The truth about NEA AR15 barrels?

james_o

james_o

Regular
Rating - 100%
21   0   0
Location
Ontario
Ok so I’m in the midst of building a 10.5” AR and I am trying to find a barrel that will work for what you would expect out of a short gun but not bust the bank, having said that I have looked at the offerings from True North Arms and North Easter Arms.

what I am looking for is user experience form people who have used said companies or have another suggestion and what their experiences have been.
 
I have an upper with an 18" NEA. Shoots OK. Had to try a few bolts before I found one combination that headspaced correctly.
For what you are going to be doing with a 10 1/2", an NEA barrel should be just fine.
 
I used an NEA barrel in my 10.5" No issues but i obviously have not grouped at 100. When zeroing prone at 50 with Eotech, It keeps all my rounds within my 4" zeroing target.....not likes impressive but this nothing but a 50 meter and in blaster for me

You cant go wrong with an NEA barrel on a SBR
 
I have one of their 12.5 inch 300blk barrels. To be honest I was surprised by the build quality. No issues with it so far (granted I haven't shot it very much) but for half the price of the alternative it's hard not to recommend them. As much as I prefer to have "the good stuff" it gets hard to justify dumping absurd amounts of money into range toys you know won't see heavy use.
 
Curly1 said:
I have a 12.5" in 5.56 1 in 7 twist with an Adams Arms piston setup that works great.
Click to expand...

Good to know I've been considering a build like this. I'd really like a piston upper but have trouble grappling with the out of money they seem to command.
 
rkm456 said:
Good to know I've been considering a build like this. I'd really like a piston upper but have trouble grappling with the out of money they seem to command.
Click to expand...

Could not get the Adams Arms piston unit to work with a Rainer 300 Blackout barrel, that's why I tried the NEA 5.56 barrel. Be careful about the piston drive unit you try, some are better than others and some will only work with specific chamberings.
 
james_o said:
thanks guys for the response I think I am going to go with a 10.5 NEA and ill probably get there gas black and tube while I'm there.
Click to expand...

If you're buying from True North Arms I'd recommend their gas block and gas tube. A little cheaper than the NEA ones and they have your barrel.
 
Don't waste your money on a piston drive kit. Total waste of money that does nothing to improve reliability in a civilian rifle. The only thing it does is add weight to the rifle and moves the fouling to under the handguard instead of the bolt carrier. Which really makes no difference since a DI rifle can run hundreds and hundreds of rounds between cleaning without failure as long as you give it a drop of oil once in a while.
I'm not anti piston drive but think that if you want a piston driven rifle you should buy a rifle the manufacturer built around a piston system like a PWS, I've owned two of them and they were flawless but for $2000+ I could have bought a cheaper AR and a lot of ammo.

I've only owned one NEA barrel, I built a rifle around an older 16 inch, it was accurate and it fit perfectly but it was severely over-gassed and cycled quite harshly. I've heard they have corrected issues like that but haven't used one of their newer barrels in a build so can't comment on that.
Two of the things I really like about the NEA barrels are that they are button rifled which typically translates into good accuracy and they use nitriding to finish the barrels instead of chrome lining them. Nitriding creates a surface harder than chrome which should translate into longer service life.

For the money you really can't go wrong as long as it's built properly, the good thing about NEA is they're well known for standing behind their product so if you have any issues you don't have to worry about them taking care of it.
 
Last edited:
The 7.5" NEA barrel on a factory PDW that I owned came so overgassed that it would not extract empty casings even with the Extractor upgrade (Spring, Poly Cylinder and O Ring). The Bolt Carrier velocity was so.fast that no extractor would maintain its grip on the cartridge rim. Rather than piss about with different buffer weights I just installed.an Adjustable Gas Block. After "balancing" the system for positive ejection without abuse of the reciprocating parts, function was completely reliable. With the added advantage of being able to tune the gas system for different ammo loads ýou have an arguably more flexible and capable.carbine. IMHO, any over-gassed AR is a prime recipient for an Adjustable Gas Block..... YMMV
 
If your gas port is drilled too big it'll be overgassed regardless of if you use a stack of twelve hockey pucks as a buffer or not.
 
I've got a 14.5" NEA barrel on my Colt SA20, mid length gas system and it's flawless. Been super happy with these barrels. Bought this one from Ryan (Chemist) at SFRC, a board sponsor here.

Then for my wife I bought a 12" barrel for her carbine upper... Ryan did not have them in stock a couple of years back so I bought it from Frank at Millbrook Tactical in Ottawa area. My wife loves this little CQB rig! :wave:

Cheers, :cool:

Barney
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom