I just installed a 12.5 Core barrel in my SBR and replaced my old BCM barrel with a 16” Core barrel. Big fan of Criterion.

That long-winded explanation was one of the most helpful things I've ever heard with regards to proper ar fitment and proper gas system operation. Thanks. Will be very helpful on fixing some issues with my PR AR15.

Criterion Know the business. I've had the pleasure of speaking with Mike and I learned a great deal from him. I use their method of accurizing with trueing the upper receiver. My only complaint, and it's not really a complaint, is the 18 inch I have is faster than any of my other 18 inch barrels, bad thing, no but allows for an incredibly accurate barrel with handloads. Great Vid

There's something about a 12.5" AR that just gets me excited. Thanks for the video Ivan.

Criterion has a great reputation for accuracy. What I really appreciate is that you gave us what you got on that day.What you see is what you get, warts and all. That takes balls.I understand you have shit to do or may never be inclined to ever find THE round this one likes and record a good day behind this rifle, but, everyone likes a comeback. I also respect ,you may feel that it does what you need it to do and never needs to be revisited.Shout out to Criterion for putting together a cool build for you. Aint nobody sending me emails and building me uppers.Im glad they did and you shared it with us.

12.5’s are gonna be the next big trend. They are a really nice happy medium. Thank your for the video!

The 12.5 ar15 set up seems to be getting more and more popular

The email was super cool explained so much

Great video. My FIRST rifle I assembled myself was with a 12.5 BCM barrel. Now, 90% of my shooting is done with my 12.5s. Everybody is always on the 10.3 and 11.5 boat. I own those as well, but my 12.5s are my go-to rifles.

They did a great job on the rebuild! Always love a BCM rail!

The reason why I like the 12.5 is I can pass the 2500/2600 fps mark with good ammo. I just don't want to use an AR at under 2500 fps.

This is still awesome a year and a half later! The crazy thing, a lot of points he mentioned are things that would have slipped pass QC at a lot of larger scale companies. It just shows the attention to detail that Mike has.

Holy s$%& a you tuber that shoots like a human being. Dude you rock.

Can’t wait for my criterion 18inch barrel to finish my MocK 12 SPR! Heard great things about the velocity + accuracy of these barrels! Thanks for the vid!

The wealth of information he provided and you’ve shared is amazing. Definitely looking into criterion on my next build!

I can vouch for Michael personally, as he’s the one that often answers the phone on their Contact Us number on their website. Super knowledgeable and always willing to talk. You can feel his passion by his conversational nature and wealth of knowledge. Amazing detail in that email, and I think explains perfectly what ideal operation of the AR15 looks like. Love criterion! Ordered my first barrel from them the other day but won’t be my last. If $ was no object I’d rebarrel all of my AR pattern rifles with Criterion.

I’ve got a Criterion barrel chambered in .243 on an AR-10 I built. It’ll shoot under an inch all day long with my average handloads, and it’ll print 4 leaf clovers with the ones it likes most. Very pleased with the quality of that barrel

wow, slick piece of machinery. I really appreciate hearing the content of that email by the way. As an engineer, but a hobbyist plinker, there were explanations that i had not considered as potential performance flaws in the design. The entire "Gas system" discussion was pretty great. Thanks for sharing man. I am now questioning my 22 and its setup as i have been getting a lot of "Stove-piping". Keep your badger throttle full open for us.

That email was awesome. Nerd fest. Love it

That moment you get so much information overload. Meaning - Have another cup of coffee and watch this awesome video again ! 👊🏼

The Criterion Hybrid barrel on my ADM was shooting sub MOA at 100 yards with LC green tip. I didn't even think that was possible

Thanks for an extremely informative video. This is great content. Keep up the great work, buddy.

I've been really happy with my Criterion barrels. Both of my ADM 6.5 CM rifles have them.

😁 just orderd my 12.5 barrel.

Great review of this product and service. Thank you sir.

Glad to see the channel back ❤️‍🔥🇺🇸🔥

Wow. That's a detailed response. Impressive

Best music of all gun channels on YT. Thanks brah.

It's always a good day when you start off with a KB video!

That much information fills me with terror about my own mistakes in my builds...

Looks sick, man! Wanting to start on a 12.5” soon.

I'm always wary of men in suits, Oakley's & camo shooter gloves. Another video, extremely well done.

What I find interesting is that every single AR-15 I have which consist of 11.5 and several 16 inch all have the cam pin slot has some wear. On my 16 inch, I do not run suppressors and all of them have an ejection pattern of 4 O'clock with running an H2 buffer with sprinco blue spring and some with the Super 42 with H buffer. The 11.5 has VLTOR A5H@ with sprinco green spring with 3 O'Clock ejection pattern so it might be a little over gassed ( I also ran a sprinco red spring with H3 buffer and same ejection).

This was a VERY insightful watch!

Thanks for the review

Great Vid, I needed to see this. I just built a 12.5" AR pistol Sunday and took it to zero yesterday at 50yds. (for TTG's) I started my zero quest with cheap ammo and ended up dialing it in with Minuteman Munitions (.223 55gr), but I really like the performance of their 68gr BTHP. Will be making that purchase ASAP Cheers!!!.

Thank You for the info

Love all this info! Shows me how little i know and love to learn@

My 20" Criterion runs sub-minute with Fiocchi 40gr. and Geco 55gr. - it also does 2.5MOA with AmEagle 55gr. ammo. I haven't tried any others yet but I'm sure yours will do better than what you got in the video. The concrete is likely causing the spread as others have noted. I've also got a 16" carbine-gas hybrid contour Criterion barrel I have yet to print and hope it does as well as the 20" one. Great video!

Quality inspires confidence.

Might be the first honest evaluation I've seen. No bullshit "sub MOA with wolf gold but the barrel can do better than me"

Excellent! Learned much!

I'm looking for a good 9mm barrel for my next build. As soon as I figure out what length I'm going with I'll check these guys out.

Great explanation.

Awesome vid

great vid!

Purchased a 12.5 criterion barrel they are nice

12.5 mid length is perfect for just about everything 300m and in

Def need to get a bench rest set up and better trigger to see what that can do. My buddy literally puts them right on top of each other with anything but the cheap stuff. Even the cheap stuff hovers at around 1 MOA. Can’t wait til mine arrives!

Thos is awsome!

"Backing up a step..." **Camera backs up a step** GET THIS MAN THE FUCKING ACADEMY AWARD HE DESERVES.

What a solid dude, Michael! That is how you represent your company. Criterion is already known for good barrels, but service & care like this is amazing. Sooo.. Ivan, do you have a sub MOA gun?

Radical Firearms Upper !!

Great video. Always easy to watch and follow all the info and keep it applicable even for us Jarheads. If I may ask (because I’m considering sending a barrel to ADCO to cut to 12.5”), any consideration or discussion of mid length gas system on the 12.5”. Idk, but from what I have read/KZfaq learned, it’s reported to be softer shooting then the carbine gas system. May be splitting hairs and inviting needless gas system and buffer weight tweaking just for slightly softer/flatter shooting at the cost of the utter reliability that carbine length gas provides. However, the email went into a great deal of explanation about mods made to lessen the abuse of an “overgassed” and suppressed carbine gas length AR. So I’m trying to learn (not question) why Criterion went with the carbine vs mid gas length. Semper Fi

In need to send Criterion my charging handle so he can detail all the wear and fitment problems and then sit back as he corrects the problem by building a new gun around it. 🤙🏼

Criterion’s customer service is top notch. I got a 16” rifle length hybrid chrome lined barrel from them and Had a case head separation that about blew my upper reviver apart, ( totally my fault I lost my headspace gauges and went ahead and “called it good” because i haven’t had any issues in the past with lots of other builds) I sent the barrel and what was left of the bolt to them and they said it was out of headspace and they sent me a new barrel and BCM bolt free of charge.

12.5 is my go to length . I just built a BA 12.5 with a cloud defense COR2 rail & BA upper/lower & barrel & love it . That 12.5 is just so nice , being short , but still giving you enough dwell time to be effective at a little distance.

Ill have to try a Criterion barrel...I bought a 280 dollar FN barrel and Im not going to lie if i had to buy it again id pay 500$. i was getting sub moa at 100 yards with almost every ammo type without even trying. FN makes incredible barrels. Will get a criterion soon!

I never would have thought the M16A1 I qual'd with would turn into what I'm seeing as the most versatile, famous, man-toy ever. Good video and thanks for your service. I make you to be an 03...? I just bought a 18" HBAR Chrome-lined Criterion barrel with head-spaced bolt (package deal). I can't wait to shoot it as I've watched a bunch of videos from Criterion and made some changes based on their info. I'm thinking we will have to take back our country and I want to do it from about 500 meters.

Dude did you a solid with that sweet upper and you paid some of it forward by sharing his comprehensive email. Your wife is probably pretty disgusted with you playing in the mud like that. Hope you got a nice mud room in your house? 😁

Criterion barrels are the bees knees

Interesting...that's the first time I've heard the advice to torque a barrel not to the upper end of the milspec. I usually just split the difference at around 50 ft lb to play it safe.

Man I love this channel

I just got my 18" criterion and so far I have determined it absolutely hates 55gr. Best group I got was 1.1" but that was after shooting 2.5-4" groups all day with 55gr ball from various brands. I hope this is just a bit of a break in period. Going to try some match ammo next time.

So you cut that rail and it was originally 10 in? What is the length of the rail now? 9 in? I’ve been eyeing criterion barrels and thinking of upgrading the barrel to my 11.5 in Geissele super duty upper to a 12.5 or 11.5 in criterion.

My school of thought is to throw out the fliers. Although fliers can be caused by a barrel, but there's plenty of reasons to suspect the bullet too. Perfect concentricity of a bullet is needed, and this gets worse in open tips, and inserted metal penetrators. Bullets seem destined to have numerous fliers no.matter how well the barrel and shooter.

My at is solid gold manual piece.

I'm just curious, have you tired the tailhook mod 2? If so, do you prefer that over the sba3? Which would you recommend for a 9mm pistol?

Amazing review! New sub! One question....where did you get those jeans? Reverse front pockets, genius. I need those like yesterday..lol

Timing the Noveske sws two piece mid length switch block cut out quad rail while test fitting shimming and assemble then reassemble in five ft lbs increments made for a miserable afternoon or two between breaks to avoid office spacing it. Looks great on a twelve five middy but definitely heavy as fuck and biggest pain in the ass out of any rail ive used to date.

On a 12.5” do you have to run a brace or can you run a stock? I know it’s over the 26-28” overall length but it’s still not a 16” barrel so do you have to go through the entire process to sbr it ?

From experience would you go with a Noveske or Criterion barrel for a fighting rifle?

Gear question. What jeans are you wearing at the 4min mark? I like the forward facing mag pocket. I searched online but came up empty handed. Cheers!

Ok I'm looking to upgrade my Grendel AR-15 with a new barrel. If KB gives it 2xthumbs up, I going to buy it. Ok what my discount code Kit? Looking forward to less then 1MOA groups. Great job, keep'em coming dude. BUZZ

was the groups shot with the surefire bcg? why not test the groups with the supplied headspaced bcg?

What is the highest end Criterion barrel you can get in a 14.5” and 12.5”?

So 12.5 uppers should run heavier buffers? Am I understanding right? Just built a 12.5 currently have a h2 in it...

Gotta find you a mega arms lower for that upper man, good luck though, took me months and months to find one. Almost 11 months.

Seems like it should have smaller groups.

Well shit, now I NEED a criterion upper

So the damage at the cam pin slot is ok? I have similar damage on a billet upper and I’m not sure what to do with it. It runs fine.. but..

Great weapon attention to detail is awesome.I build cheaper rifles but maybe I'll invest in a high quality AR....

12.5 mid is the shiz... and so is that jacket, kinda looks like you got ranger scrolls on both shoulders 😁

Bro...You are Joker from FMJ. I mean that in the best possible way.

How can they measure/adjust headspace? Isn't it either Go or No Go?

4:49 is that a 3 round burst followed by an ND?

Criterion Core or Hybrid 12.5 or 13.9 Chrome Lined 1in8 223W barrels are starting to become my favorite . If I could only have 2 setups . It would fire sure be Hodge 12.5 HF Mini Recce and Criterion 13.9 Chrome Lined. I'm pissed off at myself for not trying them out sooner . That's what happens when your Colt fan boy. Your blind to everything else because of that TDP.

Since prices are the same for their 12.5" barrels what would be the recommended profile? Their advertised Ultralight weight actually weighs the same as all the Government Profile barrels by other manufacturers.

Any chance of a follow up to this barrel how long it lasted and is it worth the cost

I'm about to do a 12.5 inch pistol. I tried the 10.5 a little too much gasface for me. So I'm trying one more time with 12.5.

The on paper portion kinda surprised me, I have seen Faxon and BA barrels print .75 on paper in builds that have been assembled correctly. I know that Criterion supposedly knows how to assemble an upper, so I am assuming that this could probably tighten up given the chance but at least we know Criterion isn't magic.

Funny thumb over the barrel stance but if it works for you thats great. I can't make it work for me and forces me to push the fore end down.

Most AR uppers are already true from the factory if you get a decent upper. Aero Anderson BCM Spikes all have true uppers.

Do you think they would be willing to do a 12.5 (or any of their barrels) with a pinned gas block like the geissele super gas block ? It would be interesting to find out why they don't offer pinned gas blocks for their barrels on their website. Great video btw. Thanks.

Hey Ivan, I bet those groups would tighten up if you put the bipod on a towel or shooting mat or the dirt. In slow-mo you can see the bipod kind of skid on the concrete. Something with more give would prevent that. Just my experience shooting off concrete. Love your videos dude.

Maybe I missed it but is that a 10” handguard on that 12.5” crit?

i dont know if i missed it, but is this setup w carbine or midlength system ?

Dag gum groups!!! Trying to find the right ammo for your set up can be pricey and time consuming. I stopped chasing “sub-moa” groups a while ago and I have been so much happier 🤣 great video and I loved the email response!

12.5 inch barrel and a fixed brace makes you good to go for adding a vertical foregrip if you wish as well.

Sorry that’s not really accurate. Are you able to hold groups better than that with other rifles you have shot for groups? I just ordered a Criterion because of their accuracy….but I have Colt 6920 barrels that are 2 MOA or less with most practice ammo