Daniel Defense barrel help!!

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Weremey59

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Hey guys,
I'm looking to get myself a DD this upcoming fall and I'm wondering about there barrels. I know DD is high quality however it's hard to find anything about them performance wise. Either S2W which you can find the least about but peaks my interest the most, government or lightweight. I think I've established I don't want a lightweight barrel for its inability to handle heat. What I've read the biggest difference between the Gov and LW is the gas block is a little heavier on the Gov. I'm looking at a DDM4V7 or V11. What's your guys thoughts? I'm looking somewhere between 14.5"-18" but I perfer 16".
Thanks.
 
I have 2 DD M4V7 LW. Old model and new model. LW is based on the profile of the barrel. I have no issues with heat, it may heat up fast but it will also cool faster than a gov contour barrel. Mlok is lighter than keymod. V7 is the best option in my opinion.
M4V7 standard gov barrel 16"
M4V7 LW is lightweight barrel 16"
M4V7 Pro is 18"
M4V7 SLW is lightweight barrel 14.5"
 
You are not going to shoot fast enough for the barrel to heat up to worry about the lightweight barrel not able to handle heat.
 
What about the s2w, it only comes in the pro and in 18" barrel but it's tough to find anything on it that isn't directly from there website.
 
Nvm I see it now. Their S2W is defined as their strength to weight profile. It's a heavy barrel with rifle length or midlength gas system.
First off what do you want do with this rifle? Precision? Competitions? Range toy?
That will help with your decision
 
I have several DD barrels/rifles. I've shot sub-MOA groups with my DD 16" and 18" S2W barrels. I only have a RD optic on my 12" 5.56 and 10.5" 300BLK barrels and don't have the eyes to shoot a RD to 100yrds accurately.

Here's a target from when I was developing a load for the 18" S2W barrel. Ignore the top left group. I should have shot the middle target first to see where these would print on the paper. Doh!

23743326476_b9f73fc553_b.jpg
 
I'm looking to do 3 gun with it. I'd like to have a longer range rifle first and I would probably buy another completed 10.5 upper to swap out for shorter range courses of fire. I really like the idea of a S2W but it was hard to fine any firsthand information. I'd like to shoot 1moa and I plan on running a 1x6 vortex on it.
 
I use my V7 lw for 3 gun, and do just fine. I run a 1-5 weaver optic and never use more than 3 power at the matches. My v7 lw swings and balances nicely, even with a heavy optic. The 3 gun matches we do youre not going to get it hot enough to notice and if your looking for long range work your most likely never going to get it very hot. The S2W is a 18" heavy barrel, and you wont get more performance out of the barrel over a 16". The 18" is going to add weight of course. And yeah by the looks of it if you wanted the S2W you would have to get the V7 or V11 pro. And If you want 1 moa groups, you'll need to run match grade ammo for best results.

From the sounds of it you're still not sure what you want to do with your rifle. I'm not saying you can't do both. Just things to think about.
 
I don't think I'd want to run my 18" S2W rifle for 3gun even though she's wearing a lightweight BCM keymod handguard. That barrel is heavy. My M4V5 with a gov't profile barrel is lighter (not as light as a pencil profile) and can shoot 1.25MOA all day with my plinking ammo reloads of Campro 55gr or Hornady 55gr FMJBT behind 24.5gr Varget and 1MOA or better with precision loads.

If you want a precision rig, I say build a dedicated upper for it. If you want an all-round shooter, those DD CHF barrels are hard to beat.
 
I run a dd v11 pro with the 18" s2w barrel in 3gun, it's awesome 99% of the time but I find for me, that if there are a lot of longer off hand shots that that barrel starts to get heavy quick. Of course this could be rectified by just getting in better shape. Off the bench the gun is a tack driver as well. If I were to buy again though I would go with the v7 pro as I think it has a more ergonomic hand guard, everything else on the v7 and v11 pros is the same.
 
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Hey guys, I bought and AR. It's a DD DDM4V7 Govt with a mlok rail, I'm so ####ing excited to get it. Next question is ammo. I reload pretty much everything and am wondering what you guys run for ammo/bullets? Any powder loads from your recipe book that work well in DD rifles?

Thanks gents. I'll post a picture when I get it.
 
Weremey59 said:
Hey guys, I bought and AR. It's a DD DDM4V7 Govt with a mlok rail, I'm so ####ing excited to get it. Next question is ammo. I reload pretty much everything and am wondering what you guys run for ammo/bullets? Any powder loads from your recipe book that work well in DD rifles?

Thanks gents. I'll post a picture when I get it.
Click to expand...

Congrats! My plinking load is a 55gr FMJ (Campro or Hornady) behind 24gr of Varget. Does pretty well out of my DD M4V5 16" and DD 12.5" barrels.
 
Weremey59 said:
Hey guys, I bought and AR. It's a DD DDM4V7 Govt with a mlok rail, I'm so ####ing excited to get it. Next question is ammo. I reload pretty much everything and am wondering what you guys run for ammo/bullets? Any powder loads from your recipe book that work well in DD rifles?

Thanks gents. I'll post a picture when I get it.
Click to expand...

youll like that DD Grant.
 
By plinking load, what distances are we talking here? I have a range that I can go out to 500m. I understand that an AR or specifically the AR I bought is not ideal for it but doesn't mean I don't want to try haha. Here's my dilemma I like to run good ammo whether it's my 22mag, my $500 308 win or my 4570. I can't see myself running steel case ammo in a $2000 rifle because I like to take care of my guns especially a rifle of this value. I reload everything I possibly can and even cast my own ammo (I understand you can't cast or 223. A man can dream though). I'm leaning a little bit on the side of buying a cheapie ammo for practicing my 3 gun since it would be under 75 yards for the most part and save the good stuff for distance and competition.
 
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I have the V11 Pro with a Leupold VXR Patrol 3-9 on it and have no problem getting sub moa groups using Hornady Black 223, this is my 3 Gun rig. I had the Vortex Viper 1-4 on it but it broke during a competition so that was that, hitting targets at over 200 yards was difficult with that optic which was my motivation for moving up to a 3-9 power.
 
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