So I'm looking at building a pistol and have been on r/ar15 on reddit for a lot of info, but a lot of them don't seem to know what's up and just spew the same regurgitated info they had read a billion times before.


I'm looking at doing a 7"-8.5" barrel and SBR in the future. Now I know some suppressor companies (or most) won't fix a suppressor under warranty with a barrel that short. If that's the case, I'll just build a new upper when that day arrives. It's going to be a range toy so fireballs and noise are a big deal. After all, it is a range where things go boom. The one thing I couldn't really verify without a strongly biased opinion was that it really hurts the internals of the AR when it's that short. Is this true? Is there anything I can do to circumvent that (AR pistol specific parts, cleaning regularly, ect.)?


I really like the look of a pistol with a shorter barrel, but if a 10.5" is really the best I guess I could do that. I don't really care about shooting longer ranges with is, as I have an AR10 for that. The pistol really will be just a fun range toy.

I just built a 7.5 in pistol and love it, no problems at all with it, build what you want and like and enjoy shooting it.

So no issues with internals at all?

None!  I have put around 1000 rounds down the tube and have had no problems at all

Not sure where you received this inaccurate info and I've never heard of a warranty claim being denied because of barrel length. The big 3 suppressor companies will bend over backwards if you have a failure. Sometimes even when your the cause of the failure.

Personally a 10.5" or 11"5 Barrel are great SBR's...and I haven't heard that internals are more at risk by running a shorter barrel. Running it suppressed and being overgased will cause issues. You need to fine tune the buffer system and gas port size once you start deceasing barrel length.

I have a 10.5" pistol, my son has an 8.5" and an 11.5". No problems with any of them.

It was from Reddit, but I take everything with a grain of salt from there. Basically they were saying there was too much pressure from a sub 10" barrel and that it would damage the baffles and suppressor companies wouldn't fix it under warranty. Good to know this isn't true. I looked at several websites and never saw a warning about it or in the .pdf manuals neither.



So fine tuning the gas port size would just require an adjustable gas block right?

Awesome great to hear! Is the 8.5" significantly, or noticeably, louder than the 10.5"/11.5"?