSB used straight pins instead of tapered; they were unfinished and rough (burs and the pin were in the white). 2) there was a HUGE amount of grit inside the barrel and chamber; took a lot of scrubbing to get the "mud" out of the barrel. I have no idea what that stuff was. 3) mine wasn't chrome lined and they parked the inside of the barrel (read rough surfaces in chamber) 4) FSB was aligned and pinned using the magic marker method instead of a jig; I'm not sure how it would have zeroed because the FSB was remove for a gas block.

I would assume the chrome lined barrels won't have the "mud" issue and obviously won't be parked on the inside. So if you can live with straight pins and needing to paint or cold blue them; this might be a option.

ETA: Armalite barrels are "medium" profile which is slightly thinner than an 1" H-bar, they're maybe .9" in dia. instead. They are very nice shooting barrels though.

Sounds like a barrel that isn't fit for anything, I'd send it back!

I sat on the stupid thing too long before I got to medaling with it. Luckily it was cheap. I gave it to a friend to tinker with, he replaced the FSB and polished the chamber and last I heard from him it ran ok. He never said what groups he was getting though.

If it were me, and I had to have a 20" bbl I would probably just back order a Criterion and put the FSB/gas block on myself along with the delta ring. If Daniel Defense made a 20" I'd go for that since I like cold hammer forged barrels for something that is going to see a high volume of shooting, and heat.

Best bet is to back order the Criterion of your contour choice from Brownells and wait until it shows up.

"You'll never get a Bushmaster 20" barrel so don't bother" News to me,,,,

Kurt_D said:

OK, I got you a lead on a A2 barrel, chrome lined, 1:7 twist with FSB installed if you want one right now. Brownells has the High Standards in stock. My issue(s) with mine were: 1) FSB used straight pins instead of tapered; they were unfinished and rough (burs and the pin were in the white). 2) there was a HUGE amount of grit inside the barrel and chamber; took a lot of scrubbing to get the "mud" out of the barrel. I have no idea what that stuff was. 3) mine wasn't chrome lined and they parked the inside of the barrel (read rough surfaces in chamber) 4) FSB was aligned and pinned using the magic marker method instead of a jig; I'm not sure how it would have zeroed because the FSB was remove for a gas block.

I would assume the chrome lined barrels won't have the "mud" issue and obviously won't be parked on the inside. So if you can live with straight pins and needing to paint or cold blue them; this might be a option.

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Intesting. I recently received one of these as well and it is a far better piece. The pins are the tapered style, they are parked and the bore is chrome lined. No magic markere on the fsb for alignment, but the rifle isn't assembled yet so don't know how it will zero yet. Now, the barrel is not marked "MP", but I'm fine with that. The bore has a bunch of nameless gunk in it that will need cleaning before shooting.

http://www.bravocompanyusa.com/

http://www.specializedarmament.com/pages/2010_RP.html

"You'll never get a Bushmaster 20" barrel so don't bother" News to me,,,,

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That's because you haven't tried to order one since Remington moved them to NY. There's a reason a lot of vendors gave up carrying BM 20" .gov barrels: Remington focused on the M4 style barrel and "can't find a supplier" for 20" .gov barrels. There are people still waiting after placing their order with BM this time last year. And for the record I do have a 20" 1/7 A2 Bushy barrel from the pre-Remington days. It lives on my Bushmaster A2, replacing the H bar; they where a very good economical option when available.

Intesting. I recently received one of these as well and it is a far better piece. The pins are the tapered style, they are parked and the bore is chrome lined. No magic markere on the fsb for alignment, but the rifle isn't assembled yet so don't know how it will zero yet. Now, the barrel is not marked "MP", but I'm fine with that. The bore has a bunch of nameless gunk in it that will need cleaning before shooting.

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That's good to hear. Brownells pulled the one I bought off the website a little while ago after much bad reviews. Again, it was cheap non-chromed barrel NOT the current listing. If they fixed the FSB issues then it might be a good readily available choice.

DS Arms has what I want on a completed flattop. It's not CL but the end result is it would be cheaper to just buy that outfit and change upper recievers than all the parts!?! And my Neighbor works for them and gets a discount. Seems like thats the route I'm taking, thanks for all the replies.

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Unless they're not listed on the website those 20" uppers are H-bars. Even the fluted one won't balance as nice as a A2 profile. They'll work well and the price is good, they're just nose heavy.

There's another option I didn't think about until you mentioned the DSA H-bar: you could buy the GM barrel and have Adco pin the FSB if you don't want to try it. OR you could also get the DSA H-bar and have Adco re-profile it to A2 whenever you felt like it.

Fulton Armory has a Criterion 20" pencil profile 1/8 CL barrel that is equal or superior to a "gov't profile" barrel in every way. If you must have a gov't profile, buy me that Criterion barrel and I will send you the FN 20" gov't barrel off my PSA rifle. That is a trade I would gladly make. I just got the gov't profile because at the time I couldn't find an A1/pencil profile in 1/7 or 1/8. Gov't profile is just pencil profile from the chamber to the gas block, and then heavy profile where it doesn't do any good and only adds weight, out on the end of the barrel. A classic example of governmental bureaucratic committee decision making. Pencil profiles are a lot lighter and nicer handling.

Stag makes them but they're 1:9. Model 4. It's their A2 style with a removable carry handle...which I thought I'd like more than I do. There is such a narrow slot the my fingers won't go through so it's useless as a carry handle (even though I don't suspect I'd use it much that way, not sure many people ever did)...but it's not much of a carry handle. It does give it the classic look and I can take 'er off if I ever spring for optics.

Bought it right off the rack on Super Bowl Sunday last.

I like my DS Arms 20" upper. I went fluted to save on weight.

It's been like this for awhile now. I had to search for months before finding a full length non-HBAR upper on gunbroker. The manufacturers all seem to list them as on backorder.

I think there's some notion that only the competitive shooters will want 20" barrels. Me, I'm loving my full size AR rifle a lot and am thinking about selling off the carbine completely.