Most of the writings on this site have to do with maximizing the chances of hits at long range, the quicker a bullet gets there the less time wind has to send it off course with the wind always being the biggest problem. I always leave my barrels as long as possible. if you handed a person with his eyes closed a 22 inch barreled rifle and a 26 inch barreled rifle I doubt they could tell the difference, its a matter of ounces at the end. for highpower we choose to have our rifles nose heavy for offhand it gives you better scores.
Is the 7PRC really promoted as a long range caliber?
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NotLongRange
Well-Known Member
It does make a difference when you're hiking through trees, however.
When I carry a rifle with a 26" barrel through a lot of deadfall timber, it feels like the barrel is catching on every branch in the country.
When I carry a rifle with a 26" barrel through a lot of deadfall timber, it feels like the barrel is catching on every branch in the country.
comfisherman
Well-Known Member
Go back 15 years ago, everyone was stretching barrels longer than 24 or 26. Criticism was, why not go 28 or 29 and buy yourself some real performance. Jumped on the bandwagon, and replaced a radial port braked 26 inch sendero with a barrel that matched the profile but finished over 29inches. Performance was awesom.. then school finished and we moved back to the island. First trip of the fall about 200 yards through alders and had an epiphany.... a 29 inch barreled 700 with a 14.5 lop m5..... sucks in brush.
Still like the round, accept the diminished return in my smaller external profile. Works good for the last few hunts. Nothing like crawling through alders for hrs to find an animal at the opposite side of a cut and need to make a relatively quick long shot. Hence a short barrel overbore monster...
Still like the round, accept the diminished return in my smaller external profile. Works good for the last few hunts. Nothing like crawling through alders for hrs to find an animal at the opposite side of a cut and need to make a relatively quick long shot. Hence a short barrel overbore monster...
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The availibility and popularity or suppressors is making shorter barrels on centrefire huning rifles popular. A 26 inch barrel with a suppressor on the end makes it very unhandy, espically in the woods or in brush. Also, the use of turrets on riflescopes make having the ultra fastest velocity unnecessary. Just build the veloscity into your ballistic app and don't worry about stretched string trajectories. High BC bullets also help.
A lot has been said on new cartridges that have been introduced. I have a friend who was the manager of the Remington Custom Shop for many years. When the SAUM cartridges came out, I ask him isn't a short action ultra mag a oxymoron? I will never forget his reply... he said, "We don't have any new customers to sell out old stuff to, so we need new stuff to sell to our old customers". There is a lot of truth in his words. DesertDweller62
A lot has been said on new cartridges that have been introduced. I have a friend who was the manager of the Remington Custom Shop for many years. When the SAUM cartridges came out, I ask him isn't a short action ultra mag a oxymoron? I will never forget his reply... he said, "We don't have any new customers to sell out old stuff to, so we need new stuff to sell to our old customers". There is a lot of truth in his words. DesertDweller62
That's what I've read and heard. But honestly never really had a good reason to test it for myself. I didn't really notice it so much from 7RSAUM vs 7 Rem Mag. So when I started seeing it in the PRCs I paid more attention. The others were always a bit bothersome to deal with so i didnt really care. I don't pay too much attention to things I read or see on line until I test it myself.
Case efficiency… but you probably already knew that
Phil Rizzo
Well-Known Member
my favorite approach is to put 26" or more on any of them from the get go. It gives me heebie-jeebies thinking about giving away free velocity.
My reasoning is that i can always shorten them later to some degree if needed.
But i never, ever, ever do.
The mountain climbers and brush stalkers have different needs, I fully understand.
My reasoning is that i can always shorten them later to some degree if needed.
But i never, ever, ever do.
The mountain climbers and brush stalkers have different needs, I fully understand.
Kinda. two rifles with same 24" barrel shoots nearly same velocity. Cut down to 22" or even 20" it SEEMS like the PRCs lose less velocity per inch of barrel length loss. But like I said, I don't really like saying something is true until I do my own testing. Even though authorities on subjects say it's true. I've tried too many things in the past and found that the people we expect to know are mistaken. I'll give you an example. I was shooting two different 300 winmags with the exact same brand barrel, stock, trigger, and action. Except one was 26" and one was 24". The 24" shot faster every time I tested it. Made zero sense to me. I asked two very smart gunn guys and got two completely different answers. My people expect me to give them exactly what they want and I just don't depend on other peoples data or information now.
Oh. The same box of ammo on the 300 wiinmags so no lot number variation.
Phil Rizzo
Well-Known Member
As many fast and slow, tight and loose barrels as I've had personally, I think the only way to get the answer you want is to start out with a long barrel and chop it incrementally.
Carey Farmer
Well-Known Member
Not too hard to model this with the right software. Velocity lost from cutting down barrel length is proportional to barrel pressure at the time that the bullet clears the muzzle.
Big cases and heavy charges of slow powder will sustain high pressure as the bullet travels down the barrel, so that's where you'll see big gains from long barrels.
For a woods rifle chambered in .308 Winchester and loaded with Varget, a 20 inch barrel is plenty. For a long range .264 Win Mag or 28 Nosler with Retumbo, a 30 inch barrel works great.
Diminishing returns, very few are going to carry a 30" barrel hunting. I carried a 26" plus can, and I went to a different caliber and cut the barrel 4 inches. I will still carry my 26" 7mm short mag, but only for truly long range shots.
Starbuck
Well-Known Member
But not in OEM chambers/throats and not in a lot of OEM mags, and not with readily available OEM ammo.
That's not to throw any shade on the 7mm RM; I have several and greatly appreciate the cartridge. And I fully understand the comparative point you're making about potential. Just acknowledging what the 7PRC brings to the table for a lot of shooters who don't know how to, don't care to, or don't have the time to get the most out of a 7mm RM.
Agreed.
Forums attract a lot of handloaders, and only a handloader can point out the possibility of a Rem Mag vs a PRC going outside SAAMI spec and typical factory loads.
Hornady didn't make the PRC, Creedmoor, or ARC families for handloaders. There were already close wildcats to them, if not identical.
PRC is so the vast majority of shooters can go to the store and buy a rifle and ammo. They don't care about anything a handloader knows. That's why they compare typical factory loads.
In the end, the 7 PRC does exactly it says and is marketed to the masses.
If I have a friend who wants a 7mm and wants to shoot long range, I can tell them to buy 7 PRC. Heaven knows I am tired of trying to tell them stuff they don't care about and I am not going to load up ammo for their 7 Rem Mag…
