Currently have a 16" BCM carbine barrel (govt profile) and want to go to a 14.5" mid length system.  The whole purpose being that I want shorter and lighter (I do not want to pay the tax stamp).  I have been shopping around and have always been a BCM fanboy so it would be hard to pull me away from them, but have seen good reviews on Ballistic Advantage barrels and Faxon barrels.  The Faxon GUNNER profile has me intrigued.  What would be my best bet from these three?  Or is there another suggestion out there that I am completely missing?  I have never had a barrel that was melonite/nitride so that would also be different for me.  Any help or suggestions would be appreciated as I have never handled a product from BA or Faxon.  I would love to keep the price around what a BCM would cost ($250ish).

I have both a BA hanson and a faxon gunner barrel, both cmv steel. Both are are great barrels with excellent acuracy. I wouldn't hesitate to buy either again. I get much better accuracy from these melonite barrel than i have from chrome lined barrels

I love my Ballistic Advantage barrels. Got another on the way

I have a BA Hanson 14.5. No complaints here. GTG

Have you looked at the voodoo innovations 14.5 with the pre installed manimal muzzle device?

BA Hanson 14.5 are GTG from what I hear as long as you're using decent ammo. I also like that they come with pinned low pros. I've read reports of some users having to open up gas ports to allow for use with a wider range of ammo. Keep in mind if you don't want to pay the stamp you'll have to pay for a pin/weld job. BCM has 5% off uppers right now, have you considered selling your upper on the EE and just buying a new upper? I just recently got a BCM ELW BFH 14.5 KMR-A upper with a pinned Mod 1 and love it. I'll update when I find the thread I mentioned...

ETA http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_3_12/682388_Ballistic_Advantage_barrels_.html

I would probably go with the 14.7" pencil profile from Ballistic Advantage.  Don't be scared to try their QPQ/Melonited finish.  The 11.5" BA barrel I got was my first as well and it has convinced me to always go with BA if they have one in the right profile I want for my needs.  You can't beat the pricing for what you get.  The QPQ finish they have looks very nice, sort of a semi-gloss type look that looks a lot better then your standard phosphate barrels, with the added advantage of it being corrosion resistant on the outside and inside both and not just the inside.  

I have heard great things about Faxon as well and wouldn't pass one up for the right deal.  But would still choose a BA over them for personal preference.  The BCM barrels cost a great deal more, and I am not sure that you really get a better quality barrel, maybe even less so due to the normal phosphate finish/chrome bore.  And I have heard a lot of reports of their barrels not being the most accurate, of course that is a hit or miss thing and I have never owned one myself.  And by not the most accurate I am not talking anything horrible, just maybe 2-3" groups on average instead of 1-1.5" of a different barrel.  And I have also seen a few BCM barrels that were capable of 1 MOA, I am just going off the average on what I have read.  I do like the looks of their new Enhanced Lightweight Fluted barrels though.  I may pick up one eventually, but not sure that it is really worth it over the standard pencil barrel that BA offers.  They just have them in different lengths that aren't provided by BA.

I have not, until now...thanks for the suggestion.

So...it seems as if Ballistic Advantage gets the nod of these three.  I had never heard of them and honestly just stumbled across their website luckily.  The other thread has me a little worried about the size of their gas hole on the 14.5" middie, but then others said it wasn't an issue at all.  Is a 14.5" better suited as a carbine or mid length gas system?

Technically, carbine is "correct" but there are tons of mid lengths out there that have no issues.

I have the Voodoo 14.5 with my own muzzle device pinned.  Tack driver!

I like my BA 14.5 Hanson.

This whole "14.5" mid length isn't reliable" thing is total bullshit...one company (BCM) had issues with their gas port early on, but has corrected it.

I have built a few, and have couple of my own 14.5" middy rifles...buy with confidence.

My first choice would be a BCM upper, but if not then look at this 14.5" Green Mountain.

It is very similar (if not identical) to the barrel they make for the BCM Jack Carbine.

I also have one...great quality, great shooter, just not a fan if the government profile as it feels front heavy to me even with the slim flash hider.

Since you have both...would you say one is a better quality over the other? Or equal in your mind?

I've built 3 guns with 14.5" BFH middies from BCM. They all run 100% with H2 buffers.

I'm a big fan of BCM

FWIW, Ballistic Advantage has 15% off from now until the 30th (link).   Just add to cart and it'll be applied during checkout.

And finally...I think I want to go with the pencil profile. Should I be worried about accuracy or any other issues with it being so skinny?  I won't be doing any crazy mag dumps to melt it.

Lightweight barrel testing vid  <----Mrgunsngear aka plouffedaddy's YT page

Thanks.


Embed:

You won't tell much difference between the pencil barrel and gov profile barrel.  As the gov profile adds mass to the end of the barrel where it isn't used much, and under the handguard is still pencil even on the gov profile barrels, and that is where the heat builds up the most.  So there is a little difference, but not worth the weight difference at all.  Accuracy will be very close as well.  

I have heard others mention gas ports being too small on their BA barrels, but believe most of them were using the fancier Hanson profiled SS barrels.  Their regular line may be different.  Either way I would go with their 14.7 pencil mid-length and not think twice.  That extra .2 don't seem like much but it is very nice because you can put a regular A2 flashhider on it and have it pinned and it will be legal length.  A 14.5 won't be legal with a regular A2 FH, you will need an extended one which costs more and don't look as good to me.  Also there is a good chance that whoever was having issues with their gas ports was probably using a heavy buffer, and the weaker 223 ammo.  Most people have to make sure their gas ports are opened up enough to run H2 and H3 buffers as it seems most people want to run them anymore.  I'd rather have a correctly drilled gas port with a standard carbine buffer.

Well after a ton of research and taking everyone's comments into consideration on here I went with the 14.5" Ballistic Advantage Hanson profile barrel.  It was 15% off and free shipping.  Next up is a comp or flash hider.  I'm thinking I can't go wrong with a YHM Phantom.

you might want to go with a muzzle device you can mount a suppressor on later if you get the bug.

I would also look at Noveske's 14.5 skinny barrel (Rog Tac had a nice sale on this past week with facebook code)
the Noveske comes with a nice lo pro gas block with the drilled pin & middie gas tube