Barrel length advice.

[HARPERC]

I just had a rifle fall back into my hands. Originally this Remington 700 was a .222. I had it chambered to .223 as an entry level squirrel rifle for kids. It's a light sporter. Sold it to a friend to finance a divorce many years ago. He was going through his safe, and stuck in the back was this rifle.

He decided it doesn't shoot and asked if I would take it back, and gave it to me. It does shoot, but the 1-14 twist doesn't seem to like some of todays longer bullets. Stay 45 grains and less, its decent.

I have .223 pretty well covered already, and have decided to turn it into an entry level deer rifle for this generation of kid's.

6mm is minimum legal here, I have a 6mm Remington, and it works, but a smaller rifle/cartridge combo would fit some folks better.

Plan is a very lightweight 6.5/223 or 6.5 Grendel, with the Grendel in the lead today. If you've stayed with me this far, What is the shortest barrel length you would use?

 

[idaho elk hunter]

On non over bore efficient accuracy cartridges I have seen that a 21.75 inch barrel in a 35 contour is the most accurate ALL the time. I have not a idea why this works this way due to the harmonics being different on all the cartridges and calibers. I read this way back in the day when I was starting out. A group of people that studied this same question physically studied that and did test on all barrel lengths and they concurred with my finding. Some will call bs on this but those who have tried this all come to the same conclusion.

 

[idaho elk hunter]

To support my findings one needs to google . "Houston warehouse Rifle experiment"
This is tagged Angelfire. This duplicates my findings. Again I will assure you ALL the rifles I have built have all been more accurate with the 21.75 inch barrel as long as they are very efficient cartridges. This makes one wonder why all these young shooters are not familiar with this. F class shooters? My guess is that someone in the future will rediscover this and it will be the next big thing with some marketing hype and internet hype as the newest thing in accuracy. I need to let you know that 21.5 and 22 inch are not going to work. It is this sensitive. All other lengths will invalidate this. If it is off by 1/16 of a inch. literally the crown can make or brake the 21.75 inch accuracy edge. This is my finding on 7 different rifles and calibers by starting at 26 inches and going to 18 inches 1/32 of a inch at a time. It took me 3 years of tinkering to study this. Hope this knowledge is read and passed on before I pass on.

 

[HARPERC]

I Googled 35 barrel contour, but could not find an answer I understood. At 21.75" what diameter muzzle do we have? Thanks

Would a muzzle brake, or suppressor, change your thinking?

 

[Tikkamike]

Carl, I Have been wanting to do something similar that I can play with until my youngens are old enough to start shooting. I think 2-3 years for my oldest. Minimum for deer and antelope here is center fire 22 new for this year. So I will probably start with that. but if it were still 6mm I would be thinking 6.5 creedmore, grendle or x55 In my opinion velocity is an irrelevant number for a beginner because you are probably going to keep the shots as short as possible. so I would go with whatever will balance the rifle the best and make it eaisier to handle. 20-22" will probably be optimal, then later if the kid outgrows the capability of that rifle rebarrel it or buy/build another.

 

[Edd]

Plan is a very lightweight 6.5/223 or 6.5 Grendel, with the Grendel in the lead today. If you've stayed with me this far, What is the shortest barrel length you would use?

18 inches.

 

[HARPERC]

Mike, My set up for the last 30 years is 7.7 lbs. That's with a 2.5-8x Leupold on it. My experience is it's a touch heavy for the smaller kids. I'd like to be in the 5 lb range.

Similar actions, the 6mm is on a Remington 600. 20" Shilen barrel, Brown Precision Kevlar stock.

Not all that concerned with velocity other than keeping enough to expand bullets. The Grendel is coming in ahead of the 6.5/223 mostly because it's got factory ammo, well sometimes anyway. If a person wanted to re chambering as the kid grows is possible.

A suppressor to keep muzzle blast down, I keep meaning to apply anyway.

Reflex type sight to keep eye relief generous.

Ultralight MPI ambidextrous thumbhole stock for a good handle. Is where my heads at today.

Edd I haven't forgot you've got a barrel. If you have an extra minute what's the muzzle come out at 16", 18", 20", and 22".

If I can get it together we'll have to let Mady give it a test drive.

 

[Edd]

Edd I haven't forgot you've got a barrel. If you have an extra minute what's the muzzle come out at 16", 18", 20", and 22".

The barrel is .760" @ 6" and from there it has a straight taper of .0125" per inch.

16" ----- .635"
18" ----- .610"
20" ----- .585"
22" ----- .560"

 

[HARPERC]

That almost exactly what I'm getting on this Remington barrel. It's 20 inches, with a 1.25-5x Leupold in Weaver rings/bases.

Just stepped off the scale, and it surprised me at 8.5lbs as is.

It's been awhile since I tried to get ultralight, might be tougher than I remember.