Long barrels vs. Short for Precicion Shooting

peacefrog

peacefrog

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Lately, I have been seeing more and more short barrels showing up on the range or in builds for long range. It seems people are willing to "give up" a little length and velocity to get a stiffer shorter barrel (22, 24, 26") vs the 28"-30" tubes that have been "standard".

What are the thoughts on this, and does anyone have stats or personal experience going shorter and being better?
 
I find 20-22 inch to be very accurate in 308, 10 years ago i had a Savage model 12 308 shortened from 26 to 20 inch and it really improved the group, i sacrificed a lot of velocity tru the process but i was not shooting pass 200 yards so it was neglegible... JP.
 
Short and stiff is less affected by harmonics at the expense of velocity, but it depends on other factors such as steel stress too.
Depends too if your shooting is supported or free hand. Shorter barrels for unsupported shooting tend to be less accurate - not less precise.
 
With the modern powders you do not have to sacrifice velocity with having a short barrel. Case in point my 308s all sport 22.75" long barrels, shoot 190 gr SMKs at 2690 FPS and at 1000 yards need only 31.5 MOA .
Using extremely slow burning powders in overbore cases is about the only time a long barrel is required to maintain high velocity.

The advantage a long barrel has comes when using iron sites and it increases sight radius, but with most guys using optics the days of needing a long barrel are becoming more of a specialty item than the norm.
 
When I was deciding whether to buy a short or long Kreiger barrel for my M1A (308), the choice was pretty simple. I could get a) better ballistics (and less windage spread at long ranges) or b) tighter groups.


I chose the longer barrel (still only 22") because at longer ranges, the better ballistics mean less wind spread and a smaller miss (theoretically). At shorter ranges, the rifle will not be as precise as a shorty, but that's not why I'm building this rifle.


For bolt actions, most of the time a short barrel is better. However, for anything labeled 'magnum', you might want to stick to the norm.
 
It looks like there may be an advantage to going somewhat shorter. I'm thinking maybe I would gain some consistency and a little more accuracy for the cost of a few inches of barrel. I would imagine the .260 would be pretty tolerant going from a 30" barrel to somewhere between 24"-27".

Does anyone know what I might lose in velocity? My load chronographs at 2906 fps.
 
No not that much. 308 is between 10 and 15'/sec/inch. 260 would be about the same. The advantage of a longer barrrel particularly a longer tenon, is that you can set back and get another 75% more barrel life or so. Pretty hard to set back a 22" barrel on a 308 case cartridge.
 
Like someone above said, if you sacrifice velocity, you are sacrificing windage at longer range... Not a huge deal unless you are shooting for points where that extra inch the wind DIDN"T move the bullet could get you a win.
 
What's a good example of an accurate 223 or 308 rifle with a 22" or less barrel?

Benelli MR1? (20" barrel, I believe).
Any other thoughts?
 
Most people use short barrels for short range [benchrest comes to mind] and long barrels for long range.
When shooting long range like f-class it is a point game so the better the balistics the better the advantage imo.

So if you can get another 150 fps out of a 308 with a long barrel why not have that balistic advantage .
A good f-class gun should hold 1/2 moa and better with a long barrel and a good pilot steering it , I honestly can't see how a short barrel would have any advantage at long range.
 
i have a custom built remington 700 in .223 with a 16in. lothar walther barrel on it and it's split hair accurate up to 300 yard (never tried longer distance with this rifle yet) really enjoy this rifle, the folding stock make it very compact to travel or bring in the bush...
 
Max Owner said:
Was there a rule of thumb saying 100 FPS per inch lost?
Click to expand...

Totally dependent on the powder and bullet combination. A heavy bullet with a faster powder will lose less fps than a lighter bullet with a slower burning powder.

That "rule' also only applies to a fixed/factory load. It fails to take into consideration that handloaders tune their loads to an accuracy node, not to a fixed powder charge. Nodes are often at virtually the same velocity over a wide range of barrel lengths.
 
I believe the 100fps thing is a general rule of thumb for estimating how fast you can expect the average MV for a given barrel length. IE: a 26" barrel should give 2600 fps. Of course, the bullet weight, relative case capacity, and powder burn rate are massive missing puzzle pieces.


In reality, shaving 1" off a standard barrel and standard chambering will only result in 15-30 fps, certainly not 100 fps. For something like a 7mm Mag, going from 26" to 25" could mean 100 fps, but I'm just guessing.
 
I follow LonewolfUSMC / Mail call mondays .. on youtube as he has some good info for precision stuff as far as tac rifles go,...
anyway, hes shortening up some of his .308's to 16.5" as he only uses them out to 600m. he finds that the shorter stiffer barrel is more advantageous at those ranges than the higher velocity from a long barrel, which can be 90% mitigated by using a slightly faster burning powder anyway..

so i guess like Jerry says, pick the length according to what you want to do, but dont be afraid to go shorter ( 20-24" )
keep in mind that USMC M40A5's are 24" .. and they shoot out to 1000 just fine
 
I have a savage 10 built with an M24 contour shoulder headspaced 1 in 11.25" 5r rifled 22" pipe on it. Though may not be your traditional "benchrest" rifle let me tell you that this is my most accurate rifle. I say this because it seems to eat EVERYTHING. Having a short fat barrel in a 308 is fine and velocity is not everything. Inside of 500m this rifle shoots ridiculously well and have even had great success to 1000m with it. Any further and I usually turn to my 6.5x55 or 338lm but for my "go-to" rifle I wouldn't have this one any other way. Tuning a load is almost too easy haha.
 
A few reason for long barrel:

1) balance of the gun
2) powder burn
3) increase fps

4) well...increase accuracy? That depends on the package of the gun, not just the barrel.
 
No Fear in Accuracy said:
A few reason for long barrel:

1) balance of the gun
2) powder burn
3) increase fps

4) well...increase accuracy? That depends on the package of the gun, not just the barrel.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but the only thing that is likely to be a positive with long barrels is increased velocity and that is very chamber dependent/operating conditions.

Long barrels can make balance worst, and powder burns in the first few inches of barrel. Accuracy is equal and up to the user to tune as needed.

Where you get the increased in velocity is dependent on the powder/amount used and the pressure curve of that ammo.

There are plenty of tests measuring changes in muzzle velocity from long to short. In many cases from 26" and longer, the change is around 20/25fps - and that can be tuned out.

From 26" to 20", can increase as much as 40fps per inch. The higher on the overbore index the more dramatic this change. A shotgun may show next to nothing. A 257 Wby might drop 150fps per inch.

for most standard chambering, there is a massive drop in velocity below 20" with the biggest drops happening from 16" and shorter. Here you could loose 100 to 200fps per inch.

Why SBR rifles are so ineffecient.

Jerry
 
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