IntroC

Am thinking about getting an AR-15 as was wondering if a feller should go with a heavy barrel? Reason being if I were to go down to the range and just have fun and burn more than a few rounds would the rapid fire damage a standard barrel? Is this a possibility or is this not likely?

I will not be using this gun for hunting.

If China was to invade what would you reccomend - heavy or standard? Thanks for taking the time to answer my silly questions and yes I'm being serious. Not about the China thing.

Sheridan

Heavy barrels are heavy - YES !

Yes, heavy barrels take longer to heat up........................So ?

You still haven't talked about hitting anything; or is that not the point ?!?!

Big Z

Go chrome-lined with a well-ventilated free float handguard. I prefer light-mid weight profiles and have gunned pencil, M4, "mid-weight"/fluted, and HBAR. Have probably done the most plinking/rapid-fire thru M4 profile and can't say it's melted yet.

Bullcamp82834

Barrels heat up from the inside out. The inside is, obviously, where the rifling is.
A heavy barrel will heat up slightly slower than a standard barrel.
Slower enough to matter when it comes to rapid fire and barrel erosion? No.

A heavy barrel is an advantage when shooting groups because in shooting a normal group ( 3 to 5 shots) the barrel won't heat up enough to open the group up.

When banging away at the range with a 20 or 30 round mag it doesn't make much diff.

homers brother

It won't matter. If that's the use for it that you intend, you're going to burn it up either way. Rifle barrels aren't meant to sustain high rates of fire.

Bullcamp82834

Hence quick change barrels on machine guns.

flags

I've been involved in serious gun shoots with my unit where we put hundreds or even thousands of rounds a day through our M-4s. This is a combination of semi-auto, 3 round bursts and full auto. I've yet to see one heat up to the point where it becomes an issue. No matter how fast you shoot, you will need to change mags every 30 rounds so you get a break in the shooting.

Belt fed crew served weapons like the M-2, M-60, M-48, MK-44 can be shot with sustained fire since hundreds of rounds can be linked. That is why such weapons have quick change barrels. I've seen 7400 rounds put through a mini-gun in one continuous sustained course of fire. Battle weapons, which the AR-15 platform is, are built tough and reliable. I for one wouldn't worry about it.

As to China invading, if that actually happened I would use whatever I could get my hands on considering they would have already defeated the Navy, the Marines, the Army and the Air Force just to set foot on this rock. Actually, they lack the amphibious capability to invade anyone on a large scale so I wouldn't loose a lot of sleep on that.

homers brother

Precisely.

I preferred to train my riflemen and my SAW and M60/M240 gunners differently. The rifle is a point fire weapon, the machinegun is an area fire weapon. The rifle demands accuracy, the machinegun does not. I wanted my gunners to keep the bad guys heads down long enough for the riflemen to get into position to deal with the problem.

Nomercy448

If you're going to the range to "waste money", in other words, burn a lot of ammo, only take 2 magazines with you. The heat imparted to a heavy barrel after 2-3 30rnd magazines can be so hot you can't touch it. I burnt out a few AR barrels through a season of 3gun shooting, barrels get HOT. Well designed courses of fire (CoF's) give the shooter time between magazines to let the barrels cool a bit.

Sure, if you're looking at high volume shooting with the weapon, then you're not likely to be concerned with high precision shooting EVER. When I call an AR barrel "shot out", to me, that means it opened up from a half inch 100yrd group to an inch or more. You might not be so picky about your accuracy.

If you're looking for a fast cooling rifle, a ventilated forend with a fluted heavy barrel, piston driven rifle is what you want.

And again, only take 2 magazines with you to the range. 60rnds through it, then a long reload time. It'll save you a few thousand dollars over a couple years of shooting, both in barrels as well as ammo (2 mags = more reload time, less shooting time, so 2hrs at the range with 2 mags = less shooting than 2hrs with 20mags).

As far as what weapon you will want when China invades, I'd go with either dual-wield 2 plasma ray guns, or a sonic distruptor rifle, and then a partner outfitted with the opposite... And yes, I am being a d*ck if you can't pick that out in type...

Bullcamp82834

These sad days of ammo shortages, high prices on what is available, and an equally sad state of affairs with reloading components have curtailed my fun days at the range blasting away at various fun targets.
Now I hoard ammo and shoot only what I need for sighting in and a reasonable amount of beneficial practice.
No danger in me burning up any AR15 barrels. LOL