Barrel length
- Thread starter Herman
- Start date
Many in the UK shoot 34'' with success Larry
savagedasher said:
Thanks for that Larry, However I am trying to establish if there is a ballistic fact that a certain length of barrel is better than another, and if so what would be the actual optimum length? And are we wasting our time and money on anything other than a given length?
Thanks
Herman.
Longer the barrel the faster the bullet. You can have a lower pressure load with more speed. Will a shorter barrel shoot more accurate ? That depends on who you talk to . My 32'' shot as good as my 26'' . At long range it was better. Time in the air of a bullet could be the reason. I will have a 35'' I can cut it back if it don't shoot.
I can tell you many of good shooter's are using 32''+ barrels. Larry
I can tell you many of good shooter's are using 32''+ barrels. Larry
savagedasher said:
One thing about a longer Palma Rifle barrel...than the somewhat standard 30 inches...is that the longer it is, the more one gains the advantage of a "rifled bloop tube" to a small degree; particularly the advantage of a longer sight radius. But, the individual shooter must also take into consideration how rifle weight and balance might affect his stamina when his wind coach is intent on fully using all the available time!
Dan
Bryan Litz Ballistics
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Just saw this thread... and I WAS prepping for FCNC, HA!
Palma rifles shooting 155's are about the most insensitive rifle there is; meaning it doesn't matter much if your barrel is 24" or 34", your groups will be good. MV is higher with longer barrels, but when you get past 26"+, the returns are diminishing. You get a lot more fps going from 23" to 24" than you do going from 33" to 34". So getting a barrel of the nominal 30" length is fine, not much to gain by going longer in terms of MV.
In general, shorter fatter barrels are stiffer and can be more reliably precise in some cartridge/bullet combinations. But 155's in a .308, any contour you would use for a Palma rifle (light Palma or fatter) is heavy enough to be about as good as it can be.
The most practical consideration regarding the length of a Palma barrel is what Danny Biggs stated, which is related to sight radius. I discovered the past couple years that moving the front sight forward just a couple inches dramatically improved my sight picture at long range. This is the biggest concern IMO, not ballistic effects of the inches +/- 30".
If you want a long sight radius but don't want barrel, you can always counterbore ~2" at the end. John Whidden has done this on my barrels to prevent the front sight band from clamping the bore diameter down at the muzzle. Who knows how much that matters, but it doesn't hurt.
One important thing to keep in mind regarding Palma barrel length is standardization. If you aspire to be in a big team, there's always a question of sight radius, and the value of your 'clicks'. Ideally everyone on the team has the same sight and sight radius so they stay in sync with the coaches and other shooters on the value of wind. If you have an 'oddball' sight radius, it's a problem for the team to manage.
As you can see, most of my considerations for the length of a palma barrel are not ballistic, but rather sight related. In addition to shooting the bullet, the barrel is also a sight mount and you can't neglect that aspect of its function.
Take care,
-Bryan
Palma rifles shooting 155's are about the most insensitive rifle there is; meaning it doesn't matter much if your barrel is 24" or 34", your groups will be good. MV is higher with longer barrels, but when you get past 26"+, the returns are diminishing. You get a lot more fps going from 23" to 24" than you do going from 33" to 34". So getting a barrel of the nominal 30" length is fine, not much to gain by going longer in terms of MV.
In general, shorter fatter barrels are stiffer and can be more reliably precise in some cartridge/bullet combinations. But 155's in a .308, any contour you would use for a Palma rifle (light Palma or fatter) is heavy enough to be about as good as it can be.
The most practical consideration regarding the length of a Palma barrel is what Danny Biggs stated, which is related to sight radius. I discovered the past couple years that moving the front sight forward just a couple inches dramatically improved my sight picture at long range. This is the biggest concern IMO, not ballistic effects of the inches +/- 30".
If you want a long sight radius but don't want barrel, you can always counterbore ~2" at the end. John Whidden has done this on my barrels to prevent the front sight band from clamping the bore diameter down at the muzzle. Who knows how much that matters, but it doesn't hurt.
One important thing to keep in mind regarding Palma barrel length is standardization. If you aspire to be in a big team, there's always a question of sight radius, and the value of your 'clicks'. Ideally everyone on the team has the same sight and sight radius so they stay in sync with the coaches and other shooters on the value of wind. If you have an 'oddball' sight radius, it's a problem for the team to manage.
As you can see, most of my considerations for the length of a palma barrel are not ballistic, but rather sight related. In addition to shooting the bullet, the barrel is also a sight mount and you can't neglect that aspect of its function.
Take care,
-Bryan
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