When a rifle barrels to short?

willy1947

willy1947

Active member

When a rifle barrels to short.
For a few years, I have been shooting 10.5in AR uppers on my SBR lower. One is a 223 and the other 300 BO with my suppressor, they around 19 in over all. At the range, I am getting under 2 in groups. I am trying some different loads. 115gr for the 300 and 62gr for the 223. Anyone workup any loads for an SBR. I know they will not match my 26in barrel rifles. For under 200 yards there has to be away for a good load. What say you?
 
For predator hunting, I prefer the 10-11" SBRs with suppressor for the better balance and its quiet enough. Dont handload for it, but just find a good factory load and run with it. Shoots around 1-1.5 inches at 100 yards.
 
I had a little Savage 99 300 Sav that someone whacked the barrel to 16 1/4". It was about a deer killing machine. I picked it up at a gunshow, the guy was packing it around trying to trade it off, I gave him a $100 for it. It loved 180gr RN's.

I flew back to WI to hunt with my dad and BinL, they all had their favorite stands. I had never hunted this area with them before so I opted to wait for daylight and wander in looking for what ever. I found a little knob overlooking a big brushy bowl, the knob had a bunch of beds on it so I thought I'd rest a bit and watch, a freezer buck came out of the bowl and walked right up to the knob, killed him at 8 feet. I drug him back to the truck.

I still had two doe tags so I headed down to the creek bottom and picked up a big track and started to work it out, well the deer kept going through black spruce thickets(crawl on your knees stuff) and then circling around the down wind side and going around behind me. The third time the deer tried that I started into the thicket and then backed out and circled down wind and waited. I kill a big doe at 20 feet walking straight at me watching and sniffing toward the thicket. This one was a fairly long drag and It was about 11 o'clock by the time I got to the truck.

I thought I'd hunt my way back to my dad and have a sandwich with him. Still hunting through the woods I spotted 4 deer in some thick stuff and picked the biggest doe and dropped her at about 70 yards, the other three just stood there, I knew dad had a couple doe tags but didn't know if he had filled them so let them pass. I hung the deer in a tree and went and had lunch with dad, good thing I let them pass dad had his two bonus tags on the ground and was still waiting on a buck. We spent the afternoon dragging deer.

That was 25 yrs ago and I gave the little Savage to my nephew and he's still killing deer with it.
 
Willy, I shoot an 8.5 inch Noveske barrel in my blackout suppressed. It will shoot MOA further than I should be shooting at coyotes. The two bullets that shoot great are sierra 110 grain JHP and Nosler 110 grain varmageddon's. I use Lil gun to push those bullets. It is a great 100 yard coyote gun. I have not pushed it further on coyotes but have shot MOA out to three hundred on paper.
 
barrel length has a lot more to do with velocity than it does accuracy. in fact due to stifness considerations (less weight hanging out there to cause barrel droop/whip) they're theoretically more prone to being accurate than a longer tube might be.

there may be some point that a specific bullet has trouble out of a shorter barrel for not being able to achieve proper RPM for stabilization with long for caliber projectiles, but aside from that achieving good accuracy should be the same process with a 9" barrel as it is a 20" barrel.

get ahold of some of the remington white box 120gr 300 blackout HP"s... those are a barnes bullet stuffed in a rem headstamp case by barnes for remington. they are pretty much the gold standard for function and base accuracy testing for production ammo for the blackout. If those wont shoot under 2" you probably have a barrel (or other mechanical) issue to address.

if you're reloading - try the 125 SST or the 125 nosler green tips. both are known great shooters are blackout speeds. Likewise with the 110 vmax. If you cant get one of them shooting... see above re barrel issues to address.

ive got a 9" blackout upper, a 12" 223 wylde upper.... the blackout runs about an inch at 100 yds with multiple bullets (as long as i do my part) and the wylde is about the same with my 75gr handloads - both on a pistol lower shot off bags. i ring 6" steel at 75 yds with either upper unsupported standing with ease.
 
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