Shortening Barrel

[brpc]

A friend of mine is toying with the idea of cutting a TC Renegade (50cal 1/48 twist barrel) to 16 or 18 inches. Can anyone speculate on velocity loss?

I love the smell of Ballistol in the morning

 

[jim gray]

Just curious, what does he want to do with the shorter barrel?

I would be more concerned about the affect on accuracy than velocity unless he has some way to recrown the barrel. I think with smokeless cartridges m.v. drops about 40'/sec. for every inch of barrel, but don't quote me on that. I read something about it a long time ago.

If I were going to cut a barrel down that much I'd get a smoothbore for this purpose.

 

[Rat]

Depending on what the barrel was to begin with, going all the way down to 16-18" would be a pretty substantial loss. The loss would not be linear either, the shorter it gets, the bigger the loss, per inch. I'm thinking that he would be looking at something like a 300+fps loss, going all the way down to 16"...but just guessing there.

I can tell you that when you cut any single shot firearm down to 16-18", it really becomes too short, and will have an odd, clumsy look and feel. It will become VERY "butt-heavy"...way beyond just being muzzle-light.

Going down to 24" will produce a very short carbine, but it will still have some "proportion" to it...won't be so out of balence, visually. Can't really find the word I want here. I would at least urge him to cut it to 24", mock it up, before deciding to go shorter. Again, that will produce a more balenced, better handling carbine, and it will still produce reasonable velocity. It would be a more useable gun, rather than an oddity.

I have a 24" barreled half-stock carbine that was made from a Zouave...it's a light, handy little short snorter. Neat little carbine, but any shorter than that and they just don't look or feel right.

Rat

 

[Rebel]

The Renegade is only 26" or 27" to begin with. Already to short for my tastes. I like 32"-39" barrels. Bigger is better.

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

The Renegade starts out at 26". Cutting it down that far is going to cost a lot of velocity and shorten the sight radius drastically. As Rebel says ,with black powder, bigger is better. Another thing to think about. Most states have a minimum barrel length requirement for hunting
with black powder. And saving weight at the cost of power and accuracy is a poor trade off.

 

[Rat]

Oh I agree there 100%, Reb and Russ...that 24" I have never gets any use anymore...last two weeks of elk/deer season here I took my 1861 Springfield out every day all day instead of the carbine. Thought about taking the carbine a couple times...but when it came right down to it, grabbed that '61 with the 40" barrel!!

But...there's nothing wrong with having a carbine around, just that 16-18", or even 20" is just too much of a good thing...or too little. Just makes for a clumsy, ill handling, butt heavy, (and butt-ugly) carbine. But 24" works good.

Rat

 

[Rebel]

My carbine is my double barrel .12 ga caplock with 28" barrels. My real gun is a 39" N.W.Tradegun smoothbore .62cal/.20ga flinter.

 

[Rat]

I "tend" towards 30-32" barrels, but sure like the '61 with it's 40" tube. Someday I'd like a small caliber long rifle in the 40" range.

Rat

 

[Zonie]

Although Dixie got their data from a .40 cal barrel, they ran tests to determine what the barrel length has to do with the velocity.
The table (in the back of the Dixie catalog) is for many different powder loads so I'll just pick their 65 grain load as it is fairly hot (for a .40 cal) and is about in the middle of their data.

Barrel length = velocity
40"=1987 fps
34"=1966
28'=1903
26"=1838
24"=1784
22"=1733
20"=1703

Although this table doesn't go down to the barrel length being considered, and I left my calculator which can do calculus at work it is fairly obvious that a lot of velocity will be lost for any given load. :boohoo:

Anyone out there who wants to run the regression to see what the short barrel will do with this data?

 

[Rat]

This is also a good example of why NOT to use Crisco for patch lube.

Crisco is SHORTENING, and for that reason, obviously, will reduce velocity.

Rat

 

[Rebel]

No you gol danged idjit, it don't shorten the velocity, it shortens the time from barrel to target, therby giving a flatter trajectory and better groups. Shiiiiiish, Ain't we learnt ya nuthin' :: ::

 

[Rat]

Do'h!