JP Supermatch™ barrels are manufactured to our highly exacting specifications for superior performance and optimal fit with our components. These barrels are turned from the finest 416R stainless steel and then lead-lapped, button rifled using state-of-the-art equipment and air-gauged to ensure minimal bore diameter run out for peak accuracy. We also make a point of cryogenically treating all of our rifle-caliber Supermatch™ barrels for cold bore shot predictability, minimum thermal drift, outstanding accuracy and extended barrel life.

Chamber: .223 Rem
Length: 18" 
Gas System: Rifle-length 
Twist: 1:8 button rifled 
Contour: .650 under hand guard/.740 in front of gas block 
Diameter at Gas Block: .750 
Muzzle Threads: 1/2-28 TPI 
Material: 416R Stainless 
Weight: 30.9 oz

Chambering

For peak accuracy and reliability with the widest variety of ammo at safe pressures, our barrels are chambered to .223 Wylde as we believe it represents the best compromise between the SAAMI commercial spec chamber and the NATO-type chamber.

There is a strong conviction that a NATO chamber is essential in a duty-style rifle for reliability reasons, but this is a severe oversimplification. Superior reliability—or as we prefer to call it, the expanded "operational window" of the weapon—is a result of many other factors often ignored by most manufacturers. It is not dependent on some subtle, esoteric difference between the .223 Wylde and the 5.56 NATO chamber designations.

Barrel Twist

For our .223 barrels, we have had great results with a wide range of projectiles from 40 to 77 grains in the 1:8 twist, and we feel it's the best overall compromise for the type of loads you are most likely to shoot. Most shooters on the tactical competition circuit prefer to use the higher BC projectiles such as the 75 to 77 grain bullets, and the 1:8 twist rate is ideally suited for this use. However, don't pay attention to any of the old wives' tales that fast twist barrels do not shoot light bullets. Some of our best test groups have been shot with 50 to 55 grain polymer-tipped bullets. Our .308 barrels, by contrast, favor a 1:11.25 twist rate that will stabilize anything from 110 to 175 grain. 

Cryogenic Treatment

The cryogenic treatment that our Supermatch™ barrels undergo is a day-long process using liquid nitrogen to slowly lower the barrel's temperature to -300° F, after which it is then heated to approx. +300° F. This treatment yields three major benefits, namely: cold bore shot predictability, minimum thermal drift and vastly superior barrel life. No other major manufacturer invests this expense and added effort into every barrel, but years of experience have shown it to be worthwhile. It is not uncommon for us to hear feedback about our .223 barrels going tens of thousands of rounds and still retaining MOA or better accuracy.

One of our favorite examples is the Charles Darwin Foundation based in the Galapagos Islands. Some years back, this outfit purchased twenty-two of our JP-15™ series rifles for use in non-indigenous species eradication programs. Their hunting operations consist of their retired SF operators shooting feral goats from helicopters so rapidly that each shooter carries a pair of rifles so they always have one to shoot while the other is cooling. When we took the order, we understood that the round count would be very high on these rifles and that their accuracy requirement was MOA or better with the ammo they had specified.

After several years, we hadn't heard anything from the director of the program, so we emailed him asking for a status on the rifles. According to him, they now had over 40,000 rounds through each one, and they still passed the one MOA requirement. That kind of longevity is simply unheard of and can really only be attributed to the benefits of cryogenic treatment.