I recently purchased a Rock River Arms 16" mid length upper and built it into a collapseable stock carbine.  Damn that thing is front heavy.  I was thinking of having a gunsmith turn the barrel down a bit on a lathe to lighten it up a bit.  Is this something any of you guys have tried?  Do you think its a good idea, if you tried it, how did it turn out, did you loose anything in terms of accuracy.  This thing is pretty accurate as is, just too damned heavy.

RRA leaves their barrels thicker and heavier than either Armalite or Bushmaster.

Can you send it back to them and have it fluted? Of course, then you'd have to have it refinished. I'd rather have fat barrel fluted than turned down.

K

Didn't think of that.  I don't think RRA flutes them, but Bushmaster does, I wonder if they'd flute another company's stuff???

check out ADCO steve can flute or contour your barrel
+1 for ADCO they do great work

You can try www.ar15barrels.com as well.

+1 for adcofirearms and go with the govt profile under the handguards

I had adco turn a custom profile that i sent in full scale and it turned out great looks wise.  wish i would have left it a little thicker up front though.  I had them turn the part under the handguards to the .82 and in front of the sight i have a m4 contour that i got from a drawing floating around on here a good while back.  The barrel is stainless so thats why i would have left it thicker up front if i would have put more thought into it.  The barrel is less accurate now so im thinking the notch in the m4 profile gave it a wierd vibration in the worst place ( close to the tip of the barrel).  if you want to see what it looks like just so youwill know what it looks like with that much material gone i can post it.  Major    


Edited to add:  The problems i had have nothing to do with adcos work they did exactly what i asked them to so dont let that scare you off.  They are a great company to deal with and id buy or have work done from them in a heartbeat.  

Like I always say..

Turn it down until it looks like a MacDonalds beverage straw.

I had 2 RRA mid-length barrels.  (They're 1" under the HG)  One I had profiled to gub-ment by Steve @ ADCO, the other I had turned to .850-ish and fluted by KKF.

The ADCO one weighed 30 ounces, the KKF fluted weighed 38 ounces. (1/2 pound difference)

Being chrome lined non-match barrels, I couldn't tell ANY difference in the accuracy of the two.  I did NOT experience any shot stringing or groups opening up with the slimmer barrel.

Keep in mind that I had my 1" barrel turned down AND fluted.  If you just get yours fluted, it will weigh more than 38 ounces.

I have now owned 2 fluted barrels, and although I like the look, I won't be spending the money again as it costs more but gives no added benefit over the profiled barrel.

I'd send it to ADCO and have it turned down to .700 if you don't want it "too skinny".