WestKentucky
Member
Barrel:
Reciever:
Selection of reciever seems to be all about tight tolerances and specific features you do or do not want. The features seem to have no effect on the accuracy of the gun, they only effect the function of it. Billet supposedly is most rigid, but that is questionable and the cost of a milled billet upper as opposed to a forged upper is significant. I have a forged upper handy, I'm using it. If I can find fault with it, I might drop the coin on a billet job, but I doubt that happens.
Barrel
By far under normal build conditions the most important decision is in buying a barrel, and you typically get what you pay for. I already have an acceptably accurate barrel laying around in an interesting caliber so I'm skipping this decision. Caliber selection is a huge topic all on its own, then barrel selection is equally large and detailed. My barrel is a Doublestar 22" heavy bull target crown, rifle length, stainless behemoth in 6.8spcII
Barrel nut:
Each point of contact for the barrel changes harmonics, so you want as few as possible. I'm going to go with a free float handguard on this one. My thoughts are on the effect that the handguard selection will have on accuracy. The only point of contact is barrel nut which comes with most handguards. Properly squared barrel nuts should evenly apply pressure to the shoulder on the barrel and positively locate it with uniform pressures and should provide good accuracy. So realistically my thought is that when buying, a man should be focussed on the barrel nut instead of the fancy tube attached to the outside of it. The only other thing I can imagine helping increase accuracy would be to use loctite on the barrel in final assembly to help fill gaps to eliminate any play in the slip-fit section of the barrel extension/reciever, but this is minimal. I will do it, but I don't expect it to really matter at all.
Hand Guard
Now, on to the handguard, what you really buy to get the barrel nut, instead of the other way around. I see absolutely no effect other than cooling provided that the handguard is snugly secured at the barrel nut and that it isn't impinging on the barrel or gas block in any way. Holes of any form allow air flow which allows cooling of the barrel, but realistically excessive heat in a target barrel should never be an issue. Still, I want some air flow to keep the heat from the gas tube moving out rather than heating up the handguard making it potentially unpleasant to touch.
I do intend to use a bipod or perhaps tripod attached to the handguard rather than attaching to the bottom of the gas block. Attaching things to the gas block seems detrimental to accuracy. I have a railed block, may buy a different block just to eliminate that option just to make me happier.
Internals-BCG etc
Looking at this aspect in an AR can be confusing. The bolt is a rotating piece of metal that holds the round in the chamber, so it is aligning the cartridge as precisely to the barrel as possible before the gun ever fires. The bolt should be squared to the chamber when in locked position. That's not super easy to determine or correct, so simply making sure you buy a quality piece seems the only logical option to me when it comes to the bolt itself. The BC and other bits seems considerably less important, but still needs to be a group of quality pieces.
Are these thoughts logical, sensible, and functionally correct? I want to set this one up specifically for the purpose of shooting small targets from 500 to 800 yards and getting consistent hits. Let's keep this specifically about getting the most accuracy as reasonably possible, and keep it specific to the upper.
Reciever:
Selection of reciever seems to be all about tight tolerances and specific features you do or do not want. The features seem to have no effect on the accuracy of the gun, they only effect the function of it. Billet supposedly is most rigid, but that is questionable and the cost of a milled billet upper as opposed to a forged upper is significant. I have a forged upper handy, I'm using it. If I can find fault with it, I might drop the coin on a billet job, but I doubt that happens.
Barrel
By far under normal build conditions the most important decision is in buying a barrel, and you typically get what you pay for. I already have an acceptably accurate barrel laying around in an interesting caliber so I'm skipping this decision. Caliber selection is a huge topic all on its own, then barrel selection is equally large and detailed. My barrel is a Doublestar 22" heavy bull target crown, rifle length, stainless behemoth in 6.8spcII
Barrel nut:
Each point of contact for the barrel changes harmonics, so you want as few as possible. I'm going to go with a free float handguard on this one. My thoughts are on the effect that the handguard selection will have on accuracy. The only point of contact is barrel nut which comes with most handguards. Properly squared barrel nuts should evenly apply pressure to the shoulder on the barrel and positively locate it with uniform pressures and should provide good accuracy. So realistically my thought is that when buying, a man should be focussed on the barrel nut instead of the fancy tube attached to the outside of it. The only other thing I can imagine helping increase accuracy would be to use loctite on the barrel in final assembly to help fill gaps to eliminate any play in the slip-fit section of the barrel extension/reciever, but this is minimal. I will do it, but I don't expect it to really matter at all.
Hand Guard
Now, on to the handguard, what you really buy to get the barrel nut, instead of the other way around. I see absolutely no effect other than cooling provided that the handguard is snugly secured at the barrel nut and that it isn't impinging on the barrel or gas block in any way. Holes of any form allow air flow which allows cooling of the barrel, but realistically excessive heat in a target barrel should never be an issue. Still, I want some air flow to keep the heat from the gas tube moving out rather than heating up the handguard making it potentially unpleasant to touch.
I do intend to use a bipod or perhaps tripod attached to the handguard rather than attaching to the bottom of the gas block. Attaching things to the gas block seems detrimental to accuracy. I have a railed block, may buy a different block just to eliminate that option just to make me happier.
Internals-BCG etc
Looking at this aspect in an AR can be confusing. The bolt is a rotating piece of metal that holds the round in the chamber, so it is aligning the cartridge as precisely to the barrel as possible before the gun ever fires. The bolt should be squared to the chamber when in locked position. That's not super easy to determine or correct, so simply making sure you buy a quality piece seems the only logical option to me when it comes to the bolt itself. The BC and other bits seems considerably less important, but still needs to be a group of quality pieces.
Are these thoughts logical, sensible, and functionally correct? I want to set this one up specifically for the purpose of shooting small targets from 500 to 800 yards and getting consistent hits. Let's keep this specifically about getting the most accuracy as reasonably possible, and keep it specific to the upper.
