Downside to lightweight sporter barrel?

[chickenfried]

II've been hunting a few times and enjoyed it. But it'll be a while before I call myself a serious hunter. At this time too much hassle for me to get seriously hooked. After lugging rifles around in the hills a few times. I can see the appeal for a lightweight rifle. I have the chance to buy a used kimber, ~6 pounds in .308 with a 22" lightweight sporter barrel. The gun also appeals to me asthetically nice claro walnut stock and blued barrel.

But I'm wondering with the thin barrel and light weight of the rifle, is this a gun that I won't enjoy using for plinking at the range? Is it likely the rifle will just sit in my safe until it's time for a hunting trip? Also is the lifespan ,round count before it needs replacing, a concern with the lightweight barrel?

Thanks.

 

[rockstar.esq]

If the rifle fits you properly the incremental increase in recoil due to the lighter weight won't make any practical difference to your shooting. The barrel profile will likely be less significant than barrel length when it comes to target shooting because longer range (300yds +) target shooting benefits from the additional velocity. That being said the velocity gains from a longer barrel are often overstated. Interestingly, tests conducted to determine if there's a ratio of barrel length to velocity resulted in non linear trends that fail to comform to any predictive algorithm. The general situation is that shorter barrels have lower velocities than longer barrels. Again, this won't make any significant difference at the typical 100 - 200yd target/hunting shooting that most folks do.

 

[Tyril]

Generally, very thin barrels will tend to heat up very quickly, and often will tend to 'wander' extended groups.

Such as:
First five shots - perfect
Next shots - flyers galore.


This was the main complaint against the Mini 14, that is thin barrel tends to heat up and whip, coming to a slightly different point of rest each time it was fired. Thus, in extended firing, the barrel was not 100% consistantly placed with each additional shot.

Free floating, good bedding, or letting the rifle cool between shots all help this issue. As far as hunting goes... if you're (non varmit) hunting, and need to fire more than five times, you might want to see an eye-doctor. =)


Hope this helps.


-Mike

 

[michael_aos]

I'm not a Great White Hunter (tm) either, but I carried a Remington 700 titanium hiking for a week in the mountains last year.

Seriously, every time I picked it up, I thought to myself -- wow, this is awesome.

It was a sheer joy to carry.

The guys I was with were carrying ~9lb 30-06's and were not having much fun.

Mike

 

[Quintin Likely]

Light weight sporter barrels tend to get a little wild with downrange groupings as they warm up. That's probably the biggest disadvantage.

 

[hossdaniels]

Its true it will likely open your bigger groups, but thats no disadvantage on a hunting rifle. Only takes one shot.

 

[ranger335v]

Light barrels and heating ...

My experience is that the first two shots, if fired quickly and before the heat soaks through the barrel, will strike pretty well within the accuracy limits of the rifle. Third shot goes out a bit and successive shots without cooling may open the group wildly. That makes it hard to get impressive five shot groups off the bench but that is rarely a problem on a hunt. In my callow youth I carried a heavier barrel "to help hold steady" but, as the years passed and the body has wilted a bit, I shoot better if I'm not so tired!

I really like my Rem. Mtn. Rifle in -06 and a light 3-9x scope. Off the bench, first two shots go in 3/4", three in 1 1/4", four/five in 2 1/2", which works plenty well for me! It' s over 12 years now and I'm yet to fire a third shot on the same day in the field.

 

[chickenfried]

Whoops

 

[chickenfried]

Thanks for the help . Seems from the replies like the kimber would be for hunting only, rather than a rifle I take to the range and plink all day with? Not sure if I'm ready or willing to shell out the dough for a rifle I'd use just for hunting.

 

[USSR]

Whats the difference between a hunting rifle and a target rifle? About 5 pounds.

Don

 

[44AMP]

All depends on what you want

You can spend all day plinking with your deer rifle, just don't expect the same kind of groups you would get from a heavier barrelled rifle, especially if you shoot rapidly.

One of my favorite rifles is the old Remington Model 600 .308 Winchester. An 18.5in very light weight barrel, and with an unusual configuration (steel posts welded to the barrel as attachment points for the screws holding the nylon vent rib). I spent my youth plinking, shooting woodchucks, and even deer hunting with this rifle. It never produced "good" groups, unless very carefully fired over a period of time, but it did group well enough that the misses were MY fault. And, nearly a couple of thousand rounds over about 3 years (and nearly all under "field" conditions) gave me a very good skill base with that rifle, to the misfortune of quite a few deer and many smaller critters.

Barrel life is not a concern for the deer hunter, nor the casual plinker, and unless you engage in rapid fire strings on a regular bases, it won't be for you either. Match shooters have concerns about wearing out a barrel, because they shoot rapid fire strings alot in practice, and because their standards are higher than deer hunters. A competitive shooter will throw away a barrel that is capable of "good" groups, because it is no longer capable of "exellent" groups, which are what is required to win matches.

3,000 to 5,000 rounds is a number often used to illustrate what kind of barrel life you should expect, from a mild round like the .308 Win. fired from a sporter rifle. There are too many variables to be able to predict any magic number of rounds when the barrel becomes shot out, but one thing is generally constant. Unless you need match grade accuracy you will spend more money on the ammo (even reloads) than you spent on the rifle before you wear out the barrel. Alot more.

 

[rangerruck]

no concerns really , on the 308. I had a post ww11 parker hale english made 308, with a 24 inch pencil bbl. Wonderful rifle, really. wore a watch at the range, and after each shot, would watch 30 seconds go by, before i started to even cycle the next round. Bbl just stayed warm, never hot nor burning. Besides that, Kimber is no slouch mfgr, they are not gonna make a bbl, with crappy chamber/throat/heat problems.

 

[dfaugh]

Such as:
First five shots - perfect
Next shots - flyers galore.

Actually, in my experience its more like 2 shots, then they start to wander.

Often, they don't wander all that much, so perfectly adequate for hunting....But, you won't win any accuracy competitions.

 

[sumpnz]

I could be wrong but I don't think barrel profile has a whole lot to do with the life span of the barrel. While a thicker profile will help to conduct heat away from the bore, that effect is not likely to make a substantial difference in barrel life, save perhaps in some extreme rapid fire circumstance - not something a bolt action deer rifle is really even all that capable of. Barrel life is far more dependant on the cartridge being fired, and how "hot" the particular load happens to be. .308's tend to be pretty long lived in terms of barrels, even by competition shooting standards. The 3-5000 rounds would certainly be a competition level life span, and even that may be short for a .308 (I don't know personally - I don't own any .308's, nor do I shoot in competition). I would hazard a guess that if you were careful not to overheat that rifle that you could easilly get 10,000 rounds out of it and likely a lot more with good care. For casual plinking, and hunting it's unlikely your grandchildren could wear it out.