Don't ask me why, but I ordered this barrel...

SKU: BABL308012PL Categories: - Single Products, -Restock, 308/7.62x51, Ballistic Advantage, Ballistic Advantage Premium Series, M5 LR308 (DPMS) Barrels

BA Barrel .308 18" RLG BB SS

On sale at BKing for $207 and some pennies.

I'm replacing a 18" BA Nitride barrel that shoots pretty good... mostly MOA with some more or less depending on the load. Just feel like tinkering and switching things up a bit.

I've had pretty good luck with BA's .308 barrels, not so much with their .223 barrel... I know you get what you pay for. These bead-blasted SS fluted barrels look pretty nice and looks with similar or slightly better performance were the driving reasons to swap out the barrel.

This is supposedly from their "Premium Series" so we shall see.

Anyone have this specific barrel? If so, what are you seeing performance wise?

I've got 3 or 4 of these BA Premiums in 6.5 creed, 6.5 grendel, and 556 because the 50% off sales get me everytime and has lead me to this.  Any barrel manufacturer that can sell at 50% off is not a premium manufacturer.  The BA barrels are only premium on the outside and should come with lapping kit. The insides are rough and all of them have tight spots and foul out quickly straight out of the box.  Accuracy starts off great and immediately starts to degrade until cleaned.

That said after hundreds of rounds and or lapping bullets they've all come around to acceptable to great.  The grendel is meh but fine for its use, the 556 is pretty good, and the creedmoore is great.


The money spent on ammo and time would have been better spent on a better barrel.


Their Creed barrels seem to be the most common for great accuracy.  You might get it to go constant MOA.  Definitely post your results.

Agree... got great sub-MOA results from several of the .308 barrels as well as the 6.5G and 6mm ARC... the .223 barrels have been a disaster for me.

I'm a sucker for a good looking barrel...

This is what I'm getting from the current barrel with absolutely no load development at all... just a flat charge weight, slap the bullet in the case, plop my ass down at the bench, and half-ass pay attention to fundamentals. I shot these while at work this evening so I was kind of in a hurry.

I suppose playing with the charge weights up/down some and better concentration behind the scope... maybe a little improvement MIGHT be had.

But for such a wide range of bullets, 110gr-168gr, I think these results are quite ok. All are under 1.5" at 100 yards.

Funny how similar those groups are in shape for being very different loads.  Triangles with a pair on the center line.

Clean it down to bare metal and record your first group and see how following groups compare.

The creedmoor got a couple hundred rounds and then lapping bullets before it came around.  The 556 I tried something different.  60 round mag dump on a clean barrel.  It seems to have worked. Accuracy has settled.


I'm actually out with the 556 and creed today.  
556 is coming around.  3 different smk blem batches. Same load.
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The sassy creed. Trying it with the suppressor.
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Well I can take a deep breath and relax some as the new build is off to what I believe is a good start. As usual, range time was limited so all I really set out to do was zero the scope, adjust the gas block, and make sure this thing wasn't going to group like a shotgun.

The completed project...



Within five rounds of factory 150gr ball I has the gas dialed in. Using a general aiming area it shot about 2" which I was very pleased with.

I quickly switched to some 168gr FGMM and it shot pretty good at about 1 1/4" WITHOUT the ugly one, 2" with. I'm inclined to think that's me and not the rifle/ammo... time will tell.



Last up then I had to pack it in, 168gr TAP, which went under 1". Very pleased with this group...



So all in all I'd say the build is showing great potential. I realize these are just 5-round shot groups but at least the rifle functions and the shots are reasonable for a "budget barrel".

Nice.  It looks good.  Keep shooting and cleaning.
I've been playing with the grendel and even it has started to come around. It must just take 400 rounds to get them smoothed out.