Shooting long range or PRS with sporter barrel?

T

Techball

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I see a lot of folks upgrading to bull barrel or using a varmint setup to begin with. My question is if the pencil barrel is accurate, what’s the downside to using it? I’ve shot long strings without that much heat so I don’t think the wall thickness is an issue.

Accuracy wise, my 457 sporter is pretty good. I was just testing some ammo and think I could get sub MOA with some practise. I think 0.5” at 50 yards is very much within reach. The below was 5x5 rounds (25 total) with just a bipod.

Tq7tmYS.jpg
 
Techball - Those are some good groups for 50yds. I'd suggest you 'try' some practice runs at the various targets since they go up to 300M. You may get a bit of barrel flex to make the longer shots spread out and cause misses. Your barrel may be OK tho, so test first before you look at a new barrel/rifle.
 
If you're getting that level of accuracy, don't bother changing it. I shoot a pencil barrelled 10/22 and achieve similar results with the right ammo (Eley Target seems to perform best for me). If you found the winning combo of ammo and barrel, buy a ton of the same lot number and don't bother looking back. The extra $$ you save can be put into ammo!

Besides, most rimfire matches don't demand more than 2-3 MOA from a production rifle....accuracy is less important than repeatability/consistency in this game.

My $0.02...YMMV

~ Teller
 
Does the barrel know how far away a target is?

A barrel that shoots well at 50 has the potential to shoot well at longer distances. For consistent performance, when the barrel is good it's always about the ammo.
 
Techball said:
I see a lot of folks upgrading to bull barrel or using a varmint setup to begin with. My question is if the pencil barrel is accurate, what’s the downside to using it? I’ve shot long strings without that much heat so I don’t think the wall thickness is an issue.

Accuracy wise, my 457 sporter is pretty good. I was just testing some ammo and think I could get sub MOA with some practise. I think 0.5” at 50 yards is very much within reach. The below was 5x5 rounds (25 total) with just a bipod.

Tq7tmYS.jpg
Click to expand...

In the 22 “prs” game a heavier barrel helps balance the rifle in front of the magwell.
 
My bolt has a sporter contour.. I just ballast the stock to suit the rifle balance.

There is absolutely no reason to change barrels if you are getting consistent and reliable accuracy out to 400m... definitely 325m. Determine what your cone of fire is at each 25m distance from 250m to 400m ie shoot 20rds and see what the MAX spread of those shots is.... you want to know where your worst shots are going to go.

If that cone falls well inside the typical targets used at that distance, you are good.... if you get flyers tossing shots well outside the target size, then a new barrel should be considered..... if you want to be competitive in this game.

Jerry
 
Thank you all for the feedback

I am considering dropping this in a chassis like the XRS and add the foreend weights. That should greatly improve the balance. I haven’t shot it past 50 so that’s something I will have to do to see how the spread goes at further distances. So far, I found that SK+ is the only mid grade ammo that shoots tiny holes. CCI SV shoots probably 1.5MOA. I haven’t tried anything fanciers like the match grade stuff.
 
Get to 100 and 200yds as quickly as possible. That will give me confirmation if the set up has the potential to work. Because the game is so demanding on LR shots, I typically will sight in at 100 and go straight to 300+ m May as well know if the combo is going to be suitable or not.

Unfortunately, most will test at 50, maybe 100 and then assume all is well at distance. Many get a nasty surprise on match day.

Good luck with your journey

Jerry
 
emerson said:
In the 22 “prs” game a heavier barrel helps balance the rifle in front of the magwell.
Click to expand...

Not to disagree, but it's worth noting that slimmer, longer barrels can provide the same balance when the barrels -- heavier profile v. slimmer -- weigh a similar amount. Obviously the slimmer barrel must be longer. While balance is very important, another factor favouring a bull barrel profile is that a heavier barrel can add inertia to the rifle to make it steadier on bags, rest, or bipod.

Of course, many shooters opt for shorter barrels on the grounds that they may contribute to faster average muzzle velocities than longer barrels with the same ammo. Less vertical drop with faster ammo must be balanced with the fact that faster muzzle velocities are a little more susceptible to wind drift, which can be increasingly important at longer distances as wind speed increases.

Perhaps the strongest argument for a heavier barrel may be the idea that heavier barrels can be less "ammo picky" than pencil barrels. That is to say, heavier barrels are often more likely to shoot a wider variety of ammos better than slimmer barrels -- i.e. they will shoot more different lots of ammo well.
 
Like others here have pointed out, consistency is key to accurate rifle shooting.One of the reasons the 24 inch pencil barrel is accurate is that the extra length gives consistency of velocity, using quality ammunition.This was discovered long ago with companies like CZ,Krico, and Anschutz making match quality barrels in 24-29 inch lengths.Longer sighting radius for using open sights, and a smaller spread of velocity between shots.
 
From what I have learned, a shorter barrel may give a bit more velocity on .22lr but a longer barrel gives the bullet stability. It is important to note that all the rimfire benchrest competitors, who are the top accuracy specialists use barrels of more than 22 inches ( most go to 24 to 28 inches ).
Just as an example, take the Vudoo offerings. While the PRS oriented rifles are generally 18 to 20 inches barrels, for their single shot version, the barrels they offer are 24 to 26 inches. The single shot version is oriented towards BR crowd which, as I stated are the most demanding accuracy wise.

Gilbert
 
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