jhibbard24
Well-Known Member
looking at rebarreling my 6.5-.284 with a shorter barrel this time with a couple things in mind. also thinking of this same concept with a .22-250 ackley. what is your opinion going off these main points listed below.
1st- accuracy- short, stiff barrels tend to be easier to "tune in" because of having less harmonics, vibration, and/or whip. therefore leading to good accuracy (don't get me wrong, longer barrels create great accuracy too).
2nd- weight- a little bit of weight is saved, not too big a deal
3rd- cartridge powder burn efficiency- dan lilja did a barrel length vs. velocity test and it is a good article to read if you can. there is a point when smaller cartridges like the .308, .223, .243, 6.5-284 do not need a 28"+ pool cue length barrel to obtain their powder burning efficiency. Now with an overbore like the 7mm mag, ultra mags, and big monster killing cartridges coming out these days i can see all the need for having that barrel length to get all the powder burnt efficiently and create optimum velocity.
4th- velocity- some say that velocity is going to drop tremendously with the shorter barrel but i beg to differ (as long as we are talking about smaller, similar cartridges like the few listed earlier). the .308 obtains good velocities (for a .308) out of 20" and 22" barrels all day long but there is no great gains in velocities with longer barrels and then you start getting into problem with the 1st point listed, barrel harmonics. Here again larger cartridges will mostly benefit better from the longer barrel because of the 3rd point made above; there in turn creating more HP or velocity as we more commonly say. i have a .300 wsm with a 23" pencil thin barrel that could probably use a little more barrel but i got a load with 190 gr bergers shooting at 2980 fps and putting 3 shots in .242 groups (barrel heats up too much after 3). this load would probably jump over 3000 fps easily with a longer barrel.
What is your opinion on barrel length and the 4 factors above..... preferably just looking at the smaller cartridges. .22-250 ackley and 6.5-.284 are the two guns i want to get to rebarreling so share your thoughts
1st- accuracy- short, stiff barrels tend to be easier to "tune in" because of having less harmonics, vibration, and/or whip. therefore leading to good accuracy (don't get me wrong, longer barrels create great accuracy too).
2nd- weight- a little bit of weight is saved, not too big a deal
3rd- cartridge powder burn efficiency- dan lilja did a barrel length vs. velocity test and it is a good article to read if you can. there is a point when smaller cartridges like the .308, .223, .243, 6.5-284 do not need a 28"+ pool cue length barrel to obtain their powder burning efficiency. Now with an overbore like the 7mm mag, ultra mags, and big monster killing cartridges coming out these days i can see all the need for having that barrel length to get all the powder burnt efficiently and create optimum velocity.
4th- velocity- some say that velocity is going to drop tremendously with the shorter barrel but i beg to differ (as long as we are talking about smaller, similar cartridges like the few listed earlier). the .308 obtains good velocities (for a .308) out of 20" and 22" barrels all day long but there is no great gains in velocities with longer barrels and then you start getting into problem with the 1st point listed, barrel harmonics. Here again larger cartridges will mostly benefit better from the longer barrel because of the 3rd point made above; there in turn creating more HP or velocity as we more commonly say. i have a .300 wsm with a 23" pencil thin barrel that could probably use a little more barrel but i got a load with 190 gr bergers shooting at 2980 fps and putting 3 shots in .242 groups (barrel heats up too much after 3). this load would probably jump over 3000 fps easily with a longer barrel.
What is your opinion on barrel length and the 4 factors above..... preferably just looking at the smaller cartridges. .22-250 ackley and 6.5-.284 are the two guns i want to get to rebarreling so share your thoughts