I am building an A4 for service rifle matches. I have all of my parts, except for the barrel. How are the LW barrels compared to Krieger, WOA, CLE and RRA?

Here is the specific barrel i am looking at? LW barrel

There is only one way to find out.

Thanks for the notice.

Edit:  Also visit the Lothar Walther website itself. They advertise a 20" replacement barrel.

quite helpful.

I would say Krieger is better, but the LW50 is 5.56 and better then the others.

I think there is a 5.56 Krieger too, but the only one that I have seen groups from is the .223 version.

...based on what?

There have been outfits in the past offering LW AR barrels.  It seems that a few of them were offering them because they lacked the equipment/ability to turn and chamber their own blanks.  FWIW, none of the outfits that I saw offering them do so currently.  The one LW AR barrel that I got to handle and examine had longitudinal grooves in the interior that did not follow the rifling.  A friend noticed the same thing in his borescope as well.  Strangest thing I saw.  My take was it was a side effect of their mechanized bore lapping process.

BTW, the link showed the LW barrel with a Wylde chamber...not a 5.56 chamber.  They Wylde is much better for accuracy and Highpower work.

Wylde handles 5.56 pressures fine, it is basically a modified 5.56 chamber so it shoots well with all types of ammo.

LaRue uses LW50 barrels in all of their rifles and if you saw the groups their OBRs and stealth uppers get you would see what I am talking about. I also have a LW50 barrel in a Franken SPR

Also my post was a bit unclear. I would consider Krieger the best, and LW to be better then most.


ETA: I would call up spikes tactical. They used to offer the LW50 barrels in all configurations and coatings on their website. They still have them because they use LW50 barrels in their SPR upper.

Again I'll ask, what are you basing your opinion that Krieger is the best and LW is better than most on?

I'm not seeing Larue barrels being used in Highpower.  But I do have a friend with a Larue upper that is having problems getting it to group.  I even gave him some of my short line 77 ammo to see if it would help. (it didn't).  If it's an LW barrel, it's not a shining example of what someone would want to get.

As for Krieger I'm goin by what I have read and heard. They are definetly very pricey also. When Molon does ammunition reviews in the ammo section he uses his Krieger barrel. Before he shoots the ammo he is reviewing he shoots a group of reloads to show what the barrel is capable of, and they are very impressive...







As for your freind's LT upper maybe he should contact LaRue? What does the test target look like? Have you tried another shooter? I reload for mine and I have an upper that is BASICALLY the same as the LaRue one and it shoots well with a bunch of different reloads I have worked up....

Here are two of my best groups so far. I shoot 5 shot groups because I'm cheap....






As for WOA, over the last year there have been several threads that I have seen about people not being able to get tiny groups, the best they can get are around 1", but then there are people who can get .5" groups. They just seem inconsistent. Your friend is honestly the first person I have heard of having an issue with a LaRue upper not being able to group, same for LW50 barrels.

I've gone through at least four Kriegers, a bunch of Pac-Nors, an Obermeyer or two and probably a couple of others that don't come to mind on  223 AR's at the moment.  The Kriegers were good, but no better than the others.  They had Wylde and CLE chambers.  One Krieger had a SAAMI 223 chamber that shot good, but blew primers regularly.  Several friends had similar experiences, so I think it might have to do with the SAAMI throating.  I even have a couple of Colt Chrome 7 twists that hold moa in spite of their NATO chambers.  I do have a couple of Wilson AR barrel that shoot lights out, but they're in 6mm, so it's probably not relevant to this discussion.  I did just realize that I do have a LW barrel that came on a 6.5 grendel, but again it's not 223/556 so not relevant to the discussion.

Barrels are a consumable for me.  As long as they shoot 10 shot MOA, they're good for me.  Some shoot better.  None have shot worse.  I'm not attached to any one maker (okay maybe Obermeyer, because I can hardly get Boots to make me one, and I got one waiting in the wings that Grandpa Wylde himself sold me) as long as they shoot and aren't finicky about what they eat.  I think it's good to share experiences with your barrel, but folks making broad claims off of sample sizes of one or make similar broad claims based on what they read on the internet kill me .

My advice to the OP is to get a barrel from someone experienced in the purpose you're purchasing it for.  Make sure they're prepared to offer service after the sale.  Try as they might, no one is perfect, and a bad barrel or upper might get out the door.  How they handle it defines for me their worth.  White Oak and CLE are top notch in my book in that regard.  Pick a price point you're willing to pay, and apply the above criteria and I guarantee you you'll walk away happy.

It came down to budget. I passed on the LW and the Kreiger. I went with a Criterion. Criterion is owned by Kreiger. The specs were what i wanted and the price met my budget better. If there wasn't a 2 month wait on WOA, i might have got it. WOA and this Criterion were very close in price. I will shoot this set up for a year or so and learn Sevice Rifle match shooting. Then I might step up to a better barrel.

thanks guys