Barrel length

Barry Aldwell

I was thinking (I know, dangerous stuff) about how many modern rifle designs use shorter and shorter barrels compared to their predecessors. Back in the day muskets were as long as the firer was tall. These days special forces are opting for rifles with barrels as short as 10 inches, for convenience when fighting in close quarters. The effects on muzzle velocity, and thus on range, are obvious.

The opposite, however, seems to be happening in artillery. Whereas the 25 Pounder Mk2 Field Gun of World War 2 used a 29 calibre barrel (that is, the barrel length was 29 times that of the calibre. In this case, this meant the length was 88mmX29=2.5m), modern guns use 38 or 52 calibre barrels, thus increasing range. For the record, the optimum point (ie value at which muzzle velocity is a maximum) is usually around the 52 calibre mark, but in a 155mm gun this leaves you with 8m of barrel, which isn't the handiest of things to store, or manoeuvre around.

So what do you prefer in a rifle? (I won't ask people's opinion on their personal artillery guns, it could raise a lot of unwanted questions) Convenience, or the ability to maximise muzzle velocity?

Rew

More of a military question isn't it??

Citizen_Erased

Probably my preference would be a shorter bull barrel. Mind you , the likes of the g22 and other bullpups can mean you have the length for accuracy without making the gun to long and clumsy. Suppose you still may have to sacrifice some power though.

Ammoman

I suppose that it depends on what you are using the rifle for . a deer stalker for example that hunts in woodland might prefer a stutzen style rifle , which has a short barrell as he is unlikely to have to shoot more than 150yds . but a Deer stalker that hunts on the open hill will look for a light rifle with a longer barrell as he could have to make shots out to 300yds . Then you have a target shooter , he will require a heavy barrell for stability and cooling charastics and as long as possible to give max velocity and stablise his bullet at longer ranges . so you see in an ideal world we would be able to own a rifle for each occasion , instead we have to try to pick one or two , to cover every eventuality....

Citizen_Erased

And which one would you chose?

Ammoman

Citizen_Erased wrote:

And which one would you chose?

I,m lucky enough to have 2 , A long barrelled Stalking rifle and a 29" barreled custom target rifle, for long range shooting out to 1250yds . No one rifle fulfills all shooters requirements this sport is too varied to be that simple. i think that the Gardai need to see this and ease up a bit on the licencing of firearms to sportsmen and women , personally I would like to get another 4 rifles to cover all the diciplines , but thats unlikely...

Sparks

'Twould take a lot more than just six rifles to cover all the disciplines Ammoman, you'd need seven just for the ISSF disciplines!
(50m Standard Rifle, 50m Free Rifle, 300m Standard Rifle, 300m Free Rifle, 10m Air Rifle, 10m Running Target, 50m Running Target)

The ISSF shooters tend to use bull barrels (you have to, when there's up to 120 shots in a competition plus sighters), and while the standard rifles have strict rules as to dimensions, it's not so much so for the Free rifles (hence the name). There are both short and long barrels out there, but the short barrels tend to have extentions added on to them for the sights to give the longer sight bases. The design of the barrels has been relatively stable for quite some time now, there are fluted and other such designs out there, but mostly it's all in the same vein as the anschutz barrel designs. Mainly because competitive shooters tend to be pragmatic in such things - if it works and is proven, why would you waste lots of time and effort trying something that's not proven when you could have spent that time on the range training?
The main advances have been in the stock designs, in particular bedding the action, and in the introduction of aluminium stocks which are enormously easy to adjust to the individual shooter; and in the improvement of the sights, which have seen some experimenting in recent years both with rearsights that give greater visibility of the wind flags like the british "battle sight" and gehmann's large glass rearsight, and with rearsight mounting systems that allow for the rifle to be canted, but the sights to remain upright.

Flattop 15

The happy norm and seemingly "optimal"barrel length for both shotgun and rifles seems to be in the 16 to 24 in length.
Part of that may be due to legality issues in various countries,and from lengthy research carried out by various gun manufactures and gun writers over the last fifty years or so.
Myself,I favour towards the shorter end of things in rifles and shotguns.

Ammoman

Flattop 15 wrote:

The happy norm and seemingly "optimal"barrel length for both shotgun and rifles seems to be in the 16 to 24 in length.

Are there rifles or shotguns out there with 16" barrels ?

Away Team

Ammoman wrote:

Are there rifles or shotguns out there with 16" barrels ?

.22 RF Volqartsen and Ruger 10/22's often use a 14" barrel now…

http://www.rimfiremagic.co.uk/frameset.html

You can get AR15's commonly enough in 14" and 11.5" barrels (M4 variants)… you can even get a 7" version!

Or you can have this nice beastie from Oberland Arms…

http://www.oberlandarms.com/index.php?category=Waffen&id=OA-5_1&page=details

Flattop 15

16ins is the standard minimum barrel length in the US for rifles and shotguns.Shorter than that ,you are into class3 NFA weapons terrtority.

Away Team

12" for rifles and 24" for shotguns here in Britain… silencers are no problem either, that really freaks my American friends that I own a silencer without any of their NFA hassle!

Jimbo

Flattop 15

True,But if you live in a US state that allows you to own class3 stuff,have six months worth of patience [max],dont mind being fingerprinted and backrounded by the Feds,on a once off have Xthousand $ plus $200 to transfer your item of your dreams.You can own anything from a Bofors anti aircraft gun down to a silenced 22 pistol. Pretty good swap methinks.
And if that is too much bother,just buy a AOW,16in shot pistol or carbine.Or simply DIY your own gun to your specs[so long as it isnt full auto or a unrecognised industry design].Try doing that little lot over here!