Palmetto AR barrel change

[T-Roy]

K, why pistol? What is the benefit over a carbine?

300 was designed to be fired from a short barrel suppressed. It uses fast burning powders and is optimized for a 9-10" barrel. A 4" Pistol gas system captures enough pressure to cycle supersonic, sometimes subsonic unsupressed. A 7" carbine gas system will struggle to cycle even with supersonic and you'll have lots of trouble with subs. Not to say some guns won't cycle subs unsupressed with a 7" system, but as a general rule 4" is the way to go.

 

[Trav]

Awesome info guys! I came to the right place. As I said earlier it felt like it was more than just changing a barrel out and moving on.
So i'll go dig up a low profile pistol system for a 16" barrel 1:9 twist and a new crush ring, barrel brake and a floating rail........ im thinking this just got much more expensive

Last question - I hear as many say have an smith do it for proper headspace checks as I hear people say you can just stick them together and go. Thoughts?

 

[Radar363]

I've only purchased barrels from well-known sources and the barrel extension is already pressed in: I've never checked for or had an issue with head spacing.
Are you doing this mostly for the experience/satisfaction of building an upper? At this point prices are low enough that it might be cheaper to buy a complete .300 upper.

 

[T-Roy]

X2. If it's manufactured to spec headspace won't be an issue. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Radar363]

X2. If it's manufactured to spec headspace won't be an issue. I wouldn't worry about it.

I should have edited my post to say that it's not unheard of for even well-respected manufacturers to send out a bad piece, but it doesn't happen enough to loose any sleep over.

 

[T-Roy]

I should have edited my post to say that it's not unheard of for even well-respected manufacturers to send out a bad piece, but it doesn't happen enough to loose any sleep over.

Lol, it's a catch 22, if I had said don't ever worry about it someone would jump on me and say they can be out of spec. Most people never check headspace on an ar build and never have an issue.