Minimum Weight AR-15

[Hop]

My run-n-gun pistol AR has a standard Aero bcg, upper and lower, cf handgaurd, 11.5" fluted barrel.

It weighs about 5-3/4# with an MRO & about 6-1/4# with the Leupold scope.

Capable of doing MOA. Makes hits to 300 yards easily.

I'm happy with the build and think it would be a good self defense gun. My only long term concern would be with the set screw style gas block. I prefer taper pins on my "go to war" guns.

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[Sniper 79]

AR pistol is the way in the 9mm flavor

 

[Hohn]

I'm happy with the build and think it would be a good self defense gun. My only long term concern would be with the set screw style gas block. I prefer taper pins on my "go to war" guns.

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I'm considering another DD barrel for a lighter-ish build. Even their lightweight profiles aren't the lightest (1.4# with LPGB at 14.5"). But I've been so impressed with the quality of my 18" S2W DD barrel--which is factory pinned LPGB-- that I'm strongly considering eating the minor weight penalty compared to a Faxon just get have the known accuracy and hell-and-back- durability of the DD barrel.

My 18" is 70% sub-MOA with handloads (200-14x @300y). Don't ever let someone tell you that 5.56 chrome can't shoot accurately.

But's it's nearly a 3# barrel and GB setup. Svelte, she is not.

I could drop nearly a pound and a half just going down to a 16" LW profile over 18" S2W in an otherwise identical build. That's more than the weight of even a big scope in most cases.


For what I'd want a LW gun to do, I think frankly a Faxon pencil would work just fine for me. But having lived with the DD quality for a few years now, I might be turning into a DD snob. And while they cost a bit more, they are still less than MANY barrels out there (COugh* Noveske*)

Heck, if you aren't pursuing the lightest of the light, then Lothar Walther and other really good barrels are suddenly in play.


Maybe I'm going about this wrong, but I don't choose a barrel brand based on weight. Rather, I'd choose a lightweight barrel from a "short list" of makers I believe to be GTG when it comes to durability and accuracy and not costing a fortune:

- Larue
- L-W
- DD
- BCM
- Maybe Faxon

For me the threshold of pain is about $300 for a barrel. Above that, I'm not sure you're getting much more than a brand.