Ever Wondered What 80-100K Rounds Fired Does To An AR-15 Barrel?

    Talking with my friend Matt over at Noveske, he told me about some science that he recently conducted that was far too cool not to share with all of you. After I had got his blessing, he sent over some photos of a barrel that was sent back to Noveske for some reason after putting anywhere between 80,000 to 100,000 rounds downrange. The results are nothing short of awesome.

    The three barrels are all impressive, but the one with the sight post is caught my attention most. The other two are stainless barrels with an estimated 30 to 40 thousand rounds fired, one of them was still shooting reasonably well as I understand it. It sounds pretty hard to believe that barrels that worn out will still shoot 3 MOAish groups, putting it on par with some of the more inaccurate guns we have tested at TFB.

    You can see below that there is near nor rifling left in the chrome hammer forged barrel and the gas port has near eroded all the way through the barrel. Matt said that this barrel was grouping in the area of 18″ at 35 yards or so, he wasn’t able to tell me who in the hell continues to use a barrel that far past the service life. The only reason I could come up with is some machine gun rental place in Vegas.

    shot out barrel gas port Three barrel cut away

    Hat tip to Matt at Noveske, thanks buddy!


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