Re: Fastest barrel
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Some guys worry to much about velocity. A 100fps. variation is considered normal and a 100fps isn't going to help you win the match or lose it per say.
Later, Frank</div></div>
This is my view exactly. It won't help, but the loads that provide it will burn out the barrel sooner.
Magnums are great for anchoring a big animal, or reaching out supersonic to distances that other chamberings, i.e. a 7-08, cannot reach supersonic.
But Magnums also have bad habits. They beat up guns and they beat up shooters. Neither of these is helpful for sustained fire marksmanship, which is what a match rifle must, first and foremost, achieve successfully.
The idea that a faster bullet will help scores is a fallacy. A marginal wind call is just as detrimental to a higher velocity as it is to a lower one.
Believing the fallacy assumes velocity is a crutch. It isn't, and what the shooter needs to do is understand that as long as the velocity is sufficient to get the bullet to the distance supersonic, it is the wind skills that get it into the X.
The successful LR shooter understands that the wind is not an opponent blowing the bullet off the target, but is an ally, blowing it onto the target. They need to engage the wind as a necessary part of a successful targeting technique, and not as a detriment.
In essence, Ya gotta bend it like Beckham.
Adding velocity atop that simply ensures that the shooter will need to rebarrel sooner, will have a hotter barrel with the inevitible accompanying accuracy degradation as the match progresses, and will be feeling more fatigue in the later stages of their match. You can't win if your rifle is part of the problem.
You can improve, for instance, on the 175gr .308 by either adding energy, ala upgrading to a .30 caliber Magnum, or by using the existing capacity to drive a narrrower, lighter bullet with a higher BC, ala rebarreling to a .260 with 140's.
I'd prefer the .260 for the reasons I give above.
Greg