16" too short for 308 semi auto?

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I hunt with a Remington 7600P in .308. The barrel is 16.5 inches long. My usual load is a 170 cast bullet at 2,000 fps. It will kill anything that gets in it's way up to 200 yards, including a 506 lb feral pig that I killed two years ago.

If I were designing the gun from scratch, I would probable put an 18 inch barrel on it. But this is not a gun I shoot indoors or keep for defensive purposes.

The guns that I use for weekly range fun have 22-24 inch barrels.
 
hq said:
In that case, how about fully suppressed, ie. integrated barrel/suppressor combo? Shooting a relatively short-barreled rifle caliber gun without a suppressor isn't necessarily the best idea so there isn't much to lose by a commitment like that.
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Except time, 6-12 mo, and money for a custom rifle. I already have a few .30 cal cans so all I need to do to pick up a 16" .308 is diddy bop down to the gun store and grab one. I like the internally supressed idea, but as this point it'd probably be easier, quicker and cheaper to e-file an F1 to chop an existing rifle to 12" or so, coming out with basically the same thing in the end.
 
Gtscotty said:
Except time, 6-12 mo, and money for a custom rifle.
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Life is full of choices. A custom suppressor at $150-ish shouldn't be the end of the world and much, MUCH more effective than anything you can buy off the shelf. I've never had a custom suppressor job take more than 1½-2 weeks, so YMMV.
 
hq said:
Life is full of choices. A custom suppressor at $150-ish shouldn't be the end of the world and much, MUCH more effective than anything you can buy off the shelf. I've never had a custom suppressor job take more than 1½-2 weeks, so YMMV.
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Things are a bit different in the US when it comes to suppressors. No one is getting NFA anything in 2 weeks here unless they are a dealer or e-filing form 1s. $150 also isn't going to buy much of anything suppressor related here, and a custom integral .308 is going to start well over 10 times that amount.
 
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737FF441-5139-455B-B052-A3111C66E1A5.jpeg 0AEC0AE6-C822-4A7F-9A05-D1E3A4549714.jpeg My Larue OBR has a 16” barrel and shoots some tight groups. Actually the folks at Larue suggested that I get the 16” over the 18 and 20”. They were getting performance just as good with the shooter barreled guns.

I have a Surefire brake this rifle. It’s loud but not annoyingly so. I have shot it out passed 500 and I was laughing how easy that was. Todd Hodnett, owner of Accurcy 1st, uses these in his long range schools. These rifles are stretched out to close to a mile. The short barreled 308 has guns do have merit. The scope is a Leupold LR/T 6.5 x 20.
 
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Gtscotty said:
$150 also isn't going to buy much of anything suppressor related here
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I've been wondering why, really. Building an integrated suppressor from modular baffles, tubing and caps isn't rocket surgery so red tape and associated expenses aside, it shouldn't cost much at all. Not even if built to last, some of mine have held up nicely for up to 30+ years and 10-15k rounds with basic maintenance.
 
Buy a suppressor and ignore all the comments about flash and noise. My SCAR-17 is a fine rifle and I take it out to 600 yards pretty regularly, which is all I really ask of it. I’ve got other rifles if I want to reach out any further.
 
16" will cost you a little velocity, but still plenty of terminal effectiveness for most purposes which a .308 is suited. Going from 20" to 16" only costs you about 100 FPS. Start getting under 12" and the drop in performance is much sharper; the drop in velocity from 13" to 10" is as much as the drop from 20" to 14". Conversely, anything over 22" is getting into diminishing returns, especially if you don't handload with slower powders.

.308 optimal length is 20". Going up or down by 4" will change velocity by roughly 30 FPS per inch. 24"-28" you start seeing only 15-20 FPS per inch, 16" down to 12", the loss is more in the 40-50 FPS per inch range. IMO, max practical is 24" and minimum useful is 12"

greyling22 said:
Other than being stupid painfully loud, it will be fine.
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There's a solution for that!

IMG_2974.JPG

The FAL is still pretty loud, lots of piston pop, but way better than unsuppressed.
 
Here's a 16" I have shot steel IPSC targets with out to 800 (with a higher power scope than the one in the pic) and 8" plates to 600. Haven't tried further due to the limitations of where I shoot. 16" Larue OBR's have won more than a few SOCOM sniper matches at Ft Bragg, and elsewhere, AR10 done.JPG and even shorter AR10 variants, as well as other 308 rifles like the MK17 SCAR are in use by certain military units. Short answer: NO.
 
I've always felt comfortable with 18's or 20's, but going with a 16 inch to make room for a can so that it's not soooo Loooong makes sense. Within a couple hundred yards (which is what the majority of game are taken at) I doubt that the recipient would feel the slight difference.

If you get way further out any expanding or mushrooming bullets might not cooperate. You'd have to check details from the manufacturer and reviews from end users.
 
what are some of the best muzzle devices (other than suppressors) to put on a 16" tube? I would think flash suppression, compensation, and accuracy would be the top 3 concerns.
 
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