Without starting another thread....what do you 50BMG owners/builders consider optimum barrel length for the 50? I notice the AI has only a 27" barrel....
Everybody after firing one shot says "hey that wasn't too bad" lol....There is a cumulative effect as anybody who has shot a lot of 50 cal will tell you...Personally speaking 20 rounds in a day is plenty for me (these days).
The official Serbu 50 Troll of CGN
I haven't shot mine yet, but before buying I obviously looked into it a lot. Here's what I found:
30-36" for civilian shooters seems to be the norm. Military rifles often have shorter such as the Tac50 at 29". 36" is the longest I've seen. You gain velocity but eventually you hit diminishing returns. Keep in mind military rifles tend to have other considerations to keep in mind such as being able to transport the rifle.
I went with an HS50 as it has a 33" barrel and the bullpup configuration keeps the length down. An HS50 with a 33" barrel for example is 54" in length. A Tac50 with a 29" barrel is 57" in length. The PGW has a folding stock for transportation to help shorten it. The HS50 comes apart in two pieces but is only practical for long term storage in this form.
There is no right or wrong answer to this. Look at the 308. You see 16", 20", 24", 26" etc. Shorter barrels are said to be stiffer, but you get less velocity. You might be able to load hotter to make up for that, but that's only if you can safely hit that accuracy node when reloading. In many cases the accuracy loading for the shorter barrel is exactly the same as that of the longer which means you bite the velocity difference.
Everything is a compromise. Depends on what you want.
Everybody after firing one shot says "hey that wasn't too bad" lol....There is a cumulative effect as anybody who has shot a lot of 50 cal will tell you...Personally speaking 20 rounds in a day is plenty for me (these days).
As for barrel length we offer 28-30" from stock inventory and it seems to work well..extra length would garner some modest velocity increase but these rifles are already big enough IMHO...
This is very true. 20rds is about all I shoot during any given outing. Recoil is not an issue but the concusive effect is fatiguing and starts to takes a toll. My Steyr is not great in this regard. The brake, while excellent at mitigating recoil directs a lot of over-pressure back toward the shooter. A friends LRT-3 is far more pleasant to shoot for extended periods. The brake isn't as efficient from a recoil perspective but far more comfortable in regard to muzzle blast.