Posted: 11/5/2012 5:03:42 PM EDT
| What's the optimal barrel length for a .308? What would the pluses and minuses be for either shorter or longer than optimal? |
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Good question. I've heard 22" and 24" thrown around alot for a .308 barrel length. That being said, Remington made police sniper rifles for ever and a day in 26" and I believe the current military offerings are 24" 5R barrels.
Longer barrel should give better accuracy and more velocity. Although the 20" have been going beyond 1000 yards pretty regularly with 175smk. Tag for someone who is better versed in this. MPD165 |
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Quoted: Good question. I've heard 22" and 24" thrown around alot for a .308 barrel length. That being said, Remington made police sniper rifles for ever and a day in 26" and I believe the current military offerings are 24" 5R barrels. Longer barrel should give better accuracy and more velocity. Although the 20" have been going beyond 1000 yards pretty regularly with 175smk. Tag for someone who is better versed in this. MPD165 Optimum is subjective. What do you want it 'optimized' for? |
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Quoted:
What's the optimal barrel length for a .308? What would the pluses and minuses be for either shorter or longer than optimal? What are you going to be doing with the rifle...crawling through the woods hunting, shooting out to 1000 yards, putting a can on it? I'm a 'longer barrel' guy, but I don't hunt, or crawl around in the weeds with my rifles. I like the added velocity that my 3 26" barrels give me and I don't plan on putting cans on any of them. I do shoot out to 1k, so longer barrels help out a bit. 20" would probably be the lowest I'd go, but guys are shooting 18s and hitting pretty far out, so it just comes down to what you want the weapon to do and what preferences you have. Chris |
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for what use OP?
length has nothing to do with accuracy. if you want accuracy, any length can be OK. if you want to shoot to 900-1000 yards, try to get as long as you can. not for accuracy, but velocity. As to keep the 308 supersonic to 1000 yards I have found hits to 1000 to 1200 yards possible with a 16 inch barrel |
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Quoted:
Good question. I've heard 22" and 24" thrown around alot for a .308 barrel length. That being said, Remington made police sniper rifles for ever and a day in 26" and I believe the current military offerings are 24" 5R barrels. Longer barrel should give better accuracy and more velocity. Although the 20" have been going beyond 1000 yards pretty regularly with 175smk. Tag for someone who is better versed in this. MPD165 Personally, I think that 20” is the minimum in .308. As to accuracy, ballistics can get a bit complicated. A short barrel can potentially be more accurate because it’s not going to vibrate as much. However the muzzle velocity will be a bit lower and a higher muzzle velocity increases your practical accuracy. The main reason why a long barrel helps your accuracy has to do with something called “sight radius” This is the distance between your front and rear sights. A longer sight radius means that minor errors in your sight picture (the alignment of your front and rear sights) doesn’t have as much of an impact on your accuracy. Most people use scopes or some kind of optics these days and so this advantage sort of disappears. |
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This guy did ok with a 20" inch bolt. Also LMT makes a 16" semi-auto 308 that seems to work just fine.
FN SPR A1a 
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Quoted:
Good question. I've heard 22" and 24" thrown around alot for a .308 barrel length. That being said, Remington made police sniper rifles for ever and a day in 26" and I believe the current military offerings are 24" 5R barrels. Longer barrel should give better accuracy and more velocity. Although the 20" have been going beyond 1000 yards pretty regularly with 175smk. Tag for someone who is better versed in this. MPD165 Not exactly correct |
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Depends.
Considering I live in a freaking swamp, and the longest shot that I take with my LR-308 is 500 yards.... I used to have a 24" barrel, and the damned thing was: hard to get in a deer stand, and too heavy if I had to take an off-hand shot, I replaced it with an 18" barrel–– and couldn't be happier. Sure, I lost velocity, and maximum effective range. But like i said... I live in a freaking swamp. I'd probably feel differently if I lived in Nebraska. YMMV. |
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FWIW, my 16" barreled unit is really good to 300 yards, which is about all I can manage with a 3x9 scope. Yes, I can make hits on deer size targets to about 400 with that scope, but then you really need doping the drop and wind beyond that, and I hunt primarily within 200yds...... With a better scope or some time behind the BUIS I could muster some better stuff.
I feel a 20" would be the right compromise for real distance shooting; add some velocity but not too much weight to drag a rifle down to 'tank barrel' weight status. |
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depends on what youre doing with it. But for me on both bolt actions and semis I've found 20" is about the best mix of maneuverability and velocity. Even more-so when you add a suppressor. as others have noted, longer doesnt mean more accurate. Just faster, which will help long range accuracy by less effect from wind. I'd actually say my most accurate barrel has been a 20" vs a 24 and a 26" I've shot quite a bit. Maybe due to the length at the relatively similar profile to the longer barrels actually making it stiffer vs the long barrels.. it wasnt an incredible difference though.
But for just a range toy or dedicated long range, 24-26" is great. For something else, I'd be at 12-16" depending on what I wanted from it but my needs are pretty limited in that category. for reference, my competition rifle with its 20" braked .308 barrel. I've shot this rifle out to 1000 yards and while it gets there with much less oomph then my previous 24" barrel did, I was able to reliably make hits on a full sized IPSC at those ranges in moderate wind. 
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Velocity? Longer barrels rule BUT they need to be heavy for the same accuracy as longer barrels are more flexible. You want 3000 ft/sec with 155 grain bullets? You need a 28" or longer. But you will need a muzzle diameter of 0.780" or more with standard action ring diameters. |
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here is some of my accuracy testing from 100 to 1200 yards with a 308 barrel 16 inches long
http://looserounds.com/2012/07/15/testing-the-colt-le901-16s-part-ii-accuracy-testing/ |
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Quoted:
Velocity? Longer barrels rule BUT they need to be heavy for the same accuracy as longer barrels are more flexible. You want 3000 ft/sec with 155 grain bullets? You need a 28" or longer. But you will need a muzzle diameter of 0.780" or more with standard action ring diameters. I'm pushing 155gr Scenars jumping .010 to the lands out of a 1 in 12 twist Douglas 23.5" at 2950fps with 45gr of RE15 with BR2's in FGMM Brass with no pressure signs, at 600 AMSL. When working up a load I hit 3028fps but the accuracy dropped off a bit so I backed it off. |
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I'm cutting my 700 from 24 to 19. Going to be using it for hunting with a can. I'm told i wont see any real loss of accuracy until i get to around 700 yds. so hopefully the best length is 19" My experience is that either the can makes the gun more accurate or I shoot more accurately due to lack of recoil and noise. 
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Quoted:
Good question. I've heard 22" and 24" thrown around alot for a .308 barrel length. That being said, Remington made police sniper rifles for ever and a day in 26" and I believe the current military offerings are 24" 5R barrels. Longer barrel should give better accuracy and more velocity. Although the 20" have been going beyond 1000 yards pretty regularly with 175smk. Tag for someone who is better versed in this. MPD165 Shorter barrels are more accurate than longer barrels. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Good question. I've heard 22" and 24" thrown around alot for a .308 barrel length. That being said, Remington made police sniper rifles for ever and a day in 26" and I believe the current military offerings are 24" 5R barrels. Longer barrel should give better accuracy and more velocity. Although the 20" have been going beyond 1000 yards pretty regularly with 175smk. Tag for someone who is better versed in this. MPD165 Shorter barrels are more accurate than longer barrels. I think that really depends on alot of other factors not included in the discussion. Twist rate being one of them A shorter barrel may have less flex, or whip, but then there are other things to consider there as well. Barrel profile and type and density of the steel etc..... I am far from an expert on this. From the point of view that short barrel = more ridgid = more accurate is a valid argument. Not knowing the OP's intended use is kinda making this an open ended discussion. Tag for more info. MPD165 |