For anyone who's had a noveske recon barrel, is it worth the money? I assume being noveske it's gotta be good. But do you believe it to be worth it?

I don't have a recon Noveske barrel, but I have an 18" LW and a 14.5" LW.  They both shoot extremely well.  

Thanks for the input. I kinda thought anything noveske would be good to go.

You can automatically subtract $80.00 to $90.00 from Noveske's barrel price when you figure in the cost of the pinned gas block. Most other barrels come naked.

Hmm I didn't even take that into account. Thank you very much!

The only stainless noveske I own is a 13.7 infidel. One of my favorite guns.

Seems like my original thought that I wouldn't be disappointed in noveske is going to be a good assumption.

You live in Illinois, home of another top barrel maker - take a look at White Oak Armament of Carlock, IL. Their SPR barrels are hammers and cost around $275.00 plus shipping. Have John Holliger bead blast the barrel to a matte finish, it's only a $10.00 or so up charge. Otherwise it will show up shiny.

I have a 14.5" Afghan barrel on my rifle. I haven't shot it yet, but damn is the thing high quality. The pinned gas block is great as well, and they include a gas tube.

I just have to mention, at 32oz I wasn't really ready for the weight of the barrel. Reading 32oz on a website and feeling 32oz on your gun are two completely different things. It's not horrible or killer weight, but it is damn noticeable. A 2lb barrel is definitely something you feel. I'm going to have to start eating more steak and working out more (lol).

A Recon is 2lbs 3oz. You're definitely going to feel that. Just make sure you take that into account when you're considering the build and what you're going to use it for.

That being said, you can't go wrong with Novekse.

One final thing I feel I should mention, and I don't know if this is my Cryptic Coatings BCG or if it's the gas tube, but the fitment in the gas key is REALLY tight. It's so tight that it hangs up on a chamber check and won't go all the way into battery. You really need to let it slam home to get that gas tube to fully seat into the gas key. I also have a Battle Arms Development black gas tube (which is on my rifle now) and that also had the same problem with the gas key. My gunsmith said that it would work itself out after I shot the gun, but again, it's something that should be mentioned.

Enjoy your barrel!

Oh its good, but the question you need to ask yourself is do you need the extra accuracy that barrel provides. The 16" Recon is what I have and it's a beast, not unmanageable but still very noticeable. I was building the gun to be a general purpose, high end battle rifle with a kick ass barrel. The recon should shoot sub moa with the right ammo and shooter but the CHF Noveske barrels shoot just over 1 moa according to Molon's tests. Do you need the extra 6-8 (I think) ounces to get your groups a 1/4in smaller? If I ever build a second Noveske upper it'll be with the CHF barrel.

Now if I was going for an SPR type build where weight isn't really a big issue then the Recon barrel is the ticket...

I'm going for a recce/spr type build. Probably not a bunch of running and gunning so weight should be a very terrible thing to deal with. Although my mk12 mod1 has helped me realize I need to work out a bit more haha.

I'm going for a recce/spr type build. Wanted something a bit shorter than my mk12. But I'd like to see good groupings out of it. I found a decent deal on the recon barrels so that why I figured I may try it out. Thank you for the input.

I've owned up to 9 different length Noveske SS barrels at one point and a handful of their CHF ones. Each one met or exceeded my expectations and I see no reason for that to be any different at this point. I built my RECCE back in 2007 and it was definitely a great shooter. Only reason I sold most of them off was because I got more into 3 gun style shooting and taking classes and the weight after 10+ hours on the line got fatiguing.