Re: 18-20 inch .308 performance?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: JOct1</div><div class="ubbcode-body">On the youtube video where he's shooting the GAP Gladius, the info that scrolls across the screen said 800+ and then 1000+ yards, 18.5 inch barrel, Nightforce scope, 155 gr. Lapua. </div></div>
You are sort of mixing two different videos...
The video shot at Byers, CO at the Colorado Rifle Club is at 5300ft so the altitude is in my favor for sure. I did shoot both 155gr Lapua Scenars and the 175gr SMK... however there is another video shot at Rifles Only in South Texas, 78ft where I am shooting the 175gr Cor Bon ammo. So there is more than one video out there of me shooting at distance with an 18.5" bbl.
You have to put this stuff in context... I definitely like the 155gr Lapua loads, however I am always shooting factory ammunition whether it is from Cor Bon, Lapua or Black Hills.. (Now you can add the Hornady 178gr Superformance) so I am not reloading for any of the videos I shoot. I use factory flavors only, and definitely NOT 168gr ammo.
To answer the question above a bullet leaving at 2650fps is going at 2650fps, it doesn't matter the barrel length, if that is your MV that is your MV and that will determine where it ends up downrange, providing you do your part.
The barrel question with a 308 has been answered and beaten to death. Its been around so long, and shot by so many there is no unknown, there is truth and fiction and most fiction comes from people trying to guess what it will do and not actually going out and doing it. Most myths are passed down over and over and simply take on a life of their own, until someone actually goes out and sees for themselves...
I have even shot and have some crappy video of me shooting my 16" AR10 to 1000 yards at Rifles Only... I managed about 4 hits out of 10 shots... not very good but it hit none the less. However the same rifle will consistently smack an 8" plate at 800 yards on the same range over and over without a single hiccup. So today, in 2010, you can pretty much get away with a lot with a 308, especially when you consider it is really only an 800m cartridge, we shoot it further because we can, not because we are supposed too.