how short would you go?

[rimfiresniper]

i am a a fan of the way a stubby barrels looks.

i was just wondering what the is the shortest you would go when shooting out to 300 yards.

.243?
.223?
22-250?

basically what in saying is taking a 243. 500yd gun and by making the barrel short avoid making it a 200 yd gun.

[Davemuzz]

Rimfire-dude.....I think you "can" take 'em down to as short as legally allowed by BATF. I "think" that's 18" (if I'm wrong someone will jump all over me like white on rice).

Now, that being said, you were not specific on what your use of the rifle was for. Are you just paper punching? Varmit shooting? Coyote hunting? Also....what's your idea of accuracy at 300 yards? Is a 5" group good enough? Or do you want to see nothing bigger than a 3" group?

Your really not providing enough information for anyone to give you and advise on what they think.

However, I think you should do whatever floats your boat. If you like short barrel rifles, then by all means go with 'em. If your looking for the best accuracy....I would suggest go with a quality custom barrel maker. They can squeeze every bit of accuracy out of a barrel that is possible.

Dave

[Lone Star]

The legal limit of eighteen inches will work great on all three cartridges.  Handgunners frequently use bolt action handguns with 15" barrels in all three chamberings with great success on varmints out to 300 yards and beyond.  You lose some velocity, but not accuracy.  You gain portability, a cool look and more muzzle blast.  Up to you!   



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[jy951]

the legal limit is 16".  I would leave it at least 16 1/2 in case you ever need a recrown.  i don't think the legth of barrel will have a huge impact on accuracy.

[onesonek]

Indeed 16" is legal limit on rifle barrels.....As to the question however, I'm not quite sure what you are driving at.  I guess it depends what your intended uses are. As in the the .243 the velocity loss will limit its range when used for medium game  when strictly looking at it's energy level in an debatable ethical point of view. I haven't looked at it, but I don't know that I would consider the .243 a 500 yd deer round, but it certainly has proven itself used on deer. Also set up right can be used at long to extreme range varmint/target round. I however use a .243 ai  in pistol configuration with a 15" barrel and shoot the 55 grainers out to 500+ plus on a regular basis on varmints and such. And to a degree the same can be said for the .22's you mentioned. Looking at it from a point blank range perspective, not always but generally I find that with each 100 fps velocity loss, you see about 25 yds loss in pbr if the parameters aren't changed.
I agree also that barrel length has very little to do with accuracy, but most barrel manufactures I have talked and done business with say, it's a whole lot easier to keep a shorter barrel in tolerences.
Again what are your intended uses come into my mind.

Dave

[Lone Star]

Geezze , I don't know why I wrote that.     Eighteen inches is the limit for shotguns, not rifles. 
My 16" T/C and Trapper barrels are legal....  


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[rimfiresniper]

well the .243 will be used for texas sendero whitetail. hunting at our place usually consists sitting in a small box blind over feeders that are 250- 270 yds away and usually another 175-200 yds of open sendero behind that. I have consistantly have taken whitetail from 250-400 yds with a savage .243.  my encore is just as accurate but im wanting to cut the barrel down for mobility and moving inside the blind.  by cutting down the rifle to 17 inches will it rob the velocity enough to limit my range dramatically?

[onesonek]

Pending on the the bullet being used, I don't think 300 yds wouldn't be any problem on a broadside from an energy standpoint.
350+yds  would be possible with some of the higher BC hunting bullets,,,,scirocco, e-tip ect. in the .400 bc range
I'm guessing you'll be close to 2800 fps with the  90-95 gr loads with the 17" barrel.

Do you handload by chance?

Dave

[PA-Joe]

Rugers makes a 16.5 barrel. Remington use to make an 18.5 but now all they have are 20 inchers. Normal barrel use to be 24 inch. Why not just go for a handgun?

[Davemuzz]

Handgun!!!??......Why back in the day.....we use to just go out and hang on tree limbs and jump on 'em and cut 'em with our hunting knifes!! And they were rusty huntin knifes at that!!

Dave

[onesonek]

Handgun!!!??......Why back in the day.....we use to just go out and hang on tree limbs and jump on 'em and cut 'em with our hunting knifes!! And they were rusty huntin knifes at that!!

Dave

I don't know that I would mock the possiblility of handgun so boldly Dave. While the .243 wouldn't be my first choice in a an Encore handgun platform for deer hunting, in well practiced and skilled hands 350 yds is possible  with the right load and setup.
I personally keep my pbr setting alil tighter, but if he so wanted and opened it up to a 5" target, he can get to that 270yd feeder pretty easy and only be 10" low at 350 with a 90 gr. Scirocco or E-Tip @2800 out of a 17". My program shows that he roughly would have 2350 fps and 1100 ft/lbs terminal at 350 with either of those 2 bullets. Open that PBR to 6" and you can add 20 yds..  But it does take practice and a good rest for those scenarios. It's not easy, but it is possible.
The two handguns I use mostly for this style of hunting are the .250 airln 16", and the 6.5x57 air 17.5" in my Encore using Accubonds. Trajectory isn't much different for either when compared to the .243 load listed above. I just have alil more energy to spare.

Dave

[B. Miville]

Your biggest effect on accuracy will come if you are using iron sights.  Obviously shortening the barrel you shorten the sight radius.  If using a scope you should have no issue going down to 16".  Clint Smith (IIRC) wrote an article once where he took a 24", .308 sniper rifle and fired off a bunch of groups, then progressively cut the barrel down 2" at a time and repeated the test.  Groupings stayed relatively uniform throughout the test.  Of course there was the expected drop in velocity, but even that showed to not be quite as bad as thought.  For 300 yards and under I would not expect too big a performance drop for the .243 and .22-250.  The .223 perhaps a bit more than the other two, but still I believe you would be fine.

Brian