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Stupid Cheap - Diamondback 16-inch 5.56 Barrels
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1 month ago
Good morning, everyone, this is John with gun.deals. Today, on the path to try and blow myself up I'm using another one of the cheapest AR-15 barrels on the market, this is the Diamondback 16-inch mid-length barrel that occasionally goes on sale for a whopping $39.99, making it one of the cheapest AR-15 barrels you can possibly find.
Before we get into all of that, full disclosure on the barrel is that I have absolutely no relationship with Diamondback whatsoever, I believe this is the first Diamondback AR-15 product that I've ever used, so I paid for this with my own money, no relationship with the manufacturer.
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Getting into basics of what this is, this is an extremely cheap AR-15 barrel. This version that we have here this is a 16-inch mid-length gas system, the profile is what they consider to be a medium contour, which is accurate, so you basically have a .65, .675 profile in the back to your shoulder, .750 gas block journal, and then a slight step down towards the end of the barrel. It is a very similar profile, it's not like heavier out front than it is in the back, it's a very well balanced profile in that regard, so a medium contour makes sense. Some of my personal favorite profiles are either the Ballistic Advantage Hansen or the Geissele taper profile barrels, however, this is going to be within an ounce or so an ounce on the heavier side, but it's still going to be very similar to those.
Very interestingly on this barrel, this is a 5.56 chambering with 1:8 twist, a lot of you guys in the comments section, every time I have a 1:7 twist barrel, you guys comment and wish that it was a 1:8 twist barrel. Diamondback on such a cheap barrel is offering it in a standard 1:8 twist, which has a very smooth accuracy curve over a wide range of ammunitions. A 1:7 twist is a fairly fast twist for an AR-15 which will prioritize the heavier bullets, a 1:9 twist is very slow, which will prioritize the lighter bullets, and a 1:8 is right down the middle and tends to do well across a wide variety of bullet weights, meaning that in theory it will help out a little bit in the accuracy department.
A couple other things about this barrel is that this is a 4150 Chrome Molly Vanadium Steel, which is a little bit tougher in general and a little bit cheaper as well. This is a dimpled barrel, which is nice to see, especially at this price point. Personally, anytime I get a barrel that is not dimpled I always go ahead and dimple it, I have several different dimpling jigs that I use that will help with gas block alignment, which is very important as well as gas block security, both those things are very important. Any barrel that is not dimpled from the factory I personally do it here, fortunately, this one came dimpled from the factory.
Talking about the gas port size, it is a .076. .076 on a 16-inch mid-length gun in a 5.56 chambering is the crane-spec, so .076 is almost industry standard, there are a few variations from different manufacturers for different reasons, but almost all of the major manufacturers for a 16-inch mid-length gun with a 5.56 chambering is going to be in a .076, so that is perfectly fine. And honestly, if I was a manufacturer of AR-15 components I would also be using a lot of the industry standards as they are standards for a reason. For specialty components, obviously, you can be a little bit more specialized, but for very standard inexpensive products you want them to perform similar to other products that people are used to, and a .076 gas port size is going to be just right down the middle of the road in terms of gassing, it's going to be a little bit over gassed with most suppressors, unless you're using like a really high flow through can, but if you have something with a lot more back pressure it is going to be a little bit over gassed, if you're shooting unsuppressed it should be very reliable with a wide range of ammunition, which is kind of what you want for a basic AR-15 part.
In this build, this is a little bit ironic, as I think I paid $54 for the barrel. The gas block that's on here, this is a rifle speed gas block that is five times more expensive than the barrel itself, and the handguard is also about five times as expensive as the barrel. It's a little bit silly in here, but the performance that we're getting out of the barrel is just fine, and the reason that I threw the rifle speed adjustable gas block on here is not because it needs it, it is a very soft shooting upper when unsuppressed.The reason that I threw it on there is that I am going to be shooting it suppressed and I like my guns to run as nicely as possible, and I don't like inhaling toxic fumes.
One of the most common issues at the extreme value end of things or the cheap end of things, ‘cuz I do think these barrels can be had for a extremely cheap price, is going to be quality control. Things like: Are your feed ramps polished, or are they in good order? Are there burrs in the back? Are they not properly machined? Is there some sort of finish issues on the exterior or interior of the barrel threads concentricity? All those sorts of things can suffer when you start to get into the extreme value end of things.
Fortunately, on this example here, which is only one of one so you have to take this with a grain of salt, I may have just gotten very lucky, but the M4 feed ramps in the back are very nice, no burrs, nothing like that, nothing to hang up on, reliability has been 100%. Exterior finish, the machining looks very good, threads were just fine, and I've shot the suppressed and unsuppressed without issue. Very important with any barrel is going to be accuracy, and fortunately, even for such an inexpensive barrel, AR-15s just tend to be accurate no-matter-what, especially when you're using a good ammunition, and I was able to get around 1 MOA with some Match loads, and about 1 and a half to 2 MOA with others, and I was seeing anywhere from 2 to 3 MOA with Ball.
Anytime you can get under 1 and a half MOA with a gas gun with the right ammunition, that's a very good sign, and a 1:8 twist it is a middle weight profile as they say, so it's not a super light contour, so the accuracy that we're seeing out of it is what I would consider to be perfectly acceptable. Is this an MOA or sub MOA gun all day long? Probably not, but you're certainly going to be getting acceptable results, especially when considering the price tag. Quality control quibbles aside, the unit that I have here is working very well.
Would I just outright recommend this barrel to everyone? Well, no, there are certainly better barrels on the market, better profiles, whatever features that you may or may not be looking for, and if you have more money you can definitely get those, however, if you're trying to build something on the cheap, and you're looking for something that is functional, has a decent level of accuracy, I can't vouch for all the units floating around out there because this is a sample size of one, but if you get a good one it should perform fairly well.
