204 Barrel / AR

C

Callinfool

New member
Due to restrictions in my county at certain times of the season I am limited to a rifle smaller than .22 Cal. As an earlier post of mine says I really wanted to try the .17 Hornet. I shoot more Fox than Coyote and just thought at night it would be a nicer caliber. However, talking with you guys I now know its out of the question for an AR. I can get it in a Bolt Gun but I don't really care for the Savage and the CZ and Ruger 77 are in the $700-$800 range. Wanting an AR I thought I could build a .204 for less than the 2 Bolt Guns. That is until I started searching for barrels. Any 204 Ruger AR .204 barrel I have found seem to be over $300 for just the barrel. I would like an 18" or at the most a 20" light barrel. My shots are seldom 200 yards so I'm not worried about the loss in velocity. Any recommendations for a less expensive barrel in .204?
 
I don't know of any cheap barrels in 204 but with that said I would spend the money for a good barrel and trigger if nothing else.
 
Last edited:
There are really only 2 things that make an ar accurate. The barrel and the trigger. I would not skimp on either one. I also would not go any shorter than 20in with the 204. Ideal would be 22in IMO. I have a 20in 20pr and it is very accurate but lacks some speed that everyone talks about. I would rather hit something very accurately at a slower speed than to miss something fast.
 
I have a Wilson Combat 18" 204 super accurate and love it I have built 3 of them in 204 with the Wilson barrel all are real shooters.
 
Callinfool,

I agree with the others in that the barrel should be A-1 priority. If you discover that you're going to have to spend $600 + to get what you want, then I'd begin to consider the following: 1) a CZ bolt gun or 2) a D-Tech AR upper from Mike Milli (he offers several 17 and 20 cal options).
 
I wanted a lighter profile .204 ruger ar15 barrel. I sent back two custom made uppers that were not light profile at all. It took me three years to get what I wanted, a 20" lighter profile fully fluted ar15 ss barrel-from Hart Rifle. No matter how I tried to say it was a carry rifle (much carrying, little shooting) all I got from the custom upper providers was blah blah blah, about barrel heating and loss of velocity. They were custom all right. Built the way the builder thought it should be built. The barrel was NOT cheap though, around $550 IIRC.
 
It's not about you, it's about them building things the way the gun will be the most accurate, so guys will brag about it and blow smoke where the sun don't shine in the hope they'll knock $100 off their next purchase. Some of the biggest egos you'll ever see. I'm surprised the lead times are only 10-16 months. They're arms are broken from patting themselves on the back.
 
Give Ritch a call at Ritchie precision guns. He can build you a complete upper or sell you just the barrel. I talked to him about exactly what you are thinking of building and he said just a standard barrel is what he would recommend. He was very knowledge able and took the time to explain things to me I didn't know or understand.
 
Back
Top