I was observing the training of a medium-size agency SWAT team that was upgrading its equipment after it had come into some money, and since the team knew it may never see a similar level of funding again, the crew wanted to get the best gear available. A young sergeant came up to me and asked “So, what do you think? Should we spent the additional funds to get the high-end carbines with the quad rails and free-floating barrels, or should we buy the standard models and just add rails where needed? I’m told that the free-float guns are far more accurate.”

To be honest, the question caught me off-guard; I had never thought about it. The truth is, I’m not much for modifications unless they prove their worth, and few have done so, in my opinion. I had heard that free-floated AR-15s were supposed to be more accurate than stock guns. After all, free floating the barrel of a bolt-action rifle has proven to be far superior so, logically, doing so to the gas-powered AR would offer similar enhancement.

However, I had never seen it demonstrated before my eyes so I didn’t truly know. What I have seen is a number of ARs that have been exceptionally accurate and dependable while others would better serve as jack handles. More troubling is that I’ve seen both good and bad guns from the same manufacturer, so I wasn’t comfortable offering a blanket endorsement that free-floating a barrel would make an AR more accurate.

The author started the test with a standard Stag Arms Model 3 and Aimpoint sight system. The gun came back from the Stag Arms plant sporting a JP Enterprises/V-TAC free-float fore-end and a different gas block.

For weeks afterward I thought about the question and even contacted some of the sharpest people in the business who work with the black rifle daily. Their opinions were mixed.

I spoke with a number of trainers who see the AR-15 continuously, in the hands of shooters with a variety of skill levels, and all told me that a free-floating barrel would make no real difference in a fighting carbine. All said the necessary accuracy for this application was well within the capability of the factory AR-15 with the trapped barrel and two-piece fore-end. In all fairness, it should be noted that high-end custom guns receive additional modifications beyond a free-floating barrel, which likely justifies their higher cost.

While communicating with these experts, I read reviews in several magazines and trade journals that continued to report that the AR-15 with a free-floating barrel was far more accurate than the standard design. In the end, I decided that I had to find out for myself.

The goal was not to pass judgment on custom guns but to know how much more accurate an AR-15 would be if its barrel was free-floating. So I brought the question up to Mark Malkowski, president of Stag Arms (stagarms.com), one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of AR-15s.

While many readers may know Stag Arms as the company that makes the AR for left-hand shooters, the truth is that Stag has been in the business of making AR-15 components for decades, and many well-known manufacturers use Stag parts. Some complete rifles you see are actually Stag Arms guns that carry someone else’s brand. In other words, Stag knows ARs.