trephilgar66 Posted April 15, 2009 Report Share Posted April 15, 2009 Can anyone offer an opinion on barrel length. I am looking for a .17HMR and there seem to be a wide range of barrel lengths available. Anything from 16 to 23 inches. Now I have read lots about the relationship between length and performance but would appreciate the views of anyone on the subject. Obviously there are benefits to there being a shorter barrel but not at the expense of grouping. It will be used with a moderator so 23 + mod would turn out to be a bit of a handful. Any ideas? Many thanks jeremy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zapp Posted April 15, 2009 Report Share Posted April 15, 2009 I'm using a CZ American with a 21" barrel plus a Paker Hale mod which is quite long and thin. Very accurate but a pain to use from the truck. Look at the pics in this thread. My rifle is the woodstocked one with the longets barrel. There are a couple of quite nice shots showing the difference in length between mine and Wookie's (which is a CZ Varmint with a 16" bull barrel). HTH ZB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Elvis Posted April 15, 2009 Report Share Posted April 15, 2009 Mines 21", its unwieldy in cars but i love it, most of my shots are taken prone off the pod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaun4860 Posted April 15, 2009 Report Share Posted April 15, 2009 mines a 14" sako...... ideal for in the truck.... shaun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-G Posted April 16, 2009 Report Share Posted April 16, 2009 About 1/4 down the page here are some actual test results after cutting an inch at a time from a 17HMR barrel. There's much more than most of us could tell you about it on there so make a nice cup of tea before clicking the link. Varmint Al's HMR jottings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casts_by_fly Posted April 16, 2009 Report Share Posted April 16, 2009 and also look at the bullberry 17 HMR data (a google search or a search on this board for my posts will bring it up). They cut a contender barrel from 24" down to 10" or so and tracked the velocity. Long story short, right around 16-19" was optimal for velocity versus length, but you weren't loosing much by dropping down a few more inches. I'd figure out what length you want from a convenience standpoint and go with that. I'd be tempted to go bare minimum (12-13") if it were a truck gun. Thanks Rick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wookie Posted April 16, 2009 Report Share Posted April 16, 2009 I use my 16" CZ Varmint (+SAK mod) from a car mostly and it doesn't get caught up much. If I had a rifle like Zapp's, I could see myself knocking the mod or something getting it in and out of the window. Accuracy-wsie, it will do under an inch at 100m all day, so no problems there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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