Shorter barrel, better accuracy?

[audihenry]

I asked something along these lines a few months back and most people said that shorter = less accurate. I just read an article which claims the opposite:

http://www.sniperschool.com/sniper-rifle-barrel-length/

What do you think? My guess is shorter rifles will have a harder time with iron sights because of the sight radius, but that it wouldn't make a negative difference all else being equal.

Yay? Nay?

[jumbopanda]

Shorter barrels are more rigid and therefore have better harmonics but also suffer from reduced velocity and shorter sight radius.

[audihenry]

Shorter barrels are more rigid and therefore have better harmonics but also suffer from reduced velocity and shorter sight radius.

Right, velocity was the thing I left out above.

So aside from that, will the rigidity result in better accuracy?

[Bruce]

IIRC, The shorter barrel = less accuracy comes from iron sights . A shorter barrel means a shorter sight radius. The shorter radius tends to mask imperfections in the sight picture. For example, if you aim a 2" revolver at a target, the sight picture will appear to be rock solid, and not moving. Do the same with a 6" and the sights will be wandering all over the target.

[Acorn556]

a shorter barrel is usually more of a CQC firearm than a long range gun.

[Wildhawk66]

An interesting article on the topic:

http://www.tacticaloperations.com/SWATbarrel/

[audihenry]

An interesting article on the topic:
http://www.tacticaloperations.com/SWATbarrel/

Hey thanks for that, interesting read!

[k1dude]

Longer barrels help if you're using iron sights. If you're using optics, not so much. If you don't need the marginally higher velocities and you use optics, go with a shorter and more versatile barrel.

[xxdabroxx]

i wonder if a longer barrel does not leave more room for manufacturing imperfections as well. Seems you would have a better possibility of a "perfectly" rifled barrel with a shorter barrel. But it also seems a longer barrel would lend to a better stabilized bullet too.

[Untamed1972]

There is always going to be a "sweet spot" with everything. To say "longer is better" doesn't take into account that if you go TO long then you reach that point of diminishing returns and the gains start to drop off.

It's kind of like comparing race cars to daily drivers. One has to take into account the intended use of the item and the environment it is going to be used in.

[BlackViper]

Several of those comparo articles only reference off-the-shelf ammo. I wasn't surprised that not much accuracy is lost cutting longer barrels down when using shelf ammo. If you hand load though, I would suspect that the longer length barrels give you more flexibility with your loads in addition to accuracy. To a point, of course.

[Timberwolf]

Shorter barrel is stiffer hence more accurate. Not much is lost in way of velocity.

[audihenry]

Several of those comparo articles only reference off-the-shelf ammo. I wasn't surprised that not much accuracy is lost cutting longer barrels down when using shelf ammo. If you hand load though, I would suspect that the longer length barrels give you more flexibility with your loads in addition to accuracy. To a point, of course.

If you have the flexibility of loading a wide variety of weights (such as with the 308), then you do have a point. But in one of the above articles, there was no loss of velocity with their particular military load, so they lost nothing in cutting it down 4 inches or so and gained a lot more flexibility in urban situations.

[toopercentmlk]

I love my 20" 700 tactical. Also those who are concerned with loss of fps, isn't there a chart somewhere showing that 16" is the minimum required barrel length for optimum velocity for 7.62x51?

[BlackViper]

If you have the flexibility of loading a wide variety of weights (such as with the 308), then you do have a point. But in one of the above articles, there was no loss of velocity with their particular military load, so they lost nothing in cutting it down 4 inches or so and gained a lot more flexibility in urban situations.

That was my thinking - if you play around with weights and thus the different powder charges to go along with them, the extra barrel length may come in handy.

Police snipers most often engage at less than 100yds I think - so no point in some super long barrel anyway.