Longer Barrels pro's and con's

[CurtDawson]

What are the pro's and con's of barrels in the 30"-32" range?Looking to build a rifle in 260 Rem. for F-class and tactical competitions.

 

[billmo]

Curt, I am sure there are reasons for the longer barrels within the shooting community. And I guess it could be just a preference too. I do not shoot competitive BR. Personally, I like 28" and under. I have tried the 30" barrel and in my opinion there is just not enough gain in fps for me to put up with than long cumbersome barrel while handling the rifle and you have to spend extra money to try and find a case to haul the thing around in. The 30" barrel rifle that I had was a new Savage F class Target 6.5 X 284 and it shot very good. Extremely well for a factory rifle. But, I just could not get along with that length. Just my opinion. Bill

 

[skinnj1]

Curt,
I'm not much of any kind of competitor anymore but in f-class/nra highpower you will see a lot of 28-32 " barrels, main reason is maximizing vel,in f class, sight radius plays a big part w/irons). In "Tactical/MOR comps" barrels tend to be shorter 20-24" on a lot of customs because of the percieved advantage manuvering/carrying them.

my opinion is pick a caliber/ gun weight/vel you want and alter specs accordingly.

 

[HPMike800]

For F-class you'll typically want a longer and somewhat heaver barrel. I don't shoot tactical, but, I'm sure you'd want to keep to about 26" and not let the barrel get too heavy.

If you need one rifle to do both you could build a good tactical rifle in 308Win and shoot your F-class stuff in F/TR class. The rifle would work well until you decide what you need for the game your going to shoot.

I had a AR-10 with a 26" barrel and it shot 1000 yards OK with 175's.
Mike

 

[jthyttin]

When you go from, say 24" barrel to 32" barrel, you'll be adding something in the ballpark of 10-20% to the time bullet spends in the barrel. I just quickly approximated this using 2950fps muzzle velocity on 24" barrel. So with longer barrels you want very stable shooting rest to minimize shooter error.

This is one reason why some world class rimfire rifles,iron sights, sling-supported shooting) have bloob tubes instead of long barrels. Rimfires have very long barrel time compared to centerfires,lower muzzle velocity). They may have 14" of barrel and additional 14",permanently attached) bloob tube to gain the required sight radius.

 

[M700]

For several years I shot a 30" barreled "Palma" rifle in .308 Win. It was great on a manicured rifle range where there is nothing to run into. Good velocity, no problem hitting 2980 fps with less than max loads, a 155 gr bullet from a .308 case. Long sight radius was nice with the match sights too. I'd say there are few drawbacks to a 30" barrel for formal NRA type match shooting.

Depending on how "tactical" your tactical matches are, the 30" tube can be a liability. Some of these comps require shooting from unorthodox positions, climbing over stuff, crawling through brush etc... The 30" barrel would be a royal pain for such stuff. BTW - same load that got me 2980 from the 30" barrel saw 2850 fps from a 24" Krieger. The shorter barrel is a LOT handier and just as accurate.

FWIW, Guy