Accuracy from a 12.5" 10/22?

Craig0ry

Craig0ry

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I was looking at 12.5" dlask 10/22 barrel and was wondering what type of accuracy people were getting out of them? I have a 13" norinco backpacker that is maybe minute of gopher at 50yards with decent glass but that isn't saying much, I also seen a 16.5" barrel but don't remeber the brand, but considering that one as well, any input is appreciated, post a pic of yours too if you like! Everyone likes pictures, here's one of the backpacker,
 
The length of the barrel has been shown to affect accuracy very little in a number of tests. If it has an effect it's due to other factors that change about how the gun changes our hold and use of sights. It's been well proven that the bullet itself only needs a short length of bore to spin up and achieve a good muzzle velocity.

For .22LR rounds it's generally found that barrels out to around 16 to 18 inches are optimum. Any shorter and the bullet still didn't reach the maximum possible velocity. And anything much longer and the pressure in the bore begins to drop and friction in the bore slows the bullet down. So once barrels are longer than around 20 inches the muzzle velocity can actually be lower than it would be if the barrel was closer to around 18 inches.

A short barrel with iron sights has a shorter sight baseline. And that can make it harder to get a really accurate sight picture. But of course with a scope that doesn't matter.

A short barrel can also affect our ability to hold the rifle steady during free style shooting where our nerves and lack of inertia can let the rifle bounce around more than a longer barrel that puts the mass further away from our hands.

So what all this means is that it comes down to the quality of the barrel's chambering and rifling and muzzle crown for the accuracy. And from all I've read Dlask does a really great job of all this. The short 12.5 inches will give up some velocity but if you want the compactness of the short barrel it's a fair trade.

Have you tried a bunch of different ammo out with the backpacker? Rimfire guns are quite highly sensitive to which ammo they shoot. Also while a lot of the Norinco guns are serviceable they don't have the tight quality control of some other makes. So it's possible that you got a gun with a barrel that has an issue or two with it. Depending on what that issue is it might be possible to fix it easily. Or it may be something that is beyond a fix.
 
^ yea I did quite a bit of testing a few years ago and posted my results on here, about 10 different types of 22 ammo, other people who had the backpacker faired about the same as I did so I just accepted how the rifle shoots, it did come with a beauty of a factory trigger at 2lbs,

As for the 10/22 I think I might go with the 16.5, it's still seems short enough to mavouver around, thanks for the input!
 
you wont be disappointed with the dlask 12.5" barrel. Mine is very accurate for a 10/22. See the pic below of my ammo test I did at 50 yards. All groups are 10 shots and shot prone off a bi-pod and rear bag. I tested CCI mini mags, CCI segmented hollow points (CCI SHP), SK Standard, Federal Gold Metal Match (Federal GMM), Federal 525 bulk blue box and Lapua Super Club. Looks like SK Standard is the one my gun shoots the best. Scope is a Vortex 3-9x50.



 
The type of chamber on the Dlask 12.5" barrel with have a big impact on accuracy. Mine has what Dlask calls the "X-treme" chamber, this is a Bentz chamber and is very accurate (i.e.: 3/8" at 50 yards with Federal Auto Match if I do my part). I have read that Dlask no longer offers this chamber. You now have the choice of the "Target" or "Sporter" chambers. The X-treme/Bentz chamber is very tight, this restricts the type of ammo it can use and can lead to extraction problems and long/painfull break in periods. I love mine now, but it took quite a bit of tuning, breaking-in and adjustment to make it run well.

I also own an 8" Dlask barrel with the "Sporter" chamber it is a great plinker but is more like 3/4" at 25yards. The advantage of the Sporter chambers is you can run any ammo and there is no break in period or fine tuning required.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each.

IMG_6464_zpsdf1f0c1a.jpg
 
BCRider is on the right track. The sweet spot for barrel length in a rimfire(.22) is 16.25 inches. Longer barrels tend to plateau or lose velocity and shorter isn't detrimental to velocity either. Average velocity loss between a 16" and 12" barrel is between 25-50fps. In some cases the loss is as little as 5fps. For example, Golden bullet from a 16" barrel achieves a velocity of 1185fps and from a 12" barrel 1167. A net loss of 18fps which translates into a 2% loss in velocity, not even worth discussing. using the same data, an 18" barrel with Golden Bullet is producing 1181fps. For academic purposes lets use an 8" barrel that produces a muzzle velocity of 1101fps with Golden Bullet. A barrel length exactly half that of the "ideal" length of 16" is still producing nearly 93% the same velocity. That's impressive for an 8" barrel. That's an average loss of 10 fps per inch...

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

TDC
 
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