In an AR varminting platform, does barrel length affect accuracy?

[Varminterror]

Revisiting this thread tonight, this jumped out at me:

I'm attracted to Rock River because it's a cool-sounding name. The $1,000+ price suggests that is going to be better quality than any AR by Smith & Wesson, Ruger or even Palmetto.

Rock River is a great mid-tier AR builder - Ranking RRA over Ruger, S&W, and PSA might not be terribly apt, other than acknowledging that the increased price reflects increased quality of barrel and a better trigger. These are more up-feature options moreso than quality, but do increase the overall experience and performance.

 

[robin banks]

Revisiting this thread tonight, this jumped out at

Rock River is a great mid-tier AR builder - Ranking RRA over Ruger, S&W, and PSA might not be terribly apt, other than acknowledging that the increased price reflects increased quality of barrel and a better trigger. These are more up-feature options moreso than quality, but do increase the overall experience and performance.

The most accurate AR's I ever saw out of the box were RRA rifles

 

[Skylerbone]

The most accurate AR's I ever saw out of the box were RRA rifles

That was my experience as well before realizing the bubble I lived in was rather small. I’m not taking anything away from them but there are better out there and piecing an upper and lower together for less money can be every bit as rewarding accuracy wise.

 

[Varminterror]

The most accurate AR's I ever saw out of the box were RRA rifles

RRA started doing “precision” AR’s as a standard before anyone else was doing it at scale. White Oak and Compass Lake will generally be more accurate than RRA’s on the line, or the old Bushmaster competition rifles, but RRA was marketing that performance out to the masses. In the interim era between the sunset of the ban and the current saturation, RRA was there, building very accurate civilian field and competition rifles for the working man.

I’ve used a ton of their parts over the years as well in customer builds. I’ve sold dozens of the Varmint and NM triggers, as they were, for a long while, the best 2 stage AR trigger for their price point on the market - and one of the best overall (I DID punch out the pinned disconnector and reduce the disconnector spring with a JP spring to bring the second stage weight down even further). I used to order 20-25 of their BCG’s at a time for customer builds. Always quality stuff. But the era has gone, and a LOT of options exist today for sub-MOA AR’s and uppers.

 

[robin banks]

RRA started doing “precision” AR’s as a standard before anyone else was doing it at scale. White Oak and Compass Lake will generally be more accurate than RRA’s on the line, or the old Bushmaster competition rifles, but RRA was marketing that performance out to the masses. In the interim era between the sunset of the ban and the current saturation, RRA was there, building very accurate civilian field and competition rifles for the working man.

I’ve used a ton of their parts over the years as well in customer builds. I’ve sold dozens of the Varmint and NM triggers, as they were, for a long while, the best 2 stage AR trigger for their price point on the market - and one of the best overall (I DID punch out the pinned disconnector and reduce the disconnector spring with a JP spring to bring the second stage weight down even further). I used to order 20-25 of their BCG’s at a time for customer builds. Always quality stuff. But the era has gone, and a LOT of options exist today for sub-MOA AR’s and uppers.

yes there are many options now but they cost more then the RRA rifles. the only trigger I like is a two stage

 

[Demi-human]

yes there are many options now but they cost more then the RRA rifles.

While true on its face, for this thread and it’s requirements I disagree.

 

[Skylerbone]

yes there are many options now but they cost more then the RRA rifles. the only trigger I like is a two stage

Thus the reasoning put forth to consider a turn bolt for greater accuracy at reduced expense.

 

[robin banks]

Thus the reasoning put forth to consider a turn bolt for greater accuracy at reduced expense.

yes

 

[Varminterror]

yes there are many options now but they cost more then the RRA rifles.

I’m not terribly convinced this is true, and after building literally hundreds of AR’s, even during the height of RRA’s popularity, it’s certainly not apt to ignore the fact rifles can be built or rebuilt with lower cost and the same or improved accuracy.

Part of RRA’s genius was a mantra of mixing relatively low cost, non-critical components with a decent barrel and trigger to boost their performance per price ratio. Lots of folks have made good business out of doing the same - the AR is a known species, we’ve been “accurizing” AR’s for several decades, and it’s only gotten easier and easier in the last nearly 20yrs since the Federal AWB expired.

 

[matttric]

The quality of the barrel matters more than anything. A barrel can be rated for .5 MOA or 1.5 MOA regardless of length. Length will give you more velocity, as it give the powder a longer distance to burn. However, regarding length, twist rate, bullet weight, caliber, barrel material all go into what the ideal length is. You can accurately shoot out to 1,000 yards with the right ammo and a quality barrel.

 

[CraigC]

To have a dual role varmint and defensive AR is going to require some serious concessions for one or the other. A deer rifle, sure, I just built one. But a varmint rifle typically needs a heavier barrel profile to resist overheating, which does affect accuracy at distance. Reducing the volume of fire to keep the barrel from heating up kinda defeats the purpose of using an AR for prairie dogs or ground squirrels.

To me the sighting system is not so much an issue as the barrel. Pop a mini reflex sight on a 45° mount and you're set. Except when it comes to weight. Big varmint scopes are heavy so now not only do you have a heavy barrel but a heavy scope as well. I've gone from 30mm to 1" tube scopes on the same rifle to get the weight down and that is with the same magnification. The bigger 30mm scopes are pigs.

Then there is the trigger. That light, crisp trigger you want on your varmint rifle may not be the best for a high stress defensive situation.