accuracy

[PAULT]

which is the most accurate

[Fleabag]

which is the most accurate

I have a 20" barrel and my mate has a 24" barrel, up to about 300yards we seem to be the same, but he can get further out then me with less dialing in,being as we both shot vermin at ranges between 80 and 250yrds ish. I would say not a lot in either. But opinions do vary.

[Vegeta]

I might have missed it somewhere but what calibre are we talking here.

[PAULT]

223

[casts_by_fly]

paul,

 

generally speaking, short and at are considered more accurate. The longer and thinner a barrel gets the more flexible the barrel is and the more that it will flex on the shot. The more it flexes, the greater chance there is that it won't be in exactly the same position when the bullet leaves.

 

That said, in a 223 hunting rifle you'll not see a difference, especially wiht factory ammo.

 

Thanks

Rick

[Dunkield]

Cha ching

 

http://www.accuratereloading.com/223sb.html

[Vegeta]

That's pretty cool.

 

Thanks for the link

 

Speed is important if you are trying to do some long range stuff and keep the round supersonic but with a hunting .223 that's not really too important.

[Dead-Eyed Duck]

I used to have a 22-250 and lopped 4" off the barrel to make it more handy with an old-type screw on moderator. It was a Remmy 700 Varmint.

 

The advice given to me was that I would lose 50 fps for every 1" removed.

 

All I can say is that accuracy afterwards was not affected at all up to 200 yards - certainly the foxes didn't notice any difference :good:

 

Don

[casts_by_fly]

don't know how many of you guys dug into the data on the AR page, but there are some useful conclusions.

 

First, every gun will be different with respect to favored powder charge and powder, but an accurate powder that your gun likes will shoot regardless of the charge. I pulled the data from the website into excel to make it easier to view. I also separated the velocities and accuracy numbers from each other. For any given powder, the overall average group size would be pretty consistent across all of the weight ranges of powder and lengths of the barrels. There are a few dogs and a few sweet spots, but on the whole the three powders chosen are pretty accurate in this gun (or series of guns since cutting the barrel made it a new 'gun').

 

Second, for this gun in 'hunting' configuration there isn't much difference in real accuracy with changes in length. For barrels of normal rifle length you could vary the charge weight to get a good shooting load (sub 0.5 MOA). That is not to say that the load would be the same load that shot best in the next shorter or longer barrel. In fact, if you look at the accuracy vs length profile for each of the barrels you can clearly see the nodes and sinusoidal wave nature of the barrel. In some of the powders you can even see the shift in amplitude of the curve with change in powder charge.

 

When you drop to really short barrels though, there is less variation in accuracy with change in charge weight. In barrels under 13" or so, the charge weight was unimportant to accuracy. That tell us two things. (1) If you are a pistol shooter or like rifles with really short barrels, then you will have more leeway in charge weight while maintaining accuracy. (2) It goes to explain why benchrest shooters shoot short fat tubes- you can change charge weights and internal pressure more and not have a big change in accuracy. That will let you work a load up or down a little to account and buffer for atmospheric conditions without giving up accuracy.

 

Next, you can expect about 45 fps change in velocity per inch for a 223. The range varied from 40-48 depending on the powder charge, but the average loss for each of the three powders was about 45 fps.

 

The last big conclusion is that an accurate gun is an accurate gun. Out of the 182 five-shot groups, only one was over an inch and only 5 more were over 0.8". By far, the majority oft he loads were in the 0.55" - 0.65" range and the average group size for all loads was 0.579. That was across 3 powders (3, 5, and 6 different charges) and 13 different lengths. We have to assume that the crown was the same for each barrel simply because we have no reason not to and we know that the same person did the crowns. That means with quality handloads a good gun will shoot well across a broad variety and type of charges.

 

Thanks,

Rick

[njc110381]

I've always been under the impression that length isn't a big issue regarding accuracy. You will lose velocity with the shorter barrel though, so will encounter more bullet drop at long range. I've kept all my centrefires long, but then I don't need them to be short as you may do.

[Vegeta]

Great post Rick

[tuck1]

Excellent post, very informative.

 

Meant nothing to me.

 

Let's start at the beginning shall we...

[casts_by_fly]

tuck,

 

what would you like clarified?

 

Thanks,

rick