BARREL LENGTH AND THE PRECISION RIFLE
Why shorter barrels may often be better
by
Eugene Nielsen
There’s a growing trend to shorter barrels on tactical precision rifles. In years past, a 24- to 26-inch barrel was practically a given. Accepted wisdom was that it was necessary to sacrifice a little maneuverability to gain a more complete powder burn and significantly reduced flash signature. Today, it’s not uncommon to rifles with significlly shorter barrrels.
Attitudes are are changing. The desire for more manueverable rifles for the urban setting has led a growing number of manufacturer's to come out with shorter-barreled precision rifles. This brings up an obvious question -- how short is too short? What sacrifices, if any, are made by going to a shorter barrel?
To answer these questions, we must first start by taking a look at the subject of internal ballistics. Internal ballistics is a very complex subject. There are many factors which affect the internal performance of a given cartridge and bullet. Factors affecting internal performance include the powder chamber capacity; load density; amount and burning characteristics of the propellant powder; temperature of the propellant prior to ignition; uniformity and speed of ignition; diameter, weight and bearing length of the bullet; and the length of the barrel and its interior dimensions.
Longer barrels give the powder more time to work on propelling the bullet. For this reason longer barrels generally provide higher velocities, everything else being equal. However, the gas pressure behind the bullet diminishes as the bullet moves down the bore. Given a long enough barrel, there will eventually be a point in which the bore friction and air pressure in front of the bullet will equal the gas pressure behind it. At this point, the velocity of the bullet will start to decrease.
Shorter barrels are capable of surprising long-range accurancy. San Fernando (California) PD Special Response Team long rifle marksman Chris Colelli, shown here, fired a three-shot group at 700 yards that measured just under two inches center-to-center. Colleli also fired a sub-1/4- inch group at 200 yards. The target is now framed and hanging in his lieutenant's office.
There isn't any clear-cut answer as to how much velocity will be lost per inch of barrel length reduction. The amount of loss is closely tied to the expansion ratio. As previously noted, the type and amount of powder, as well as the weight and bearing length of the bullet, also play a major part. Rifles with high expansion ratios (smaller calibers) tend to lose less velocity than rifles with low expansion ratios (larger calibers).
Tactical Operations about in the April 2000 issue of S.W.A.T., typifies the trend to rifles with shorter barrels. Tac Ops considers a barrel of length of 18 to 20 inches to be optimal for the urban environment, with 18 inches the preferred length.
During the development of the Tango 51, Tac Ops took a standard 26-inch barrel and cut it down to 18 inches in one-inch increments. Between 10 to 20 rounds were fired at each invrement. They found that a 20-inch barrel provides for a complete propellant burn and no velocity loss when using Federal Match 168-grain BTHP, a cartridge that has become something of a law enforcement standard. Going to an 18-inch barrel only resulted in a loss of 32 feet per second (fps).
Shorter barreled rifles are more versatile, being equally suitable for both urban and rural operations. According to Tac Ops, there isn't any need to go to the 26-inch barrel unless you want to go to a heavier bullet or push the round to higher velocity using more powder or use a slower burning powder. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB) performed tests similar to those conducted by Tac Ops and came to similar conclusions.
Read the rest:
www.tacticaloperations.com/SWATbarrel/
