I remember some years back Guns & Ammo magazine had an article testing revolver accuracy at various barrel lengths. With a .38 revolver in a machine rest, to eliminate human sighting errors, they fired identical loads strictly for group size. The barrel was 10 inches to start with, I believe, and after firing each group they cut one inch off and recrowned the muzzle, until it had been cut back to 2 inches. As I recall, there was virtually no difference in the group sizes.
Accuracy vs Barrel Length
- Thread starter Hastings
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Only because barrel length in creases sight radius.
Put a scope on the rifle and all barrel length does is increase velocity.
A very secondary way to try and increase accuracy by short flight time, and it does not always work unless you have a higher BC.
dagger dog
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I think theOP is probably dead by now!
coolluke01
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Not to beat a dead horse. I just had this talk with a friend of mine. I took the position that barrel length does not increase accuracy only velocity. Would I be right in saying that all the spin will be imparted to the bullet after one revolution? If this were not true it would have to shave lead or copper jacket, right?
Following this logic I bought my AR 15 with a 16" bull barrel. Nice and stiff and has some weight to help hold still. 1/2 groups at 100 yards. I think it's far more accurate than I am.
Following this logic I bought my AR 15 with a 16" bull barrel. Nice and stiff and has some weight to help hold still. 1/2 groups at 100 yards. I think it's far more accurate than I am.
Rohan.44Spcl
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When the barrel is too long for the velocity of the load ie when all the gases have burned up before the bullet leaves the barrel, then that barrel is too long. A barrel is too short when there is a huge amount of flash at the muzzle and the gases escape from the muzzle before it had a chance to expend its driving energy on the bullet. So, a longer barrel is an advantage when the longer barrel is just right, because it also balances the front-end and minimizes shaking of the hand, therefore a more accurate shot. I dnt know if more spin is a factor in accuracy. But for self defence a longer barrel is utterly useless unless you have time to aim. For long distance sport shooting and handgun hunting...do you see any snubs or 4inchers on those shooting ranges. Forget about newtons laws and the like, think more simple and use logic. Test a snub and a 10inch on the range and see which is more accurate. I bet you a million zimbabwean dollars that the 10inch will be more accurate; mainly because of balance.
It does not even take a whole revolution.
While many old black powder guns have very slow twist rates (1 turn in 48 or 56 inches) some did not even have a barrel long enough for a full turn.
'Skidding' over the rifling (AKA not grabbing the rifling) indicates a problem.
The bullet engraves onto the rifling with very little (if any) slip.
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