so, i chopped my barrel!

[johnmventers398]

i had a 27" 270 win built for me earlier this year. by all accounts awesome rifle by a local smith.
however, lugging it around the Scottish highlands every day during the hunting season got real old... so um i chopped it! it is now 19" long... i have not chronoed it yet so cannot tell you what loss i have got in velocity but holey smokes is it accurate! it took a bog standard PPU load from 1.2 MOA to .5 moa. i have not tested my hand loads yet. they are already .25 MOA but i think that is the amount of my ability..

it is unbelievably loud and spits fire like a dragon on steroids!

it is now so handy that i can actually go room to room with it.. yes i couldn't help my self.. i cleared my house with it.

i could be getting ahead of my self but i think short rifles with light bullets and fast powders might be my new thing..

 

[RonS]

I did the same thing with a factory Savage 308 Win barrel, went from 30" down to 22" in two cuts. I went from using 175gr & 190gr bullets down to 135gr & 150gr flat base bullets and a faster powder. So now I don't get that dragon's breath effect but the accuracy is much better. I lost about 100 fps as far as velocity but gained accuracy. I cut my barrel off with a hacksaw and used a hand held 11 degree cutter to reface the muzzle. I have about three more barrels that will be getting the same treatment. Good luck with yours...

RonS

 

[johnmventers398]

I did the same thing with a factory Savage 308 Win barrel, went from 30" down to 22" in two cuts. I went from using 175gr & 190gr bullets down to 135gr & 150gr flat base bullets and a faster powder. So now I don't get that dragon's breath effect but the accuracy is much better. I lost about 100 fps as far as velocity but gained accuracy. I cut my barrel off with a hacksaw and used a hand held 11 degree cutter to reface the muzzle. I have about three more barrels that will be getting the same treatment. Good luck with yours...

RonS

i was realy nervous about doing it but i think its a winner!

i also used a hack saw. a file and some abrasave paper. i did not use a crowning tool i just broke the bur with the sand paper and put a real soft crown in it.

 

[DOGCAPPER]

A high velocity whack shuts down the nerve system. Dead on the spot. No blood trail needed.
I witnessed 3 medium size animals killed in their tracks with 25 grain bullet @ 3900 fps.

 

[timeout]

i was realy nervous about doing it but i think its a winner!

i also used a hack saw. a file and some abrasave paper. i did not use a crowning tool i just broke the bur with the sand paper and put a real soft crown in it.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Apparently perfect crowns being required for accuracy is a myth? Keep up the good work, you're going to put a lot of gunsmiths out of business!

 

[USMCDOC]

Apparently perfect crowns being required for accuracy is a myth?

Naw.. it is just "perfect" for that rifle!

 

[johnmventers398]

Naw.. it is just "perfect" for that rifle!

i think i just got very lucky!

just of the range and my hand loads have ended up being 3150fps pretty pleased with that!

that works out at 37.5 fps lost per inch on average.

and for the ppu i lost 40fps per inch. with a final vel of 2700fps

 

[CaptainMal]

Did a variation of that with a heavy barrel 223 I kind of put together for my wife. Crown??? Took a power screwdriver and the same deburring bit I use on case mouths. When done I painted it black with a magic marker.

Shoots great.

 

[HTSmith]

it is unbelievably loud and spits fire like a dragon on steroids!

Makes my ears ring just reading about it. To each his own.

 

[wholman]

good luck with your hearing.

 

[fyrewall]

Various internal ballistics wizards claim all powder is burned up within 3-5 inches of the bullet's travel down the barrel independent of powder burn rates and velocity reduction effects are not as great as thought. I once hacksawed a 26 inch 7-08 barrel down to 22 inches and crowned it using my cordless and a countersink tool. The crowning was completed at the range shooting groups at 100. It shot well with H414. It was short, fat, ugly and loud having hacksaw marks and appeared to be more accurate than before and shot well up to 1000. 35-40 fps loss per inch sounds about right. Great-balls of fire.

 

[onelastshot]

My concern would be proper formation of the crown. It's the last thing the bullet touches and is so critical to accuracy.

 

[timeout]

My concern would be proper formation of the crown. It's the last thing the bullet touches and is so critical to accuracy.

Sure makes a person wonder? It's always been emphatically stated how important the crown is to accuracy. Following the comments on this thread would lead one to wonder if all of that is an old wive's tale? I personally have seen a crown that was done by a "gunsmith" on a lathe that was horrible looking due to tool chatter. No matter the looks, the rifle still shot. Perhaps a new thread asking for factual evidence of the correlation between crown condition and accuracy would be appropriate?

 

[Downhill]

Got an old Steyr in 270 with a 19 inch barrel. It is loud and accurate. The view in the scope turns yellow from muzzle blast. At a hair over 7 pounds I can carry it all day. My go to hunting rifle.

 

[yotehater]

Yep, faster powder and slower women.

 

[seymour fish]

Sure makes a person wonder? It's always been emphatically stated how important the crown is to accuracy. Following the comments on this thread would lead one to wonder if all of that is an old wive's tale? I personally have seen a crown that was done by a "gunsmith" on a lathe that was horrible looking due to tool chatter. No matter the looks, the rifle still shot. Perhaps a new thread asking for factual evidence of the correlation between crown condition and accuracy would be appropriate?

Time, old article in Precision Shooting, might have been Norm Johnson, took on this question by hacksawing crowns at various angles. Result: he saw no degradation of accuracy. The exception that proves the rule ?

 

[johnmventers398]

i

Sure makes a person wonder? It's always been emphatically stated how important the crown is to accuracy. Following the comments on this thread would lead one to wonder if all of that is an old wive's tale? I personally have seen a crown that was done by a "gunsmith" on a lathe that was horrible looking due to tool chatter. No matter the looks, the rifle still shot. Perhaps a new thread asking for factual evidence of the correlation between crown condition and accuracy would be appropriate?

i have a rife that i plan on getting rid off. it shoots 15mm 5 shot groups at 100m when i do my part. i might be able to convince myself to exsperament with the crown shape and record the resuts.