SmallCaliberCentral

Does anyone have any experience with Black Hole Weapory barrels on an AR? Wanting to build a 20 Practical AR. Looking for a 24" heavy barrel.

Hello remy. I don't know if this helps but here goes. Until recently, Black Hole Weaponary I'll call them BHW, made the barrels for Black Rain rifles. They use the 3 groove polygonal rifling. I have two of them & under the hand guard that's what they are stamped. Both of these BHW barrels are fluted with the black salt bath nitride finish, one a 18" varmint & the other 24" varmint in .223 with 1-8 twist. I've found with the 3 groove rifling I'm getting more velocity than standard rifling and the 3g polygonal barrels are super easy to clean with very, very, little fouling. Haven't shot the 18" much but my 24" right out of the box shot .350-.500 3 shot groups with factory ADI Outback 69 gr. SMK. My buddy at Black Rain Ordnance told me when I bought them that the 3g polygonal barrels would get higher velocities & that they usually prefer bullets of higher weights. The only negative I've heard about BHW is their lead times, sometimes 12 weeks instead of 6-8 weeks. Always wanted one in 20 practical. Hope this helps out any at all. Best of luck,
Jim D

As an added note remy, the black nitride finish is not very durable. If you bump it very hard or scratch it, say on a gun case zipper, you will see a shiny spot of SS underneath. The cerakote on the other hand is really tough. You have to be really rough with it to break the finish. I have several guns I've had cerakoted & they all look like the day they were done. Just my 2 cents worth,
Jim D

If the nitride/melonite scratches that easy, send it back - was not done correctly. Should be 0.002" deep into the finish.

Melonite, is that what salt bath nitride is, I had no idea. I'm not familiar with coatings except by name and how they hold up for me. Old dogs DO learn new things. I think maybe the company got their p's & q's screwed up and just sent me a black bead blasted barrel on the 18". The 24" seems to be holding up fine. Thank you,
Jim D

Thanks for the review,they seem to have decent price for a 20 Practial chambering barrel.

I have some experience with a 20 Practical BHW barrel. I think you would be happy with your choice. I really haven't had the time to fully develop the best loads for this set-up. Hope to finish up other projects this fall and finish load development on the 20 Practical this winter.

You do know that .356 in. would have put you solidly into 3rd place overall. Just saying, you need to register and shoot in next years Challenge. That's some impressive shooting! Can you do that with a .204R?

Thank you for the compliment. Never thought about entering a challenge. I shoot to beat my own results, always trying to improve my technique and better my last results. I probably could match or better with my 204R with some additional load work.

Looks like I have found my winter project! Great shooting!

Well, I finally have a BHW AR 20 Practial barrel ordered....20 percent off through Sunday! Just over $300--24" bull w/o fluting