Ok, I was doing searches, I couldnt find anything, and that insanely long timer is prohibitive to doing many searches, so if this topic has been discussed to death, sorry! Please lower the reset time on searches?

Anyway, exactly how much performance do you sacrifice by cutting off those 4 inches?

At 50 yards its the same as 20"?

At 100 yards...?

200?

300?

400.. forget it?

I am referring to accurate range once can expect violent fragmentation with lake city M193 and comparable.

Thanks, again if this post has been talked to death, which it probably has, just post links of old posts if typing a new reply is too much. Thanks!

[url]http://www.ammo-oracle.com/#ss109m855[/url]


[url=http://groups.msn.com/TheMarylandAR15ShootersSite/556performance.msnw]ammo faqs[/url]

Its in there.

You'll be able to find some of the information you're looking for here:

[url]www.ammo-oracle.com[/url]

Well, I'm no expert...but I play one on TV bwahahahaha...sorry.  There's quite a bit of discussion about this from time to time...a lot of people will say that out to 300 yards, you really don't lose any accuracy...others say you do.  You will lose velocity, though, which would lead you to believe at some point that's gonna take the accuracy with it.  

See if you can find someone who shoots highpower on an honest to god 600 yard course...I'm sure they can tell ya...I would imagine none of those guys are using 16" barrels.  The only 2 mathces I've done were 100 yards, with the smaller targets to simulate the longer range.  

Now, could it be more than coincidence that my most accurate AR happens to be the only 20" HBAR I got?  I don't know hehehe.  

The Marine Corps decided to stay with the 20" barrel in the M-16A4, rather than go with the M-4 (16" barrel).  It wasn't just accuracy.  In full-auto or three round burst, there are some reliability questions with a 16" barrel.

As for me, I have an Armalite with a 16" barrel and it's been close to flawless.  But I do shoot 200 yards and under for the most part.

That's my two cents.

Buddy and I shot 600yrds with 16" carbines the other day.  The carbine can definitely do the job, as long as the operators can dope the wind. Buddy and I are pretty mediocre shooters and we still made 5 to 7 hits ( out of 10) on a human size target at that range. If it's not the wind gushed and changed direction, we could definity hit more. Regardless, the carbine can do it.  

At 500yrds, the carbine is deadly. Again, the carbine will do the job as long as the operator can dope the wind.

Wrong the M-4 carbine has a 14.5 inch barrel. Which looses even more velocity than a 16inch.

And IIRC it was found that 14.5 inches is the shortest barrel that will work reliably.  

The Army has experimented with 14 inch barrels at 500 yards. As long as you use a scope to negate the sight radius difference, the shorter barrel will be more accurate, till velocity is too little.

I luv my 20in barrel. Its it really much difference. I mean this gun feels like a toy to start with and then you pt on a 16in barrel and it feels like a water gun. lol.

Yeah, I had a brain-fart, thinking of my civilian 16" barrel Armalite.  The M4 is 14.5", however, my observations remain the same.