Do barrel impacts change your Point of Impact on un-bedded AR? Is barrel bedding necessary?

This is Part 2! If you are trying to figure out IF barrel bedding is necessary on your AR15 and whether it has any effect on accuracy, then you may want to stick around. Bolt action stocks have been bedded for quite some time in order to squeeze a little more accuracy out of them. But what can you bed on the AR platform? The barrel to the upper receiver! But before we get to that, need to see if or what happens when barrel bedding is not performed.

This is a test of an un-bedded upper receiver from Palmetto State Armory. In the first video I took the upper and free floated it so it would have every chance to be as accurate as it could be. But since it is not a match barrel an inch or 2 will probably be the group size. And that is ok for what we need. The process for this test is to take 3 different rounds and see where they print on target. Then will run 200 rounds through the AR15 at a rapid pace to get it really hot WHILE smacking the barrel on a piece of OSB in between mag changes. The combination of heat and impacts may shift the barrel enough to change the point of impact on the AR15. After it has cooled down the 3 different rounds will be fired to see how they stack up to the control group. If there is a noticeable change then barrel bedding will be the solution. But will there be a change?

In this video, I use:
PSA Freedom Kit w/ nitrided barrel
Vortex Optics Viper HSLR
Midwest Industries 15" free float
Freedom Munitions 223 55gr reman
Fiocchi 223A 55gr FMJBT
AAC 5.56 77gr Matchking