Thread: Review : Faxon Firearms 14.5" Pencil Profile AR15 barrel

For those interested in building lighter weight AR15's, these barrels are the best on the market in my opinion.

Specs here: 16" PENCIL, 5.56 NATO, Mid-Length, 4150 QPQ - Faxon Firearms

And available locally at NZAR15

Comparison to other common profiles:

L to R: Stag Arms 20" HBAR, CMMG 16" what I'm going to call a hybrid profile, Spikes Tactical 16" Govt, and the 14.5" Faxon Pencil.

I fitted the barrel to an Anderson Mfg "light weight" upper, which to me is a standard A3 upper minus dust cover and Fordward Assist. The barrel extension was a tight fit to the upper. I used an ALG Defense 12" MLOK handguard, which is very light weight and in my opinion excellent.

I picked up a second hand RRA AR15 BCG to complete the guts of the upper.

I test fired the upper off a bench at 100m. Loads I tried are as follows.

68gr Hornady BTHP, 26gr 2206H, ADI Brass, CCI450

65gr Sierra Game king with same as above

55gr Nosler SP, 25.5gr BM2, same case and primer

These loads have worked well in other rifles so I used them as a preliminary accuracy indication.

Apologies for the messy targets. Other people were using the range and couldn't be bothered changing them.



6 round group with the 55gr Nosler



9 shots with the same load as quickly as I could accurately shoot.





Two 5 shot groups the SGK's

It hated the 68gr Hornady so I didn't bother measuring.

These groups were all shot with the barrel quite warm as i wanted to see how heat would effect the group size, which it seems to not do so much, but I will have to test and see how it effects the MPI.

I think these results are quite promising and I am curious to see how it goes with further load development. But I've got half a mind just to run the Noslers and GK and go hunting. I'm pretty impressed.

Cheers for that! I'm considering getting a pencil barrel and this really helped. Running a heavy varmit 20" barrel and I'm a lazy bugger.

14.5" not too noisy when shooting?


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Wicked good results. Wish they'd been available when I built my current upper. Any speeds?

I keep looking at these,just can't justify yet another upper

Originally Posted by res

I keep looking at these,just can't justify yet another upper

Does your Mrs justify her shoes?

Originally Posted by Savage1

Does your Mrs justify her shoes?

No, but I have lot more $ tied up in guns than she has in shoes.
And I already have a nice light weight upper built on a dd pencil barrel that has also been to a trip to a gunsmiths mill.

A carbon barreled ar10 .260 upper is my next big gun expense

Originally Posted by res

No, but I have lot more $ tied up in guns than she has in shoes.
And I already have a nice light weight upper built on a dd pencil barrel that has also been to a trip to a gunsmiths mill.

A carbon barreled ar10 .260 upper is my next big gun expense

Built one in dpms gen 2 in 6.5 creedmoor and difference in barrel weight from carbon to steel was bugger all just more $ for no gain.

How much do the faxon pencil barrels weigh?

Nice result I might just get one of the standard M4 ones for my service rifle upper.

Hmm, didn't reality out could buy gen2 barrel extensions.

I agree the weight difference is not much but I'm hoping 20+ round mag dump will still be on target, and this is something I have not found with light steel .223 barrels

Would be very interested in your experience as the best part of $2k for a barrel hurts

Originally Posted by res

Hmm, didn't reality out could buy gen2 barrel extensions.

I agree the weight difference is not much but I'm hoping 20+ round mag dump will still be on target, and this is something I have not found with light steel .223 barrels

Would be very interested in your experience as the best part of $2k for a barrel hurts

Hurts even more ,brand new gun, two trips to two different gunsmiths to get it right.$$$$$$

Originally Posted by Damnitchy

Cheers for that! I'm considering getting a pencil barrel and this really helped. Running a heavy varmit 20" barrel and I'm a lazy bugger.

14.5" not too noisy when shooting?


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Sounds just fine with a decent suppressor

Originally Posted by gimp

Wicked good results. Wish they'd been available when I built my current upper. Any speeds?

No speeds yet, next range trip. For what it's worth, i measured the 68gr load doing 2800fps from a 14.5" NEA

Originally Posted by Beavis

Sounds just fine with a decent suppressor

Right. I had a 14.5" and could not handle the noise. Must look into this suppressor thing. Way of the future.

I have a spikes 14.5" light weight barrel in one of my AR's and its very nice to hold... it was significantly lighter than my 12.5" NEA !