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Posted: 12/16/2011 3:43:26 PM EDT
| Whats a good length for a barrel? I plan on using it for my son(15) to plink with, and maybe some pig hunting. Should I get a 16 then a muzzle brake or a 14 1/2 then a muzzle break get to 16 inches and legal? |
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Personally I think short barrels give up too much velocity.
For hunting I prefer 20” barrels and I like plinking on the 600 yard line a lot more than the 100 yard line. I was watching a 3 gun match where the shooters were hell on wheels with close range targets, but when they hit a course of fire where the range was out there most of them were having a lot of trouble getting the rams to go down. ETA They were hitting, the rams were not consistantly falling. As far as the 14.5” barrels go I see no advantage over a 16” and a pinned and welded muzzle attachment is a PITA to do anything with if you ever want to reconfigure. YMMV |
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Quoted:
Whats a good length for a barrel? I plan on using it for my son(15) to plink with, and maybe some pig hunting. Should I get a 16 then a muzzle brake or a 14 1/2 then a muzzle break get to 16 inches and legal? With the 14.5" and the pinned brake you lose the flexibility of easily changing the front sight base if you would ever care to. If you don't want to go to 20", I'd get a plain muzzle or threaded 16" and just put a thread protector from ADCO on it. FWIW YMMV |
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The difference in velocity between a 14.5 and 16" barrel using M855 is 70fps.
Accuracy and noise is essentially the same. Considering you'll be hunting with SP's, HP's, etc...the pig won't know the difference. Your son, and you, will notice the slightly shorter overall length and better balance and feel of the 14.5. Having owned both, I'll deal with the extra 20 minutes of hassle to perm attach or drill and remove a pinned flash hider... Because the benefit of the shorter barrel is worth the effort. |
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Quoted:
I like 16" barrels with mid-length gas systems on general purpose ARs. But 18" or 20" barrel AR is still short compared to the traditional hunting guns, where a 20" barreled gun would be considered a short gun. I'm glad at least a couple other people agree with me about 16" barrels.  Plinking isn't much of a difference on paper, but using a .223/5.56 on pigs, you'll want the most velocity you can get. Most guys I know use at least a .30 cal of some sort. I wouldn't try to take a grown hog, but a smaller sow I feel would work.
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