Greetings,

I currently have a Bushmaster 16" flattop A3.  I'm considering another AR for the wifey or giving her mine and me having something along the lines of an SPR.  Everything I read about the .223 bullet fragmentation suggests a longer barrel for higher velocity and longer range fragmentation capability of the bullet.  It seems a lot of folks here opt for the M4 14.5" length barrel.  Am I the odd one out that thinks that a 16" barrel would be better as a more across the board type barrel length to go with?  Would  1 1/2" less barrel length really make the AR that much more handy?  From everything I have read here and on other sites, the 16" makes more sense.  Also, if going for more of an SPR platform, why go with an 18" when I would think a 20" barrel gives you a little bit more range?

Thanks for your responses

Quoted: Greetings, I currently have a Bushmaster 16" flattop A3.  I'm considering another AR for the wifey or giving her mine and me having something along the lines of an SPR.  Everything I read about the .223 bullet fragmentation suggests a longer barrel for higher velocity and longer range fragmentation capability of the bullet.  It seems a lot of folks here opt for the M4 14.5" length barrel.  Am I the odd one out that thinks that a 16" barrel would be better as a more across the board type barrel length to go with?  Would  1 1/2" less barrel length really make the AR that much more handy?  From everything I have read here and on other sites, the 16" makes more sense.  Also, if going for more of an SPR platform, why go with an 18" when I would think a 20" barrel gives you a little bit more range? Thanks for your responses

18" is working for them pretty well with a suppressor.  I hear they're making kills using 77gr rounds at 600yds.

14.5 inches is good for self defense with M193. Who are we kidding, we're not going to be involved in a defensive shooting past its 75M frag distance anyway. If you want more range switch to 1/7 and buy some 77gr ammo.

  Barrel length does not equal accuracy. The misnomer that it did started because longer barells generaly had a longer sight radius, the longer sight radius is what creats accuracy. It has been suggested that a longer barrel flexs and "whips" more that a short barrel, thus throwing your shot off. If you are useing a scope, a 16" bull barrel will yield great accuracy. I hand load, so I use powder with a relativealy quick burn rate, that way it burns most of it in the short barrel.  I use Reloader-7 and 50grain bullets in my 16" barrel and I don't see any flash at the muzzle, that means it has all burned by that point, if I used any longer of a barrel the bullet would only slow down. Now if I had a 24" barrel, I would use Reloader-25 (a slow burning powder) to acheive max velocity.