Well, I have been working on a new toy for a few weeks now, piecing her together when I had time. The rifle has something special about it that is different then all my other rifles, I have been testing several throat designs in an attempt to get more velocity out of a given case capacity and bullet weight.
Shawn Carlock has been doing some similiar testing with similiar results. We are just going about thing a bit differently but both seem to be showing very impressive performance gains.
First off the spec list:
338 Allen Xpress chambering
Surgeon XL repeating receiver
Surgeon DM system
Lilja #8 contour SS, 1-10 twist barrel
8 heavy flutes
APS medium 3 port Painkiller muzzle brake
Manner MCS-T4A stock
APS pillar bedding
Jewell trigger set at 1 1/4 lb
Harris S-9-13" bipod with pod lock
NF 5.5-22x50mm NP-R1 with scope level
Some eye candy
So whats so different about this rifle, well you may notice that the barrel looks pretty short in comparision to most of the rifles that come out of my shop. This is by design. I wanted to stick to a more pure tactical design so stayed with a 26" barrel length instead of the more common 28-30" barrels that I generally use.
This is also for another reason. With my new throat design I am hoping that this short 26" barrel will match or slightly exceed the velocity that can be had in a 30" barrel length.
I am not releasing the details of my throat design yet but I can give you a run down of the basics:
- Will produce velocity equal to a 1/2 to 3/4" freebored barrel
- Will produce the consistancy of a short throated chamber that you can seat the bullets right to the lands in and still fit ammo in shorter length magazine boxes like this Surgeon receiver has.
- Will be extremely gentle on thin jacketed bullets such as those from Berger(Yes will be testing this in my 338 AM soon as well)
Basically, you get the benefits of a freebore throats velocity but the consistancy and accuracy of a short tight throat. Test reports will be coming soon, just wanted to let you guys see the new toy.
Imagine the awsome performance of a full 30" barrel but in a super stiff and much more portable 26" barrel length!!!!
On the other end, imagine adding 125-150 fps to a 30" barrel lengths velocity potential, will benefit all around.
Deep down I have dreams of the 338 Allen Magnum getting the 300 gr SMK back to 3500 fps or close to it with good case life like we used to have with the old TTI brass and longer barrels. Time will tell, this first test will tell ALOT.
I am also going to get the entire barreled receiver teflon coated in flat black. Always needed a true tactical rifle but 308s bore me, now with this new hammer, the tactical rifle will be taken to some new power and hopefully accuracy levels.
I will also be testing this rifle past super sonic velocity ranges to see if we can keep that 300 gr SMK stable as it drops out of super sonic velocity. I already know the answer to that but there is one smith on Ohio that seems to think he can keep them consistant out to 3800 yards.........
Anyway, time will tell and I will report all results.
I hope you get it to shoot like you have planned, and the life is there as well. If so, and the same principles were applied to a certain 7mm AM, what do you think the velocity would be with the longer barrel?light bulb
Linear Mode
