AR Barrel Length - the science

woodchopper said:
well this just reinforces my choice of an 18" barrel with the mid-lenght gas.

I'm so smart ;)
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Why would you choose to shoot Mil Ball ammo when as a civilian there are so many better and more effective choices available to you? The OP is only relevant to M855 ball ammo. Thus your choice of barrel length is essentially irrelevant as well.
 
Suputin said:
300 Blackout. Very useful in short barrel. Mucho bigger bullet equals bigger and more effective terminal effects.
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I was considering that, or 7.62 x 31. Haven't seen too much BO ammo around, nor have I seen a short barreled 7.62. Now that would be loud!
 
Suputin said:
Why would you choose to shoot Mil Ball ammo when as a civilian there are so many better and more effective choices available to you? The OP is only relevant to M855 ball ammo. Thus your choice of barrel length is essentially irrelevant as well.
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I couldn't agree more. There are rounds available that can fragment out of short barreled rifles at distances where ball ammo would not. That being said, i've shot my 10.5 out to 600m with ball ammo and was able to achieve exceptional results for accuracy with just an aimpoint. The guys who concern themselves with the great ballistics debacle usually don't even know their weapons upper ceiling of performance in any department.

The only thing I will say is that pistol length 5.56 rigs are insidious. They cross the threshold of losing too much in the ballistic department, as well as the extra stress to the operating system due to gas pressures. However just from building a few here and there, they can still attain great accuracy, even athough distances where a lot of people will write them off.
 
I have no idea why we always end up debating the terminal ballistics of ball ammo through long and short barreled rifles and what velocity is required to have them perform as designed.

As a civilian shooter this really means nothing to us. You can't legally hunt with ball ammo even if you live in a province that allows you to hunt with a 5.56mm projectile (mine does not) so terminal performance is simply making a hole in a sheet of plywood, ringing a gong or at most making a hole in a coyote, in which case chances are pretty good you'll be using a rifle with a barrel more than 14 inches and more than 18.5 if it's a semi auto. If you are military or law enforcement chances are pretty good you will be issued your rifle and your ammo so you'll shoot what you are given.
So how is this relevant to anything?

If you want practical terminal performance in Canada you want a larger caliber.
 
While I agree that the testing on military ammo is not relevant for us civilians, it does give a good indication of what barrel length impacts velocity and pressure wave.

Let's face it with the myriad of civilian ammo out there on 223 it would be near impossible to test the terminal performance of each, I liked both articles because it kept variables constant and allows us to interpret the data on a limited set of ammo types while changing length.
 
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