The “rifle-length” gas system of a 20" barrel is 5" longer than the “carbine-length” gas system used on all 14.5" and many 16" M4-style carbines. military, which give an edge to the M16 over the M4. or 10 percent.įor reliability and durability data we can look to tests conducted by the U.S.
The muzzle energy difference is about 125 ft.-lbs. For the carbine, that means about a 5 percent loss in velocity. advantage compared with a 16" barrel, the common length for civilian carbines. In my testing, using Federal’s XM855 ammunition, a 20" barrel recorded about a 150-f.p.s. advantage over the 14.5"-barreled M4 when shooting M855 ammunition. Whether your purpose is hunting, target shooting or self-defense, there are three distinct advantages of the rifle-length AR over its shorter-barreled siblings-ballistics, reliability and durability.įirst, let’s look at the ballistics. USA and Palmetto State Armory building ARs with the 20" “government-profile” barrel of the M16A2. Recently, rifle-length ARs have regained popularity, with manufacturers including Colt, FN America, Bravo Co. Two current iterations of retro-style, 20"-barreled ARs are the FN 15 Military Collector Series M16 (above)-shown here with a Trijicon 4X 32 mm ACOG-and Brownells’ BRN-601 (bottom) with its fixed carry handle, green furniture and waffle magazine.
In contrast, M16s and the earliest AR-15s feature a light barrel profile (the difference in weight between an M16A4 and an M4 is only 1 lb.), which yields completely different handling and balance characteristics than an H-BAR rifle. Most civilian shooters’ experiences with rifle-length ARs are limited to heavy-barreled match or varmint-hunting rifles-the first being a style brought to the civilian market by Colt in 1986 with its AR-15A2 “H-BAR.” While heavy barrels have the potential for amazing accuracy, their heft results in a front-heavy rifle that can tip the scales at nearly 10 lbs. But the “full-size” M16/AR-15 has both a storied history and some distinct advantages that make re-visiting the “rifle-length” AR a worthwhile journey.
The utility and do-all capability of the M4-style carbine is hard to deny, and its ubiquity makes it easy to forget that the AR-15 started out as a 20"-barreled rifle as opposed to the more dominant present carbine form. This means, in the broadest sense, a 14.5" or 16" barrel and a telescoping buttstock. The world of the military M16 and, by extension, the civilian AR-15 market, has become dominated by M4-style firearms.
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