16.5" vs 21" barrel effect on .22LR

Tarrantula

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Hey everyone,

I am looking at picking up a bolt action .22LR to do a bit of plinking with. I want it to be nice and accurate out to 100m. I am debating between a 21" or 16.5" Savage, both heavy barrels. My question is what effect will the shorter barrel have at that distance? Will there be a noticeable difference in accuracy? Any help or advice is appreciated. Thanks a bunch!!

-A
 
I'm guessing everyone will say the 16.5" barrel is fine since the powder is used up by then and there is almost no gain in velocity between the barrels. However I have the 16" bull barrel on my 10/22 and a long barrel on my Savage BTVS. IMO the longer barrel is a lot quitter and barrel harmonics come into play. For groups, I think how the barrel is made, what it's made of and how good the crown is effects more than barrel length.
I could be totally wrong, but this is what I believe.
 
I run a factory 10" factory barrel on my 10/22 Ruger and it is very accurate at a hundred or so yards on gophers what you give up on velocity is very little compared to the weight savings accuracy has little to do with barrel length in this case shorter is better.

Randy
 
I have a 14" Ruger barrel on my 10/22 and a Norinco JW15 (BRNO No 1 clone) with a 24" barrel. I have chronographed both with the same ammo, and I found that there was 300 f/s difference in both. I can shoot dime sized groups with both, but the extra velocity pays off when I try to reach longer than 100m. I am not convinced that EVERY single brand of .22lr ammo uses up its useful powder by 16.5" of barrel. I have found some brands loaded hotter, and having extra barrel really paid off with extra ooomph (meaning driving the squirrel clean out of the tree, vs. just killing it and having it do the "PLINKO" down the branches to the ground.
 
I have a 14" Ruger barrel on my 10/22 and a Norinco JW15 (BRNO No 1 clone) with a 24" barrel. I have chronographed both with the same ammo, and I found that there was 300 f/s difference in both. I can shoot dime sized groups with both, but the extra velocity pays off when I try to reach longer than 100m. I am not convinced that EVERY single brand of .22lr ammo uses up its useful powder by 16.5" of barrel. I have found some brands loaded hotter, and having extra barrel really paid off with extra ooomph (meaning driving the squirrel clean out of the tree, vs. just killing it and having it do the "PLINKO" down the branches to the ground.

I suspect your evidence collecting is wrong. Far more educated and experienced rimfire shooters than you or I have concluded that 16.5" is the ideal length. Furthermore, your experience with shooting squirrels has more to do with shot placement than projectile selection or velocity.

To the OP, don't waste your time on long heavy barrels, short barrels on a rimfire are just fine.

TDC
 
I agree 300 fps loss is not right with having excellent hollow point expansion on gophers with my 10"Charger barrel on my 10/22 this summer.

My .22 Anshutz bolt has a much longer barrel and while more accurate the short barrelled Ruger still takes many gophers, like I said while there is an accuracy difference between the bolt and 10/22 it has nothing to do with the barrel length.

Randy

http://www.sniperforums.com/forum/rimfire/38241-22-lr-barrel-length-performance.html

22 inch standard stainless barrel +mod - 957fps .25 inch group.
20 inch standard barrel +mod - 964fps .5 inch group.
18.5 inch standard carbine barrel +mod - 973fps .5 inch group.
16.12 inch standard compact barrel +mod - 986fps .5 inch group.
14 inch Volquartsen fancy carbon fibre barrel - 1008fps .2 inch group.
12.25 inch cut down standard stainless barrel (my barrel) +mod 1002fps .25 inch group.
 
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I suspect your evidence collecting is wrong. Far more educated and experienced rimfire shooters than you or I have concluded that 16.5" is the ideal length. Furthermore, your experience with shooting squirrels has more to do with shot placement than projectile selection or velocity.

To the OP, don't waste your time on long heavy barrels, short barrels on a rimfire are just fine.

TDC

So you are saying that shooting THE SAME AMMO (from the same lot and box) through 2 different length barrels to acertain the speed it can produce is faulty? I did this with at least 9 types of .22lr ammo, and I got a lot of results that told me that SOME BRANDS of .22lr have a slightly slower speed burning powder. NOT EVERYONE that manufactures .22lr ammo uses the same powder. Also, if I can achieve more speed (in some cases 300 f/s increase in velocity over a shorter barrel, you are saying that the increased energy can't knock a squirrel that weighs maybe 100 grams out of a tree??
I think your judging me outright is wrong.
 
So you are saying that shooting THE SAME AMMO (from the same lot and box) through 2 different length barrels to acertain the speed it can produce is faulty? I did this with at least 9 types of .22lr ammo, and I got a lot of results that told me that SOME BRANDS of .22lr have a slightly slower speed burning powder. NOT EVERYONE that manufactures .22lr ammo uses the same powder. Also, if I can achieve more speed (in some cases 300 f/s increase in velocity over a shorter barrel, you are saying that the increased energy can't knock a squirrel that weighs maybe 100 grams out of a tree??
I think your judging me outright is wrong.
Your 1022, being a semi, will also have a slightly slower fps. I tried this with low velocity ammo and it was quite the difference with that.
 
I also shot the ammo with a 4.25" pistol, a 6" pistol, and a 13" Norinco backpacker at the same time. (I actually shot about 11 rimfires in that session just to get an idea of which barrels were "slow" and which ones were "faster" using the same ammo. All that data about 16.5" being optimal barrel length, when was that actually done? Was it done recently? Or is that data older , using velocities from older generation ammo and powders. I know that .22lr technology is not advancing with leaps and bounds, but , seriously, are they still using the same powders they used 40 years ago??
 
Barrel length is not related to accuracy. However it might affect velocity at a given range. Regardless, any barrel will require fine tuning with different ammo to find out which one works best for its configuration.

That said; 16.5 inches is pretty much where the muzzle velocity has negligible gains as you increase length. Its not a theoretical limit, but a practical one. A target rimfire would be more concerned about the action and chambering at this point. When I was looking into it, some arguments favored 16.5, some favored 18 as the best performance point for 22lr. However the barrel twist had more of an effect on the bullet velocity and trajectory than the 1.5" difference. And by the way the tests were hair splitting ones at this point. Velocity flatlined between 18 and 22 inches, and some rifles began exhibiting lower velocities with 24+ inch barrels.

In the end, the barrel length should be more about the application and practicality. Also if you think it looks more pretty.
 
There's a youtube video where some fellas shoot a number of callibers from firearms that they chop and recrown an inch at a time. Pretty interesting.

As for the longer barrels on .22s, some shooters with more time and money than I like them because the bullets leave the barrel with LESS speed so the entire flight is sub sonic, as opposed to supersonic and getting destablized as it decelerated through the sound barrier at about 25 yards. The same thing could be done with a really short barrel I suppose, but this gives the bullet more time to stabilize in the barrel, and makes for a longer more accurate distance between front and rear iron sights.
 
So you are saying that shooting THE SAME AMMO (from the same lot and box) through 2 different length barrels to acertain the speed it can produce is faulty? I did this with at least 9 types of .22lr ammo, and I got a lot of results that told me that SOME BRANDS of .22lr have a slightly slower speed burning powder. NOT EVERYONE that manufactures .22lr ammo uses the same powder. Also, if I can achieve more speed (in some cases 300 f/s increase in velocity over a shorter barrel, you are saying that the increased energy can't knock a squirrel that weighs maybe 100 grams out of a tree??
I think your judging me outright is wrong.

Your Chronograph could be the culprit, or the firearms, or the ammo. I see your point regarding older data used but there's a link below from some recent studies and the difference, is negligible. As for the Squirrel, if you're talking about the American Red, they average 197-282 grams in weight, just saying..

http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/22.html

TDC
 
If you are shooting hyper velocity ammo and you want it to achieve full velocity then you want more than 16.5". If you shoot high velocity (Mini-Mags) or lower then 16.5" is perfect. I choose a 20" barrel because half of my ammo stash is hyper velocity (Velocitor). Thanks for posting that ballisticsbytheinch chart, very interesting.
 
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If you are shooting hyper velocity ammo and you want it to achieve full velocity then you want more than 16.5". If you shoot high velocity (Mini-Mags) or lower then 16.5" is perfect. I choose a 20" barrel because half of my ammo stash is hyper velocity (Velocitor). Thanks for posting that ballisticsbytheinch chart, very interesting.


Have a look at the Velocitor results on the link and think about what you just posted. The difference between an 18" and 10" is 50fps, not worth worrying about. The difference between an 18" and 16" is 25fps.. Stop wasting time and money on longer barrels, they don't do anything for velocity.

TDC
 
Have a look at the Velocitor results on the link and think about what you just posted. The difference between an 18" and 10" is 50fps, not worth worrying about. The difference between an 18" and 16" is 25fps.. Stop wasting time and money on longer barrels, they don't do anything for velocity.
TDC

I did and it just confirmed I made the right choose since it didn't cost me any more time (don't understand that one) or money (same price). The real world weapon results showed the Kimber 22" to have the highest velocity.
 
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