Hodge Defense 14.5” Barrel Accuracy: A Quick Look




For decades after the AR-15 was first introduced to the “civilian” market, shooters basically had three choices for barrel contours/profiles in factory-built AR-15s: government profile, HBAR (heavy barrel) and the original “pencil” profile. (Not even John Wick slayed as many bad guys “with a pencil” as our soldiers did with the pencil profile Colt AR-15 barrel).


government profile




HBAR




John Wick profile



In the early 2000s, innovators such as John Noveske began offering alternative contours/profiles for their AR-15 barrels. These new contours were designed to offer improved weight distribution, with the attendant benefits, compared to the previously mentioned three profiles. For example, the Noveske medium-contour stainless-steel barrels offer reduced weight compared to an HBAR profile, while maintaining much of the accuracy of the HBAR profile.


Noveske 16” medium contour




Noveske’s N4 “light” contour barrels maintain the same weight as a government profile barrel of equal length, but with an improved contour. As an example, the 16” Noveske N4 light barrel has a stripped weight of 1 pound 12 ounces, the same weight as a stripped 16” Colt government profile barrel (6920).


Noveske 16” N4 light profile




Colt 16” government profile



In keeping with the approach to barrel contours of maintaining the same weight as a government profile barrel, while improving the weight distribution and in conjunction with additional improvements, Hodge Defense markets their own vision of such barrels and is now offering these barrels for sale to the general public. The contour of the Hodge Defense barrel is similar to Black River Tactical's Optimum barrel which is manufactured by Fabrique Nationale.  The stripped weight of the 14.5” Hodge Defense barrel is 1 pound, 8.5 ounces. For comparison, the stripped weight of a standard Colt 14.5” M4 barrel is 1 pound, 9 ounces.


Black River Tactical



14.5” Hodge defense



Colt M4 barrel (not stripped)



The 14.5” Hodge Defense barrel is manufactured by Fabrique Nationale, to secret-squirrel specifications, for Hodge Defense. This barrel is cold-hammer-forged and has a 1:7” twist. The barrel employs a mid-length gas system and has a 0.75“ gas block journal. The gas port on my barrel gauged at 0.075”.





A rather unique aspect of this barrel is found in the chamber. Located in the neck section of the chamber, is a ring of six triangular shaped “flutes“. The base of the triangle faces towards the breech end of the barrel.





I assembled the Hodge Defense barrel in a Bravo Company upper receiver and BCM MCMR 13” free-float hand-guard that has nearly perfect anodizing. I rounded-out this build with a JP Enterprises bolt, a Young Manufacturing bolt carrier and a BCM charging handle.









Shooting off of sandbags at a distance of 100 yards using match-grade hand-loads and a high-magnification scope, the Hodge Defense barrel produced a 10-shot group that had an extreme spread of 1.24”.









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Nice writeup as always. What ammo did you use for this?

Hand-loads topped with the Sierra 52 grain MatchKing.


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Have you found that a variety of barrels shoot that load well? Every 223/556 I own shoots the 60gr Sierra Varminter over 26gr of TAC exceptionally well. My stock windham with a cheap bushnell scope has constantly put down .7" groups from that load.

Did you try with anything else?

Awesome thanks! $450 dayummm

This^ I like quality parts but $450 for a CL barrel, that’s a hard pass from me. I don’t have $450 in a CLE Douglas

Thanks for the review Molon.

52gr seems a bit light for 1/7 twist

curious to see how 77gr does

That load has shot well in every single AR-15 barrel that I've owned.

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Definitely a steep price-tag for a chrome lined barrel.

Another Molon article.

52 grain SMK fired from an AR-15 with a fast twist Lothar Walther barrel.






55 grain bullets fired from a 1:9" twist barrel and a 1:7" twist barrel.



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Looks like I need to fix the broken picture links in that one two.

You're using TAC right? LC cases too? What primers maybe, and seating depth?

VhitaVuori N133 or N135, sorted and prepped Lake City or Lapua brass, Federal Gold Medal primers, 2.235" seating depth.

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately during this drought, I'm going to tap out because of the bolded parts but will save that data for the future as I am an optimist

Are those the AR15 specific 205MAR or the 205M primers? I've got some 205MAR but zero balanced with 205M.

What optic are you using?

Leupold VARI-X III set at 25X magnification and adjusted to be parallax-free at 100 yards.





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Molon, without looking at your socom reviews, how does this hodge compare accuracy wise to the socom?   And also if you have tested other FN made 14.5 ML barrels like a spikes for instance, how it compares to those.

Two different SOCOM barrels from over a decade apart.

Molon excellent write up and data presentation....

Impressive.  Ordered my 2nd socom colt barrel the other day from G&R for $230 shipped. Looking forward to putting it together in a block ii build at some point. Thanks again for the review.

To me it looks like $450.00 of waste

Hodge is the “Supreme” of the gun world.

Does hodges barrel contour resemble kac barrels. To my eye it does.

Nope.

People who wear supreme don't cryptically suggest there's some sort of secret sauce to it I can't understand without buying it.

Speaking of, what are those triangles for in the chamber?

Apparently they're a matter of National Security that no one is allowed to discuss.

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This barrel "liked" this load better than the several other loads that I fired through it.

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Did any of those include M855A1?

Also, do have any way to verify if the bore is tapered? I've seen/heard that claim before, just curious.

Please excuse my ignorance on the FN made hodge stuff.

Are these suppose to shoot A1 like a laser or something?  

Are you serious about the tapered bore?

ETA: looks like it’s common with the CHF process having the last several inches of the bore taper some for ease of mandrel pull out?   Either way doesn’t look like it helped much in the accuracy dept…. And if the FN made hodge has the slight taper at the end of the bore, I’d think all of their CHF barrels have that taper and not unique to the FN hodge.

M855A1 is lame as far as accuracy is concerned.




You would need an air gauge for that, which I don't have.

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You can actually use lead balls tamped into the bore to measure rifling and bore diameter. Since it's a taper, one should do it if you pushed it back out the chamber after proceeding x distance at a time. It's how I would measure old milsurp bores, particularly Lee Enfield barrels that are notoriously poorly made. The lead will become more cylindrical, and impart rifling and bore size.

No, I don't think it's supposed to be a laser with A1, but supposedly was designed for heavy, suppressed use of A1.

Yes, they are supposed to be tapered.




Yeah, I understand M855A1 isn't a match precision round. I wouldn't expect it to be better than what you've shown, just wondering how it does in relation.

So basically slugging the barrel?

See edit above.

ETA : Also what rumored features make it ‘designed for heavy suppressed use of A1’?

Yep. All it is.

Many barrels might have the taper, I don't know. These barrels are designed to last a very long time with the precision they have. No, I can't personally verify that with 20,000 rounds of suppressed and full auto use of M855A1.

The main feature to make it conducive to that is the proprietary alloy everyone likes to bitch about.

Molon, I always enjoy your write ups. Very thorough and unbiased.  Glad you are back.  Keep up the good work.  Thanks!

Just like any FN made chf barrel.. not trying to be rude but you should read any manufacturers/resellers description on their rebadged FN barrels..  PSA would be a good start.

Smells like snake oil to me.  I mean if they made their own stuff this would be more believable.  I’d wager that the only difference between the FN hodge and any other FN chf barrel is the profile.

"They" is essentially Jim Hodge. He's not going to mine and forge barrels from scratch. The barrels exist because of his working history with FN, it was his personal project. None of that part is a mystery, he's made plenty of public forum posts and interviews and a P&S Modcast plainly stating what it's about. I was super skeptical when I first read about his carbines on TOS, but I've learned a lot since then.

His barrels certainly aren't for everybody. I don't have one, don't know if I ever will. I'm just trying to add perspective as to why someone would pay that much for a barrel that isn't made for precision over a PSA special.

I read some descriptions just now to include the hodge.  They all talk about FN and FN’s proprietary steel in their descriptions.

The bulk of Hodges description on their barrel is pumping and basically describing the A1 ammo, yet they word it vaguely to make it seem like their (FN made) barrel is something special needed to shoot A1. Very deceptive.   It’s very brilliantly written to be honest.

I like digging deeper than product/marketing descriptions. Molon, for example, helps with that by providing data on a specific trait for a variety of barrels. I would imagine FN has a variety of proprietary steels for different uses, same with HK and their 416. The Hodge barrels claim to be optimized for M855A1 (hint: not your average gun enthusiast), I think interpreting anything else is a personal bias, it's widely known there are a few barrel brands that have used that ammo in service.

I would wager it is to help extraction with over pressured ammo without having to change the chamber dimension.

You'd think a company that charges black market kidney prices would be able to talk on what makes them special with actual facts.

iYkYk, or so the legend says.

Molon in terms of general accuracy and longevity that the Colt 14.5 SOCOM barrels are the best "bang for the buck" at the moment?

Exactly what in the construction of 885A1 makes you think it needs some specially optimized barrel?  Its a copper jacketed projectile like any other.  Snake oil

As I suspected, you reach a point of diminishing returns with a $450 barrel and accuracy.