308 barrels

[sprice]

On a 308 semi automatic rifle would there be any advantage to having an 18" barrel over a 21"? It's a FAL and I'm using it for hunting deer up to 300 yards away.

 

[Girodin]

An 18" barrel will be somewhat lighter and more maneuverable (and the FAL is a heavy gun for hunting). The trade off is diminished velocity. The velocity loss is not very significant inside of 300 yards IMHO. There is also likely to be more muzzle blast on the shorter barrel. I shoot a 16" .308 and wouldn't worry about it on an 18" barrel.

 

[sprice]

I'm just wondering if it's worth it to go shorter and I will use it to as far as I can on the range too. If it can hit minute of man at 600/700 yards and an 8" paper plate at 300 I'm a happy man. With glass btw.

 

[375shooter]

I have an 18" barrel on my bolt action .308. I use it primarily for hunting deer where shots are always under 100 yards. It works great for this. If I were to use it for longer range though, I would prefer a longer barrel. I think a 21 " barrel would be okay.

 

[-v-]

Velocity difference of most .308 out of a 18" vs a 21" is something like 50-75fps at most. An 16" gets you super-sonic velocity out to 800 yards, a 18" to 1,000 and a 21" a little bit longer than that.

If your farthest shot on a deer will be 300 yards, then chances are, you won't be able to tell a meaningful difference between the performance of a 16" vs a 24" barrel.

The velocity vs barrel length curve of .308 gets real flat after 18", fwiw.

 

[Red State]

I have looked at this issue quite a bit and have done LOTS of research on this forum.

While using the same ammo/loads, many members here have kindly posted their chrono results from various barrels.

As an average and when shooting .308, the members here post an average gain of 35fps per inch of barrel.

So in your scenario, you are probably looking at 100 fps difference between those two guns.

I hope that this helps you make your decision.