Experiment: Can I cut 6" off my factory barrel?

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50calshooter

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So I got a 26" Rem barrel 1/12 twist. Will it totaly ruin accuracy if I cut it down to a 20" barrel? I wouldn't be doing the work myself, I would get a smith to do it properly...

Im worried about accuracy loss, thoughts? BTW the Rem factory 20" barrels are 1/12 aswell...
 
50calshooter said:
could you elaborate more, Im a noob when it comes to this stuff
Click to expand...

Gun barrels flex as the bullet passes down the barrel. That detracts from accuracy. All other things being equal, a shorter barrel will be stiffer and oscillate less as measure at the muzzle. Longer barrels have the advantage of more polar momentum and you can hold them steadier, if equipped with iron sights, they have a longer site plane. This all contributes to their reputation of being more accurate.
 
Had my 26" rock barrel chopped and recrowned into a 22". Haven't shot it yet, I'll let you know how it goes. Thing is, it already shot great, I just wanted it lighter for positional shooting.
 
Shorten a Rem factory barrel

Before you cut, slug the bore. Rem barrels are hammer-forged and tend to tighten in size near the muzzle. Don't make the mistake of cutting where the bore is not tight. Most custom barrels are much more uniform in bore diameter and shortening them won't destroy accuracy.
 
I agree with Chinbullco, get your gunsmith to cut the barrel at the tightest part of the bore near your proposed finished length rather than at exactly 20" unless by some happy coincidence that is the tightest part of the bore.
 
Cutting any hammer forged or factory button rifled barrel is a crap shoot. It may improve accuracy, or it may react to latent stress and distort the barrel. Even with the latter, it does not mean it may not shoot, but be prepared to load develop all over again.
 
A properly cut and crowned barrel will not detrimentally affect accuracy, it may also not improve it. If you are looking to have a better shooting barrel, I would recommend that you have the barrel setback, match chamber cut, cut the barrel and crown. You will likely see improvements if the barrel doesn't shoot that well currently. However if you are looking for a lighter rifle to carry around, then just cut and crown it as it won't shoot any worse then it currently does however it could end up shooting better (assuming that the smith does the work correctly)

Obtunded: Normally I agree with all of your posts, I don't think I agree with your last one. I can't see latent stress being an issue at the Cut/Crown portion of the barrel making process - Most rifle manufacturers and gunsmiths do that portion near the end and frequently the result are good - when it is bad it would be hard to say that it is traced to the barrel cutting/crowning process. I know that stress is an issue for changing the contour of the barrel/fluting but I just can't see it being an issue for the crowning/barrel cutting unless the smith screwed the crowning portion up... Just my 2 cents.
 
Wow... I guess I should count my blessings. I had a smith cut and crown a couple of my sporter M700 SPS barrels down to 18.5" so that I can have a shorter boomstick to carry around my hunting fields.

Both of them shoot into an inch and quite often, if I do my part, they are grouping between 5/8" and 3/4" which is great for handloads and a short sporter barrel. I don't mind. I can live with that kind of hunting accuracy ;)

Now, if only I could smarten up when squeezing the trigger since my benchrest techniques sucks big time. :evil:

Interesting post. I guess I'm just lucky! :D

:cheers:

Barney
 
From my own past experiences (I like short barrels) it will not likely shoot worse, and will most likely shoot better. I have not had a negative experience yet getting a barrel shortened. Probably 10 - 15 of them in total. YMMV.
 
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