Stainless Steel AR Barrels

10-4. I've seen them on a few guns, but never thought of buying one until I was given the chance today. Preciate the info.

From a manufacturing perspective the stainless steel used in rifle barrels are easier to machine than Chromoly steel which leads to better tolerance control and smoother bores. The stainless alloys are also more homogeneous than their high carbon brothers which gives you a more even surface treatment and yet again allows for a smother bore. None of these material features really have much bearing for us every day Joes and our AR15's. But like Clames said that's the reason those National Match guys use stainless. A Nitrided/Melonite barrel will be more corrosion resistance and will not throat erode as quickly. I wouldn't want stainless on a high volume mag dumper. If I can get a much better deal on a setup I want with a stainless barrel v. nitride or chrome lines I *might* go with a stainless then. The only real reason I can think of to get stainless over anything else is that you like the way it looks. When I built my $440 "how cheap can I build an AR" rifle I went with stainless specifically for the aesthetics. knowing the drawbacks. Plus it was $69 which worked towards the how cheap can I build it angle of the build.

I don't really do mag dumps anymore.

I use stainless barrels because I like to shoot little groups.

Barrel life may be less, but of course that depends on what your definition of acceptable accuracy is. 1 or 2 moa may be acceptable to you, but for a competition shooter its way past time to pull that barrel. It may very well have a couple thousand rounds left for a weekend/recreational shooter.

All good info above. Decide what you want your rifle to do and then pick the parts.

Also, Clames brought up a good point about barrel makers. Who makes the barrel(stainless) can impact performance. Wilson stainless barrels will work for most, but they are not the quality or Bartlein or Kreiger.

No full auto; but, I do require the ability to sustain a high rate of fire, just in case.

One disadvantage of stainless is that they don't dissipate heat quickly enough to sustain 12-15 rounds a minute.

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It's more accurate than chrome lined.

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The material has the properties which would enable it to be manufactured to a greater tolerance and consistency and therefor greater accuracy than chrome lined. Doesn't necessarily mean it has been manufactured to be more accurate.

I'm sure most would agree, accuracy is much more dependent on the shooter.

Unless you're doing some serious competition shooting or long range hunting a SS barrell is pointless.

Correct, accuracy comes down to the barrel making process itself, not the host material. I said "as far as the AR platform is concerned" because AR15s are modeled after the M16/M4, which is a fighting rifle, not a benchrest gun meant to shoot sub .25 MOA. Yes, there are ARs built to be shot small group competitively, if that is what the OP is doing go ahead an throw a quality SS barrel on it. IMO, An AR that shoots MOA is more than accurate enough.

You are correct in that a SS barrel will resist erosion better than unlined or untreated 4000 steel, but by ensuring your barrel is CL or Nitrided this advantage swings in the other direction. A 4150 barrel that is Nitrided (from a reputable manufacturer) will last longer than SS, have the same accuracy potential since they both lack the variability/inconsistency of a lining, and be more corrosion resistant. You also need to be mindful of which SS you choose as each has it's downfall you don't find in 4000 steel, most notably the inclusion of sulfur that form sulfide stringers which combined with bad tempering can cause catastrophic failures. Not a wide spread problem, but it was in 2004 if you bought a Sako/Tikka with a stainless barrel. Now you don't find this sulfur issue in 410 like you do in 416, but 410 is still subject to temper embrittlement in order to make it 'free machining'. Agian, if you got the right manufacturer doing it, it'll probably be OK. But this is why I would not recommend buying a 'budget' (read corners and QC cut) SS barrel for any rifle. And because of the lack of advantage for SS barrels in the AR15 platform I would not recommend them there as well.