Gunsmithing Newb Question: Cutting Down Barrel

[ARbowhunter7]

First let me say that I am an extreme newb to the precision rifle world, so flame me if you must, but try to refrain. Haha.

I was at the range (shooting my POS) and I took notice of the guy next to me. He's a lurker on here, but his rifle was what really caught my attention. It was a sweet setup, Surgeon Action, A-4 stock, Badger DBM and 20 MOA mount, massive Nightforce, etc. All nice stuff, but I've seen it before. His barrel, though, it what got me. It was a professionally finished, threaded, and crowned 17" barrel, cut down by a local 'smith. I have always heard arguments against shorty barrels when considering accuracy but this gun was a laser (by my weak standards). The guy shot a couple 1/2" groups at 100, then streched it out to 600 yards (max at our range) and brought back three targets with sub-6" five shot groups. Is this normal? Or is this gun just a freak? Can you really expect this accuracy out of a setup with a barrel this short?

 

[ORD]

Re: Newb Question: Cutting Down Barrel

Common misconception re: short barrels.

Barrel length has little to NOTHING to do with accuracy, but everything to do with velocity and thus, max effective range. Now, some calibers require longer barrels in order to perform as they were designed and short barrels are not ideal for every situation, but with a good quality barrel blank that is properly chambered and finished by a quality smith, you can expect excellent accuracy with a shorter barrel.

 

[ARbowhunter7]

Re: Newb Question: Cutting Down Barrel

So what you're saying is that this barrel was most likely built from the ground up to be this length, rather than cut down.

 

[ORD]

Re: Newb Question: Cutting Down Barrel

No...what I'm saying is that not all barrels were created equally. With a good foundation, a short barrel will perform as well as a longer barrel in terms of accuracy. (i.e. - two barrels of identical quality/machine work have the same or extremely similar accuracy potential. A Rock Creek, Kreiger, Obermeyer, Bartlein, etc. barrel blank might be finished at 24" or it might be finished at 16"...the accuracy potential of the barrel is the same regardless of length). Now, assuming that the guy at your range just grabbed an "off the shelf" Remington 700 and hacked the factory barrel to 16" or so and had it threaded/recrowned, the accuracy results may not be as good. Its a factory tube and isn't held to the same tolerances as a match barrel blank). Like any rifle, you can only get the best end results if you start with a solid foundation.

 

[ARbowhunter7]

Re: Newb Question: Cutting Down Barrel

Awesome. Thanks for the info.