Barrel Contour vs Accuracy

Mike,

From my perspective there’s a lot more that goes into barrel that makes it shoot then it’s contour. Not throwing credentials but I have shot World Records with straight 1.450 barrels, HV contoured barrels as well as LV barrels. I think most of this post is due to cabin fever and theoretical BS!

To the OP and his orginal post I’d get the heaviest contour the rifle can stand and go from there.

Bart

 

What!!?!! Now ya being foolish!

 

Yep, looking at a Varmint Match #9. 6.5 lb. weight should also help minimize recoil.

 

Al,
I do not disagree with your support of Mike, and Im not backing Bart. Thats not how I took your post. But if you think Im just out to be friendly and have not proven any of my ideas I have to strongly disagree with you on that. Advancing the sport does not happen on the internet as you know. If you have good ideas and they work, someone with take them up and put them into production, you dont have to be friendly you just have to prove them. Usually that requires being unfriendly, at least at first. And by the way, I would like it if you could make it to a match out this way. Im always up for heated discussion and its better in person.

 

Of course, you feel better bad fingering me on your keyboard instead of asking for an explanation you might understand.

Whatever. Have a good day in spite of your limitations.

 

Hey Toby.... glad to see you're still willing to seat-of-the-pants it my man

Be SWAGgin', our Toby........

So, because I find barrel time to be fascinating. And because I don't believe a man can shoot well until he TRULY BELIEVES that "it all happens AFTER you pull the trigger!!"

I'll opine some more about recoil and barrel time, against my better judgement but "In for a penny" and all that....

I use the description "a quarter inch for BR rifles, 1/2 inch for hunting guns" as my baseline for passing on my ideas re how to avoid steering the gun.

I believe the true "safe" to be more like 1/10" for 6PPC BR rifles, 1/8" for something like my 6X47L and 3/16" for hunting rifles. Very broad strokes but,

The Problem Exists Folks!!!

I used to shoot with Del Bishop (RIP Dear Man) and he had some awesome cool workarounds... He used foam pads. He adjusted his clothing. He experimented endlessly with how/where/when and how hard to use the forend stop......He used pointy rubber "fingers" and whittled out little soft rubber "touch-points" and was looking for something "stiff enough to stand out like a stiff, ummmm, 'thing', but soft like a gummy bear or a rubber sticky hand" (Del didn't say 'thing')

He also taught me about "kid, that gun wants to shoot, LET IT SHOOT!!!!"

But I digress

My figure of "one tenth of an inch for BR rifles" comes from several sources and is subject to several obvious variables.

And some not so obvious.

Sources;
-Robert Rinker in 'Understanding Firearm Ballistics' uses the figure of "about 60 thousandths for a typical hunting rifle".... imprecise but in general agreement with Toby.

-Robt McCoy details how to figure it and,

-I got a figure of "1/10th of an inch is safe" from Harold Vaughn, because I ASKED HIM..... (As Toby points out, it's all subject to some eddicated guesswork)

AND..... experience lately with 30" barreled 338's in light (7-9lb) rifles is leading me to believe that 1/10th inch isn't always enough...

It's an amalgamation of things..... just like a quarter-mile racecar, every car will get thru the quarter but some faster than others. Some obvious differences are cartridge energy, rifle weight and barrel length. The first time I saw a guy fire a 50BMG pistol I was concerned he'd stuff the thing into his eyesocket cuz I'd fired me some 20 pounders and I KNEW how hard and long they recoiled! But the short-barreled pistol didn't have time to produce much backward acceleration so it was safe to shoot. Plus, since the 50BMG pistol was braked and had tons of leftover gas to work with, it actually flipped up less and came back less than a 500 S&W.

BUT.....

This isn't why I'm posting

I'm asking for help here.... I'm a guy who TESTS stuff and this is one y'all can TEST with me.

When you go shooting take along a hunk of wood dunnage, like a cut off beam end or a hunk of firewood. At the end of the day set up the rifle in the bags and set your dunnage behind the butt angled 45 degrees. Use some rubber sheeting or a piece of leather or whatever but set it up so the gun will hit a glancing blow as it recoils. Using a caliper gage up some pieces of lathe of various thicknesses to set your recoil spacing and fire a few at your groups. Find out for yourself how much room you've got with YOUR setup before it starts spitting shots.

 

OK...... I'm gonna' severiously disagree with something right now

You say "Advancing the sport does not happen on the internet as you know." and this I must disagree with, because what I "know" is that the internet has done more to advance accuracy in a shorter time than any other force in history...

I've BEEN here..... to paraphrase an American Hero, "Hell, I Was HERE!"

I KNOW where this website came from, whence it was spawned and why, because I was part of it.

I KNOW that pre-internet I spent beaucoup dinero on books and 'wayyy more beaoucoup'er dinero ACTING on those books.... and I've watched the information steamroller gather speed for these last 20yrs until we can't MAKE stuff fast enough to respond.....

And I KNOW you know this, because you're one of those DOING IT

(I don't think we disagree here afterall)


LOL



al