.308 and barrel length

[swampratt]

I guess when i ordered my .308 10fp a few years ago i was of the mindset that longer barrels were more accurate and produced a great velocity advantage.
Then i start hanging around a crowd other than the redneck back woods hunters.
I hear that the 20" barrel is the way to go or even 18"..Not the 24" that i have on my .308

Cleaning the gun i have always noticed the typical shiny skid marks the bullet makes to the inside color of a new barrel at the muzzle end..
My gun has always had a 2 small areas at the muzzle inside that do not look like the rest of the marks.

Now back to reading more and looking at Tactical Operations Tango51 rifle it wets my whistle and i now will be having the barrel cut down on my .308

check out these articles.
http://www.tacticaloperations.com/SWATbarrel/
http://www.snipercentral.com/tango51.htm

 

[Thorgrim]

If you are shooting shorter ranges....under 600-800 yds, I'd say get the shorter barrel. If you shoot longer I still believe a 24-26" .308 is the way to go.

 

[Sanford]

If it's any help, Winchester chambered the Model 70 for .308 with barrel lengths of 22, 24, or 26 inch. The Model 88 which was originally introduced for the .308 also had a 22 inch barrel. Assuming that their engineers had any idea what they were doing (which may have been more true in the mid-50's than today) it would seem they may have felt 22 was a "sweet spot" for the cartridge. I've also read that 21-3/4" is the "theoretical" optimum length. So, while 24 may be "too long" 18 would probably be as much "too short".

 

[swampratt]

The first link i posted stated this in testing.

During the development of the Tango 51, Tac Ops took a standard 26-inch barrel and cut it down to 18 inches in one-inch increments. Between 10 to 20 rounds were fired at each increment. They found that a 20-inch barrel provides for a complete propellant burn and no velocity loss when using Federal Match 168-grain BTHP, a cartridge that has become something of a law enforcement standard. Going to an 18-inch barrel only resulted in a loss of 32 feet per second (fps).


I do not shoot very far i mainly plink paper to work up a good deer hunting load.
The loads i use now are good for fall turkey season.. can harvest them at 250yards easily.
I do not really stretch it's legs..The fast loads i build are not accurate it is happy with 165gr at 2630-2700fps.

For longer range shooting i have my 30-06 that will shoot the same bullet 150fps faster.

 

[WillR]

If its any help a semi auto ar10 with a 16" barrel won heavy division last year at fallen brethern. This match has a pretty heavy emphasis on long range.

 

[swampratt]

All these post help with my decision..
New ways of thinking about stuff all the time.
I was thinking 22 then i thought and read some more and 20 seems closer.
I will see what the guy says that will cut it..some time

 

[AKguy1985]

Both the .308's I've had were 20in barrels.

 

[Erick]

This Steyr is chopped down from 20" to a total length of 16.5 with a welded flash hider. We should chronograph this and a 20" to see the difference.

 

[swampratt]

You almost need the same gun to do a test of apples to apples.
Each gun has it's characteristics like chamber size and barrel friction.
But it would still be interesting.. do that one you have there with the 16.5" and mine with my 24".

 

[smax]

It's a Savage. Just order a 20" barrel and then you have the best of both worlds with only a 10 minute barrel swap.