Looking for Recommedations
- Thread starter drybean
- Start date
20" seems to work well. KIDD barrels are very good. Fedderson has a guarantee. Lilja is always good but, IMO, a bit pricey. I have a Ruger cold hammer forged 20" target barrel on mine that is respectable. May come down to your budget and expectations. I am sure others will be along with their recommendations. Good luck!
hogpatrol
Gold $$ Contributor
SSL
Gold $$ Contributor
Worked on several a few years back that my buddy bought to customize. One of the things we did was swap barrels and restock. I used both Adams and Bennet and Green Mountain barrels in "bull" configurations (.920"). Both shot extremely well with the overall edge going to the Adam and Bennets by a small margin. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if the A and B's are still in production.
Joe Chacon, at ABRA, can tell you with certainty
Boyd L.
Witty comment under development
There have been a number of “shoot and cut” tests written up for print and electronic publication over the years. If memory serves the range of barrel lengths giving the greatest velocity fell between 17” and 20”. Since you reference bench shooting balance is not an issue that it would be with offhand shooting. I’d therefore take a relatively short barrel, probably around 18”.
On a tight budget, Green Mountain is always good. If you can swing it, go with a KIDD Chrome Moly. Either way the 20" WORKS.
I run long-range rimfire matches here in East Ohio and have seen every combination that can be called a 10/22 shoot. I usually spot/score for each shooter and see how they do thru the racks. So far the most consistently most accurate 10/22 has been one with a heavy 26" Douglas barrel. Even another shooter with a Kidd shoots better scores with the Douglas barrel gun. It's also the only semi-auto gun to hit all 10 on my last rack at 197 yards in a row with no miss. 10", 9", 8", 7", 6", 5", 4", 3", 2" and a 1" target. Usually even the better 10/22 based guns are kiddingly called 175 yard guns due to the bolt guns being more consistent past that.
Not trying to get into one barrel being better than another but this Douglas barrel based gun consistently shoots better than the others in nearly everyone's hands. The owners nephew is pretty heavy into rimfire BR and I don't know what else is done to it but it'll sure shoot.
Topstrap
Not trying to get into one barrel being better than another but this Douglas barrel based gun consistently shoots better than the others in nearly everyone's hands. The owners nephew is pretty heavy into rimfire BR and I don't know what else is done to it but it'll sure shoot.
Topstrap
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Ledd Slinger
Silver $$ Contributor
Regarding High Velocity rounds:
I did a lot of chronograph testing and the optimal barrel length for maximum speed in the 22LR is 19"-20". Less length than that you will lose velocity AND above that length you will also start to lose muzzle velocity.
The bullet starts to lose its velocity in barrels over 20" as their is not enough gas from the very small powder charge to continue building pressure behind the bullet. Basically the volume of the bore becomes too large for the volume of gas released from the charge.
Shorter than 19" and the rounds dont seem to get a full burn.
I did a lot of chronograph testing and the optimal barrel length for maximum speed in the 22LR is 19"-20". Less length than that you will lose velocity AND above that length you will also start to lose muzzle velocity.
The bullet starts to lose its velocity in barrels over 20" as their is not enough gas from the very small powder charge to continue building pressure behind the bullet. Basically the volume of the bore becomes too large for the volume of gas released from the charge.
Shorter than 19" and the rounds dont seem to get a full burn.
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If you haven’t seen it, some guys did a whole bunch of barrel cut-down velocity tests with max barrel length of 18” in 22LR and they tested many different varieties of 22LR ammo. Almost all of the .22LR loads only gained a little velocity past about 16”, especially if you do some smoothing on their data - some cartridges were a bit erratic. They didn’t test some of the ammo known for high accuracy like various Ely loads and others I’ve heard people on this forum mention. The loads that peaked out subsonic clearly didn’t gain anything significant past 16”, but some of the hotter loads gained from 20-40 more fps in those last few inches. These guys did a lot of work on this project - very useful and much appreciated.
http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/2011graphs+/22ME.html
Ledd Slinger
Silver $$ Contributor
19" was actually the very best length in the testing with the ammo I was using. It was the only length that actually gave speeds 'above' the listed speed of the ammo. The ammo stated 1260 fps and I was getting 1280 fps. Just below at 18" and above at 20" gave me roughly the rated speed. I also had a 26" barrel that was running about 100 fps slower than the 19". When I chopped it down to 24", it gained abut 30 fps, but was still below the rated speed of the ammo. 11" barreled pistol was actually only just a little slower than my 24" barreled rifle.
The reason for my testing was because i was curious why most 22lr barrels are mostly made in 18"-20" lengths. My conclusion was simply that 22lr rifle manufacturers had obviously conducted this testing for themselves many decades ago to determine the optimal length. These barrel lengths were not chosen just to make them short and handy to weild.
The reason for my testing was because i was curious why most 22lr barrels are mostly made in 18"-20" lengths. My conclusion was simply that 22lr rifle manufacturers had obviously conducted this testing for themselves many decades ago to determine the optimal length. These barrel lengths were not chosen just to make them short and handy to weild.
OK, if you haven't already check YouTube for a Kidd Video installing their barrels. First get some Never Seize and apply a light coat to the Barrel Tenon when you get it ready to install. They can be tricky.
I froze mine over night and placed the Receiver on top of a lamp to warm it up. Still had to tap it in the last 0.125" +/- with a Rubberized Dead Blow Hammer. Thank goodness the Extractor and Groove lined up perfectly.
Good luck ...
I froze mine over night and placed the Receiver on top of a lamp to warm it up. Still had to tap it in the last 0.125" +/- with a Rubberized Dead Blow Hammer. Thank goodness the Extractor and Groove lined up perfectly.
Good luck ...
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