My barrel was 28", 1 1/4" straight, 8tw Krieger, 6br, 1700 rds. I sawed it off in stages, to get beyond the fire cracking. The result is a 23" barrel. The barrel used to like a load of ...RL15,29.8 w/105VLD touch. . I tried that in the shorter barrel to no avail, The new node seems to be the 4 tenths less powder, with everything else the same. I do not like the velocity change, but it is accurate. My question, is this the norm? I spiked it up to 30.2 RL15 it didn,t like that either. Maybe go a little hotter??? The barrel is real clean, and no copper in it yet, that I can see, like before I cleaned it well.. When the barrel was new, It kept gaining velocity till it got to about 1000 rds. I've only shot 45 -55 times testing.Maybe it will get faster as it gets dirty? I lost about 220 FPS. I thought a shorter stiff barrel would have wider nodes, now I have second thoughs. Maybe I'm too picky...got a new Benchmark coming this week anyway.