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Posted: 4/3/2009 4:36:21 AM EDT
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Greetings all,
My first post in this forum. Doing some research on options: I'm interested in the Serbu BFG 50 for a variety of reasons (cost and weight among them). Since I'm interested in portability, I'm looking at the "carbine" (22") barrel. Does anyone know how the 22" barrel effects accuracy? Is 22" too short for the powder to burn completely? Thanks for any help. |
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Quoted:
Greetings all, My first post in this forum. Doing some research on options: I'm interested in the Serbu BFG 50 for a variety of reasons (cost and weight among them). Since I'm interested in portability, I'm looking at the "carbine" (22") barrel. Does anyone know how the 22" barrel effects accuracy? Doesn't adversely affect accuracy. A shorter barrel isn't less accurate than a long barrel. All other things being equal, a shorter barrel is stiffer than a longer barrel and is generally more accurate, albeit at the expense of velocity. Still, this theoretical increase in accuracy is hard to capitalize on because the lighter gun is harder to shoot well. Is 22" too short for the powder to burn completely? Most definitely. Optimal length for a good powder burn is around 33 inches. Even that isn't a COMPLETE powder burn. 50 BMG was designed to have a barrel length of 45" on the M2. However, you get most of the velocity in 33 inches. A 22 inch barrel will be much more portable but you'll be giving up a LOT of velocity compared to a 30 to 33" barrel. Thanks for any help. Everything with guns is a tradeoff. If you get a light gun, like a 22" Serbu, it's going to be more portable but harder to shoot accurately and lower velocity, which makes range estimation and wind doping hyper critical. If you get a heavier guy like an AR-50 with its 31" barrel, you are going to get a much less portable rifle, but it'll be easier to shoot accurately and get higher velocities, thus making range estimation and wind doping somewhat more forgiving. -David Edgewood, NM |
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Quoted:
will a 22inch gun still be fairly consistent out to 1000 yards though? The gun may indeed be consistent. A shorter barrel doesn't reduce accuracy. But when you are shooting long distance, you need all the velocity you can get. A gun w/ a 22" barrel will be heavily handicapped at 1000 yards compared to other longer barreled rifles due to longer wind exposure. So yeah, in a way, when you are looking at long range, a shorter barrel is much less accurate. If there is no wind or exceptionally steady wind, there's no difference from a 33" barrel. But those two things rarely happen (no wind or steady wind). -David |
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I shot in a match at Raton 5-6 years ago and the person on the bench to my right was shooting a 22" barrel Serbu. It shot pretty well, he had some groups around 16". It sure did shoot out a big fireball out the barrel and the brake every time he shot, it had the old style brake, before Serbu copied the State Arms style brake. It was a real overcast day and cold out. I could feel the heat on my face every time he took a shot, looked like the flames almost reached my bench. It was burning a lot of powder out side the barrel..
Ed |
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I shot in a match at Raton 5-6 years ago and the person on the bench to my right was shooting a 22" barrel Serbu. It shot pretty well, he had some groups around 16". It sure did shoot out a big fireball out the barrel and the brake every time he shot, it had the old style brake, before Serbu copied the State Arms style brake. It was a real overcast day and cold out. I could feel the heat on my face every time he took a shot, looked like the flames almost reached my bench. It was burning a lot of powder out side the barrel..
Ed |
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The Serbu carbine is sweet to shoot. Light enough to shoulder fire. Portable and not barrel heavy. In my 33" barrel Barret shooting the same loads that got 2830fps the carbine got 2608fps.
A ballistic program says with 647 ball bullets at 2600fps at 500 yards the bullet would be traveling at approx. 2000fps and at 1000 yards it would be moving at approx. 1500 fps. I've read that it takes a 40-45" barrel to burn all the powder. It's a fun rifle and not a long range target gun. |
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