With the million and one contours and thicknesses what would you say is the golden middleway?
When do you get the best Weight / thickness ratio?
When do you get the best Weight / thickness ratio?
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Gunsmithing Barrel thickness and when is nuff' enough?
- Thread starter Teach Me Sensei
- Start date
For what purpose?
There are so many contours for a reason. Some work better for certain tasks, and others work better for other tasks. This is just like asking, "What is the best scope?" and not providing an intended use.
There are so many contours for a reason. Some work better for certain tasks, and others work better for other tasks. This is just like asking, "What is the best scope?" and not providing an intended use.
This is a tough question to answer. If you are a PRS shooter you want heavy. It's not uncommon to see SS 26-28 inch MTU contours out there. If you're humping up to 13,000 feet pursuing a Boone and Crockett ram you might have a carbon fiber light sendero profile anywhere from 20-26 inches. So before we can talk further we should ask you first... in what context is the precision rifle in question being used?
Vague questions get vague answers and open the doors to the army of trolls always lurking and plotting.
As mentioned the right tool for the job.
Quality barrels will all shoot very well no matter the contour.
R
Quality barrels will all shoot very well no matter the contour.
R
Everytime I see a ridiculous question like this from someone with a low post count I immediately suspect the OP has something they want to sell, they don't want to contribute $40 to the site, and they are just trying to pad their post count so they can use the PX.
If its to thin then your going to hear her say "are you in yet" ..... Thicker barrels are always better.
Yeah, I can see how it wasn't a well defined question and I'm not here to sell anything 
For long distance shooting, lets say 308, 300nm and 338 and something like 24".
The question was based upon a meme i saw in another thread in SH that said something along the lines of "Your rifle is heavy to disguise your inability to manage recoil" and i though, my rifle is heavy because of my heave ass barrel.
I bought a heavy barrel because the heavier the better, or so i thought. But if i want to shoot a lot of round but still have a rifle I can actually use for hunting as well, what would be the best Weight / Thickness ratio.
Hope it makes sense.
Also, what i mean when i say Weight / Thickness ratio is how low weight can one get without losing the benefits of a thick barrel ?
For long distance shooting, lets say 308, 300nm and 338 and something like 24".
The question was based upon a meme i saw in another thread in SH that said something along the lines of "Your rifle is heavy to disguise your inability to manage recoil" and i though, my rifle is heavy because of my heave ass barrel.
I bought a heavy barrel because the heavier the better, or so i thought. But if i want to shoot a lot of round but still have a rifle I can actually use for hunting as well, what would be the best Weight / Thickness ratio.
Hope it makes sense.
Also, what i mean when i say Weight / Thickness ratio is how low weight can one get without losing the benefits of a thick barrel
?
If your game is just PRS, the current trend is heaviest barrel possible with a small caliber. Case in point, a friend and local PRS competitor just spun up a 1.35” straight cylinder 26” barrel in 6mm BR, dropped in an MPA chassis with a Razor 4.5-27 on it. We joke with him about it, but that rifle puts everything in one hole.
Okay, that’s one extreme.
Now, you ask how thin of a profile can you get before losing the benefits of a thick barrel. What do you see as the benefits of a heavy barrel?
As you have already seen, there is no free lunch and most everything has a trade off. It sounds like to me that you are asking the classic question of what barrel rifle can I build that will do everything? Except your asking it differently.
As usual, the answer to that question is that you cannot have your Cate and Edith too.
Okay, that’s one extreme.
Now, you ask how thin of a profile can you get before losing the benefits of a thick barrel. What do you see as the benefits of a heavy barrel?
As you have already seen, there is no free lunch and most everything has a trade off. It sounds like to me that you are asking the classic question of what barrel rifle can I build that will do everything? Except your asking it differently.
As usual, the answer to that question is that you cannot have your Cate and Edith too.
Build tiny bullet blaster that weighs 20+ pounds then free recoil it off a fence post all day.
Gamer guns.
I don’t blame them for maximizing ease of use for different positions within the rules.
That’s just part of playing the game.
Personally I’m perfectly happy running something some like a medium varmint to heavy Palma with a weight of 13-16 pounds.
You can shoot it all day even with magnums but it not so portly you can’t hike it around a bit.
If I still hunted it it would definitely be below 10 pounds.
Barrel profile is more a weight and balance tool for me.
Im new and even I know the thicker the barrel the less whip. That's why the Mann Barrels we use to test 50mm have like 6" thick walls. and the breach is a freeking hatch many inches thick. Even as thick as these are; we have been known to blow them up periodically. Want to know what is cool as hell. Hand loading a necked cartridge for a 50mm round.
Lets say you take a 10" pipe and make a 223 bore in the middle. It will no longer matter what ammo you fire through it. as long as the twist stabilizes the bullet; it will hit exactly in line with where it is pointed. No barrel whip. Only factor then is wind and drop. Ok coreolis, BC, temp, humidity all effect also but lets not get too technical.
If your barrel is thick enough to not whip; then all bullets are in the node.
Mann Barrels!
Want to know what is cool as hell. Hand loading a necked cartridge for a 50mm round.Lets say you take a 10" pipe and make a 223 bore in the middle. It will no longer matter what ammo you fire through it. as long as the twist stabilizes the bullet; it will hit exactly in line with where it is pointed. No barrel whip. Only factor then is wind and drop. Ok coreolis, BC, temp, humidity all effect also but lets not get too technical.
If your barrel is thick enough to not whip; then all bullets are in the node.
Mann Barrels!
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Here is my take for what it is worth. I am a hunter and not a competitive shooter.
Last 3 guns I built used a Bartlien #3. That keeps the barrel heavy enough to not heat up too quickly and allows me to go to 23-24 inches and still thread for suppressor. I don’t need a longer barrel than that.
Guns were 308, 243 ackley, and 30-338.
All 3 shoot great when I do my part.
Last 3 guns I built used a Bartlien #3. That keeps the barrel heavy enough to not heat up too quickly and allows me to go to 23-24 inches and still thread for suppressor. I don’t need a longer barrel than that.
Guns were 308, 243 ackley, and 30-338.
All 3 shoot great when I do my part.
A good, all around contour for accuracy and repeatability is the rem varmint/sendero contour.
Thick enough to support a suppressor, not overly heavy.
Thick enough to support a suppressor, not overly heavy.
And this is something that I’ve beem wondering about of late. I find it interesting that they haven’t imposed a weight limit like most other rifle sports.
I have a 1.450x34 barrel for my next 375. And I have a mountain rifle contour (sub .5” @16”) for my coyote gun. Doubt the 375 will shoot any more or less precisely than the 6-47.
For a hunting gun and fairly light contour, a Winchester supergrade contour is nice.
For a do all kind of gun, a Remington varmint of light Palma contour is nice.
More rounds without getting too hot and added weight for less recoil. But like I said, if I learn to manage recoil only heat is the issue, which is why i asked
Think you misunderstood the question. If someone asked me how to build a good gamer pc that can run the new games with good framerate and high graphics but without spending a million i would NOT recommend him going for at 4K 120fps setup but rather a 1080 setup +60 fps setup
The same was my aim with the question. I'm not asking for the best of the best but the best weight / thicnkess ratio barrel
I don't believe there is a single, "right" answer to your question.
It's a continuum, and the "best weight/thickness ratio" doesn't exist, at least as far as an research of which I'm aware.
Varmint/Hvy Varmint contours are a good "compromise" barrel heavy enough for target strings but not ridiculously heavy to where it's impractical to tote.
It's a continuum, and the "best weight/thickness ratio" doesn't exist, at least as far as an research of which I'm aware.
Varmint/Hvy Varmint contours are a good "compromise" barrel heavy enough for target strings but not ridiculously heavy to where it's impractical to tote.
This is exactly it. It’s about choosing the right tool for the job. You’ll sacrifice something somewhere for an ideal barrel because no one barrel is great at everything
