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The Range
Rifle & Shotgun Discussion
What to chamber my Savage 110 in.
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<blockquote data-quote="Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow" data-source="post: 1209358" data-attributes="member: 7123"><p>I think he said he's leaning toward a .220 Swift, in a heavy gun config, mainly for coyotes. </p><p></p><p>And a bullet from a centerfire like a .30-06 does not start slowing down until about 50-60" of barrel, IIRC. It keeps gaining velocity until then. Very different from a .22lr rimfire, which will begin slowing down anywhere from 14" or so for a subsonic/CB, up to around 21" or more, depending upon ammo type. But anything past 30" or so, the barrel has to get REALLY thick to retain enough rigidity to maintain top accuracy capability. Savage's 12 F Class PTR in 6 BR and 6.5-284 have 30" bbls, for example, and they are around 1.5" thick - just huge tree limbs. You can go thinner with a 26" bbl and still maintain enough rigidity. *That* is the reason (along with accompanying general loss of handiness/manueverability) that you normally don't see longer than 26" bbls, and almost never see longer than 28 or 30 inchers - not because of velocity loss. It's about rigidity/accuracy, and necessary barrel thickness to achieve that, with the attendant loss of lightness & handiness (but true enough, this is a complicated calculus, where this loss of handiness - and increase in manufacturing cost and thus price - is weighed against the ever-increasing, yet <strong><em>diminishing marginal</em></strong> returns in vel gain). You also have to look at the range at which you want your rifle to specialize in, and just *how* good of accuracy you want. You only need tip-top rigidity if you want benchrest-class accuracy, meausured in 10ths of MOAs, rather than quarters of MOAs. Most of us don't need that. Couple that fact with the fact that at really long ranges, say at 600 to 1000 yards or more, the effect of the (unknown speed & direction) wind drift effect from the intervening winds between you and the target becomes <em>more</em> important to actual practical accuracy than the amount by which extra rigidity can contribute to accuracy due to pure mechanical accuracy resulting from uniform bbl harmonics (which improve with rigidity) - as a result, it makes sense to have a really long barrel'ed gun for 1K matches and such (28-30" or more), even at the expense of a bit of loss of rididity/mechanical accuracy - because the improved velocity overcomes wind drift by a greater amount than the lost mechanical accuracy, - that is, provided you don't mind the extra weight and loss of handiness that comes from the longer barrel - even barrels that aren't really thick are still really heavy at 30" or more! Still, the thicker, the better in the long boys - provided that it still 'makes weight' for the competition you're engaging in, if any.</p><p></p><p>Hope that helps some.</p><p></p><p>Don't forget - most 300 yard benchrest competitors use 20" bbls, and the Houston warehouse experiments (at 600 yards IIRC) with *no wind*, showed that *in a sporter weight (light) barrel*, a 21.75" barrel is the optimum length for maximum accuracy. But with a thicker barrel, you can go longer (assuming equal bbl quality of course).</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.loadammo.com/Topics/October05.htm" target="_blank">http://www.loadammo.com/Topics/October05.htm</a></p><p></p><p>For MOST .30-06 rifles' "missions", if you will, the optimum barrel length is 24". But going longer will continue to increase vels for a long, long ways (albeit at a rate of diminishing returns). Obviously, powder choice and bullet choice are important considerations to get the most out of a really long barrel like that, to minimize the diminishment of the diminishing returns, if that makes sense. A boattail and/or 'cannelured' bullet with less bore surface area contact will have less friction as it goes along, and maximize the gains achieved with a long barrel.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-433262.html" target="_blank">http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-433262.html</a></p><p></p><p>I suspect that an overbore, small caliber centerfire such as .220 swift would go even longer before slowing down than .30-06 - probably around 60" (again, if I recall correctly - looking for that data right now....). So you'll need to pick somewhere between 28" and 60" I suppose (leaves you quite a bit of leeway there <img src="/images/smilies/smile.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-shortname=":)" /> ) - I would suggest leaning toward 30" as a maximum before handiness is greatly impaired, and preferably less than that - in fact, since you said coyote gun, that means you might drag it to the field, which to ME, means an absolute maximum of twenty-SIX, not 28 or 30". 26" would be your best compromise between a field gun and a bench gun - i.e. for a "dual-purpose" coyote/range rifle, in .220 Swift. A 26" bbl doesn't have to be too terribly thick to get good ridigity/accuracy - a standard 'heavy' barrel will do (as opposed to a super-heavy 'bull' or more).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow, post: 1209358, member: 7123"] I think he said he's leaning toward a .220 Swift, in a heavy gun config, mainly for coyotes. And a bullet from a centerfire like a .30-06 does not start slowing down until about 50-60" of barrel, IIRC. It keeps gaining velocity until then. Very different from a .22lr rimfire, which will begin slowing down anywhere from 14" or so for a subsonic/CB, up to around 21" or more, depending upon ammo type. But anything past 30" or so, the barrel has to get REALLY thick to retain enough rigidity to maintain top accuracy capability. Savage's 12 F Class PTR in 6 BR and 6.5-284 have 30" bbls, for example, and they are around 1.5" thick - just huge tree limbs. You can go thinner with a 26" bbl and still maintain enough rigidity. *That* is the reason (along with accompanying general loss of handiness/manueverability) that you normally don't see longer than 26" bbls, and almost never see longer than 28 or 30 inchers - not because of velocity loss. It's about rigidity/accuracy, and necessary barrel thickness to achieve that, with the attendant loss of lightness & handiness (but true enough, this is a complicated calculus, where this loss of handiness - and increase in manufacturing cost and thus price - is weighed against the ever-increasing, yet [B][I]diminishing marginal[/I][/B] returns in vel gain). You also have to look at the range at which you want your rifle to specialize in, and just *how* good of accuracy you want. You only need tip-top rigidity if you want benchrest-class accuracy, meausured in 10ths of MOAs, rather than quarters of MOAs. Most of us don't need that. Couple that fact with the fact that at really long ranges, say at 600 to 1000 yards or more, the effect of the (unknown speed & direction) wind drift effect from the intervening winds between you and the target becomes [I]more[/I] important to actual practical accuracy than the amount by which extra rigidity can contribute to accuracy due to pure mechanical accuracy resulting from uniform bbl harmonics (which improve with rigidity) - as a result, it makes sense to have a really long barrel'ed gun for 1K matches and such (28-30" or more), even at the expense of a bit of loss of rididity/mechanical accuracy - because the improved velocity overcomes wind drift by a greater amount than the lost mechanical accuracy, - that is, provided you don't mind the extra weight and loss of handiness that comes from the longer barrel - even barrels that aren't really thick are still really heavy at 30" or more! Still, the thicker, the better in the long boys - provided that it still 'makes weight' for the competition you're engaging in, if any. Hope that helps some. Don't forget - most 300 yard benchrest competitors use 20" bbls, and the Houston warehouse experiments (at 600 yards IIRC) with *no wind*, showed that *in a sporter weight (light) barrel*, a 21.75" barrel is the optimum length for maximum accuracy. But with a thicker barrel, you can go longer (assuming equal bbl quality of course). [url]http://www.loadammo.com/Topics/October05.htm[/url] For MOST .30-06 rifles' "missions", if you will, the optimum barrel length is 24". But going longer will continue to increase vels for a long, long ways (albeit at a rate of diminishing returns). Obviously, powder choice and bullet choice are important considerations to get the most out of a really long barrel like that, to minimize the diminishment of the diminishing returns, if that makes sense. A boattail and/or 'cannelured' bullet with less bore surface area contact will have less friction as it goes along, and maximize the gains achieved with a long barrel. [url]http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-433262.html[/url] I suspect that an overbore, small caliber centerfire such as .220 swift would go even longer before slowing down than .30-06 - probably around 60" (again, if I recall correctly - looking for that data right now....). So you'll need to pick somewhere between 28" and 60" I suppose (leaves you quite a bit of leeway there :) ) - I would suggest leaning toward 30" as a maximum before handiness is greatly impaired, and preferably less than that - in fact, since you said coyote gun, that means you might drag it to the field, which to ME, means an absolute maximum of twenty-SIX, not 28 or 30". 26" would be your best compromise between a field gun and a bench gun - i.e. for a "dual-purpose" coyote/range rifle, in .220 Swift. A 26" bbl doesn't have to be too terribly thick to get good ridigity/accuracy - a standard 'heavy' barrel will do (as opposed to a super-heavy 'bull' or more). [/QUOTE]
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