Barrel length on .22lr match rifle?

[effendude]

I was just talking to a fellow shooter regarding a match 22 I'm building. He mentioned that many top shooters are using short barrels on their rifles. I guess this shortens barrel time but does not effect accuracy. Short barrel, and a bloop tube to get the sight radius back and shoot a bunch of X's.

I shoot prone matches to 100 yds. A mini-palma 200 yd. match once a year also. My other rifles are a Kimber 82 and a Rem. 40x. I'm rebuilding a CMP M-12 with a McGee prone stock on the way. What length barrel do you think would work best?
Thanks,
Scott

 

[infantrytrophy]

I'm not sure exactly what type of rifle you have in mind, but here is my experience, FWIW:
My SB rifle is an Anschutz 2013 with the 660 mm barrel (just under 26 inches), using both iron sights and a scope. It shoots great - the limiting factors at 100 yards are my ability and the type of ammo used.

I briefly tried a bloop tube to increase the sight radius, but eventually gave up on it. It was an annoyance to clean the muzzle with the bloop tube in place, and it was also difficult to remove the patches from the cleaning rod - the rod did not clear the bloop tube. You might have to buy a longer cleaning rod. The worst problem was that re-installing the bloop tube sometimes changed the zero significantly. On one occasion I ran out of windage adjustment and couldn't even zero the sight until I removed and reinstalled the bloop tube.

I'm 61 years old, so a longer sight radius is very helpful. The sight radius with a 26" barrel is fine. Anschutz offers a 500 mm (20") barrel onto which you could install a bloop tube to increase the sight radius. Why complicate your life? Just get the longer barrel, which has adequate sight radius, and keep things simple.

Randy Sikes

 

[DaveWhite]

I agree with Randy that bloop tubes can be capricious and if you do not have an index ring you can get into a world of confusion (and windage...). The damned things just do not seem to be robust enough to remain concentric if they are taken off and reinstalled routinely.

I would opt for the long sight radius and the sights on the barrel.

dw

 

[RichinKansas]

Another consideration is the weight of the gun. I know this personally. Approaching 70 I find my old Martini stretching my endurance to shoot a number of 20 shot prone strings. I am sure I could do better if I shortened the barrel, reducing the weight, even if I lost some accuracy, as my wobble can be quite severe about the 18th record shot. That can easily be shot number 25 after foulers and sighters. I can't bring myself to butcher (we've been together 46 years) the old relic so I am dry firing most every day as I used to and lifting weights again also.
But back to the weight. The gun has to fit the shooter and that includes weigh and balance. You wouldn't start an 8 year old with a full size 16 pound anshutz no matter how well it shot.

 

[GermanS1]

My Smallbore barrels are 18" to 19" long with a 16" bloop tube. No trouble with bloop tube indexing on those rare ocassions when it comes off - very rare since there's no need to remove it for anything. The reduced barrel time is very noticeable in the shot call and in overall accuracy. The fact that I cut about 2 lb. of dangling weight is a real bonus too, especially in a 6400 on concrete.

 

[msnations]

I've had 18, 19, 21, 23, 26 and 27 inch barrels on anschutz rimfires. For prone and kneeling a scatt trace shows that the extra weight of the long barrels helps damp out pulse and movement although requiring more endurance. Standing, the short barrels with their light weight and relatively short barrel times are advantageous.

 

[rayjay]

German,
Scribe a pair of lines on the bbl in the clamp slot of the bloop tube. Then if you take it off it's easy to get it back on almost perfect. I do this for my tuners.

 

[RandyD]

I shoot an Anschutz 2013 in smallbore competition, and use a bloop tube with good results. Scott Medesha, made my bloop tube set up. He machined a coupling that attaches and is tightened on the end of my factory Anschutz barrel. The bloop fits into the coupling, and the bloop tube has a short stake that sticks up on the end that fits into the coupling. The bloop tube fits into the coupling so that it can be repeatedly removed and installed without changing the zero. The bloop tube is easily cleaned by removing it from the coupling. To clean the bloop tube, I push a wadded up paper towel through it to remove the unburnt powder. To clean my barrel, I remove the bloop tube from the coupling and I can easily remove the cleaning patches as they are pushed through the barrel.