why does T/C use 28" barrels?

[Mr. Friendly]

most cartridges are tested in 24" barrel's and some really powerful long range cartridges often are chambered in BR guns with 26" of barrel...but T/C chambers in 28" barrels.

any clue why they do this? is there any real advantage to a 28" barrel over the shorter barrels? does anyone provide load data for people shooting out of these longer T/C barrels to take advantage of any possible velocity/energy gains that may come from having a barrel that long?

 

[double gun]

Since the action is so short they don’t handle like a 28” barrel normally would and offers more velocity. Just my guess.

 

[Mr. Friendly]

Since the action is so short they don’t handle like a 28” barrel normally would and offers more velocity. Just my guess.

that wass my guess as well, but wondered if there were any other reasons.

 

[fraserdw]

A little more spin and greater velocity. There is huge discussion by the Pro Hunter God Mike Bellam on this topic but I can not longer access it. He basically says that most rounds available in 28 inch barrels perform better in 28 inches than shorter lengths and those that do not perform are not offered in 28 inches (such as 30-30, 22 Hornet which are offered in contender barrels and were offered in 24 inch Pro Hunter barrels).

 

[Mr. Friendly]

thanks for the comment, fraserdw. does anyone have links to any data on this?

when you cut back barrel's from 24", you lose about 50fps or so per inch...but what does it go up by when the barrel length is increased? more? less? same?

 

[captonion]

when you cut back barrel's from 24", you lose about 50fps or so per inch..

Not necessarily, The Rifle Barrel by Chuck Hawks is a good read..

 

[rpcw]

You can lose more or less depending on load/cal/powder burn rate.

For example;

Last year I purchased two Brux Match smokeless ML barrels for two TC pro hunters.

The 26” with one load and bullet combo produced 2500-2506 fps. The 28” with same bullet and powder combo produced 2660-2667 fps.

Both killed deer very well!

On a side note I had a gunny build me one on a 700mls stainless donor gun. 28” Match Brux and same results with that load around 2670 fps.

In these cases it made a fair difference. I sold that gun to a fellow I know and he took a nice whitetail at 274 yards with that very bullet/load combo last fall.

To be fair one could argue that the internals of the barrels accounted for this difference although I don’t believe that to be the case....

 

[fraserdw]

thanks for the comment, fraserdw. does anyone have links to any data on this?

when you cut back barrel's from 24", you lose about 50fps or so per inch...but what does it go up by when the barrel length is increased? more? less? same?

twist has a load to with it. Go here and see the options for caliber and twist for custom TC barrels. https://matchgrademachine.com/

 

[Suther]

Not necessarily, The Rifle Barrel by Chuck Hawks is a good read..

Indeed cutting barrels is a weird thing. I've seen a few tests, and the one thing I can conclude is that you can't predict what will happen. In one test I saw, velocity actually increased when an inch got chopped! (it was only one ammo, at one particular barrel length, but it happened all the same)

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2015/06/308-win-barrel-cut-down-test-velocity-vs-barrel-length/

This test found a 22.7fps change, but as you can see by the chart the actual change per inch chopped varied a lot.

It should also be noted that identical barrels coming off the same assembly line can vary by over 100fps, so its entirely possible that one 26" barrel will be faster than a similar barrel that's 28".

 

[Mr. Friendly]

http://www.wideopenspaces.com/the-truth-about-barrel-length-muzzle-velocity-and-accuracy/

here's a good article on testing the .308 from 26" down to 13.5" of barrel length across several different bullets, but the same powder:

http://riflebarrels.com/long-barrel-velocities/

and here's another interesting experiment by Lidja with a much heavier caliber with barrel out to 40"!