17hmr barrel length

[Benthejockey]

I’ve been at pony club all afternoon and in an effort to stop my brain melting I started thinking about guns. And then I got to thinking about how short I could get my HMR barrel chopped to - in a world where I actually had any spare cash to waste on such flights of fancy! So ballistics fans, barrel choppers, short gun fans and anyone else that likes to tinker for the sake of it. How short is too short? Taking into account minimum barrel length is 12 inches obviously if I got it done I wouldn’t want to go below 12.5 to allow it to be threaded for a mod and any over zealous feo that got twitchy about it. I realise velocity drops off the more you chop off the end but that’s the trade off pointability vs drop in velocity. And at HMR velocities if you’re to believe what it says on the tin that they whizz along around 2500fps then realistically a drop off of 500fps would leave it still operating at twice the speed of a 22rf. It’s all hypothetical really but I’m curious. 

[Walker570]

I don't see a problem coming down to close to 12 1/2 inches if you needed to. All of my Encore barrels ..17Rem, 22BR, 7-30Waters, 257RRI Wildcat, 375JDJ are all 16 1/2 inches and have laid a lot of soft fury things on the deck and all are hunting accurate.   If you are looking for a manoevaerable rifle...truck window etc .. then I think a happy median of 16 to 18 inches would work well. Mine are 16 1/2 just to fit with USA rules/laws and our own laws ......  isn't there an overall length stipulation as well?

[telf]

anschutz and weihrauch do 14" & 18 " barrels so i wouldnt go below that on an HMR ,ive had an annie with 14" barrel but now have a CZ with 20" with i personally prefer ,there is a chart showing the best performance out of different length barrels it was on here somewhere not so long ago, but it will be on the internet somewhere, and from memory i think 19" was the best but little difference a few inches either way

[CharlieT]

Just to make your brain melt even more,  here are some tests conducted on barrel length...........................

Bullberry Barrel Works
2430 W. Bullberry Lane
Hurricane, Utah 84737
(435) 635-9866
8am - 12pm
1pm - 5pm Mtn. time
Fax: (435) 635-0348


17 HMR Velocity Tests

These tests were performed April 20, 2002 in the Bullberry Test Pit using a Dr. Oehler Sky Screen Chronograph Model 33 with Shyscreen III system. The first screen was set 6 feet in front of muzzle. Screens are spaced EXACTLY 10 feet apart. The test was on a new production 17 HMR Bullberry bull barrel 22" long. The purpose was to determine velocities at this length, and every inch shorter down to the practical minimum length of 10". After each group of 5 shots, we cut the barrel by one inch and repeated the velocity test until we had reached our goal of 10".

I had predicted a higher velocity than currently reported from the Ruger and Marlin rifles, based on our tighter tolerance chambers. While this did not occur, it did prove my other theory that we would possibly see a maximum velocity in the 17 or 18 inch range. You'll see that it actually occured at 19" in our test.

Further was the HUGE surprise, in that the short pistols have a velocity so near the carbine. Our early accuracy test barrel in stainless shot only 132 fps slower that the uncut 22" blued chrome-moly carbine. When we finished the test at the 10" length, we found the chrome-moly barrel to be only 241 fps slower than the 22 inch length. And for some reason, unexplainable, the stainless barrel shot a bit faster than its counterpart in blued CM.

So on to the test velocities:
22 inch barrel
Shot 1 2517 fps
Shot 2 2472 fps
Shot 3 2508 fps
Shot 4 2515 fps
Shot 5 2575 fps
Average 2517 fps
Spread 103 fps

21 inch barrel
Shot 1 2560 fps
Shot 2 2494 fps
Shot 3 2494 fps
Shot 4 2522 fps
Shot 5 2543 fps
Average 2523 fps
Spread 66 fps
20 inch barrel
Shot 1 2570 fps
Shot 2 2484 fps
Shot 3 2500 fps
Shot 4 2500 fps
Shot 5 2522 fps
Average 2515 fps
Spread 86 fps

19 inch barrel
Shot 1 2548 fps
Shot 2 2520 fps
Shot 3 2491 fps
Shot 4 2557 fps
Shot 5 2574 fps
Average 2538 fps
Spread 83 fps
18 inch barrel
Shot 1 2538 fps
Shot 2 2507 fps
Shot 3 2525 fps
Shot 4 2542 fps
Shot 5 2501 fps
Average 2522 fps
Spread 41 fps

17 inch barrel
Shot 1 2524 fps
Shot 2 2483 fps
Shot 3 2495 fps
Shot 4 2498 fps
Shot 5 2526 fps
Average 2505 fps
Spread 43 fps
16 inch barrel
Shot 1 2526 fps
Shot 2 2474 fps
Shot 3 2486 fps
Shot 4 2504 fps
Shot 5 2473 fps
Average 2492 fps
Spread 53 fps

15 inch barrel
Shot 1 2473 fps
Shot 2 2464 fps
Shot 3 2490 fps
Shot 4 2491 fps
Shot 5 2469 fps
Average 2477 fps
Spread 27 fps
14 inch barrel
Shot 1 2446 fps
Shot 2 2398 fps
Shot 3 2427 fps
Shot 4 2468 fps
Shot 5 2423 fps
Average 2432 fps
Spread 70 fps

13 inch barrel
Shot 1 2431 fps
Shot 2 2427 fps
Shot 3 2431 fps
Shot 4 2399 fps
Shot 5 2406 fps
Average 2419 fps
Spread 32 fps
12 inch barrel
Shot 1 2394 fps
Shot 2 2391 fps
Shot 3 2359 fps
Shot 4 2423 fps
Shot 5 2366 fps
Average 2387 fps
Spread 57 fps

11 inch barrel
Shot 1 2358 fps
Shot 2 2332 fps
Shot 3 2336 fps
Shot 4 2349 fps
Shot 5 2313 fps
Average 2338 fps
Spread 45 fps
10 inch barrel
Shot 1 2273 fps
Shot 2 2256 fps
Shot 3 2301 fps
Shot 4 2282 fps
Shot 5 2268 fps
Average 2276 fps
Spread 45 fps


Summary: This 10" barrel produced velocity average of only 241 fps slower than the 22" length, and only 262 fps less than the best average of the 19" length.

All 5 shot groups were shot after a damp patch of Eezox was pushed through the bore. This was done to clean out any metal particles from the cutting operation and to assure a clean bore for each group.

[JRDS]

I have a 14 inch Annie TH and it works a treat.