AR-15 barrel life question

[high country]

I am going to be building a 20" upper for "jack of all trades" type use. I am leaning towards stainless steel for the barrel.

My question is what is the expected life of a stainless barrel vs. a chrome-moly barrel vs. a chrome lined barrel?

 

[Bartholomew Roberts]

Barrel life depends on barrel use and what criteria you need. Is the barrel gone for you once it exceeds 1 MOA at 300yds or can you use it when it is 6 MOA at 100yds?

 

[C-grunt]

Also depends on what you want to use the barrel for. High intensity, high round count sessions will burn up a stainless steel barrel faster than a chrome lined one. I would use a stainless barrel for a more precision oriented rig and a good cold hammer forged barrel for a general purpose barrel. A good chrome lined barrel can be pretty darn accurate.

 

[henschman]

Just some off-the-cuff figures that are not scientific and may or may not bear any resemblance to reality:

Chrome Moly: 5,000 rounds
Stainless Steel: 7,000 rounds
Chrome Lined: 10,000 rounds

It's hard to give actual figures because it varies a lot depending on the type of use, frequency of cleaning and cleaning method, load used, and quality of the barrel, among other things. In any case, the order of which ones wear out fastest goes that way.

You can usualy get a little better accuracy out of a Stainless barrel... but it needs to be heavier to retain structural integrity. You can't have a GI-profile SS barrel. A CM barrel is usually capable of a tad better accuracy than a CL. A CL barrel will last the longest, and is the most resistant to corrosion, is the easiset to clean, and provides for better reliability in extraction. A SS barrel is pretty good in these regards too, though... definitely better than a plain old CM barrel.

I like a chrome lined barrel for my jack-of-all-trades rifles. You can get it in a nice light profile, it will last a long time, it resists corrosion, it is easy and quick to do a field cleaning job on, and it helps with reliability. It can be plenty accurate for most purposes, especially if you buy from a respected vendor.

For a 5.56 AR, I'd go with a 20" gov't profile barrel from BCM.

 

[kwelz]

Well the barrel blanks used for noveske barrels are made for something like 40K rounds as MG barrel. I am willing to bet it will last longer as a Semi auto barrel.

 

[high country]

Thanks for the responses, very informative!

I know that I am asking the imposible of a single configuration, but I would like to try to get as close as I can. I would like to be able to use it for some coyote hunting (which means it needs to be light enough to not hate carrying), prairie dog hunting (which means it needs to be accurate, and able to withstand relatively sustained fire), and target shooting from the informal plinking session, to longer range paper punching, and as an upper to give some service match shooting a try. So really I guess it would be a more precision oriented rig, but with some sustained fire in its future, and light enough to carry a bit and shoot offhand without too much fatigue. No CQB or 3 gun type use planned.

I am leaning towards a stainless national match barrel as they are readily available at reasonable prices (so if I am replacing it in three or four years, I won't be loosing sleep over it), and are lighter than a bull barrel varmint upper. Am I nuts, or does that sound like a workable plan? The BCM chromed lined government profile option is interesting as well though. I will look into that. How well does accuracy hold up in a gov profile barrel when shooting priarie dogs for an afternoon?