light barrels are good too?

[unwise11]

why is the rifle world so biased toward light barreled rifles. ive seen people put holes in quarters at 200 yds with light barreled .223's and .308's. i understand in 300wm and other high recoil cartridges need the extra weight but i chose a 22" .308 light barreled howa m1500 over a heavy barreled .223 howa m1500 with a 24" because people say the shooter makes the shot, and the gun only delivers it. and i want a lighter setup for deer hunting and high mobility in a survival situation

 

[mshootnit]

Light barrels are good too. Really a lot depends on how its chambered, and bore uniformity.

 

[unwise11]

thank you for agreeing. i prefer a light gun. easier to walk in the woods with for protection. and easier to deal with in general

 

[HGUNHNTR]

Thinner profile bbls can be as accurate as theri heavier counterparts. The downside is they do heat up more quickly, the upside is they are light and cool more quickly. My shtf ar's are all lightweight contour, no sense in carrying extra steel that isn't doing you any good.

 

[SSN Vet]

I thought the biggest advantage of a HB wasn't necessarilly accuracy, but repeatability, and that it took longer for temp changes, so that you could get more uniform groups.

 

[unwise11]

yes! and omg after a 5 round group my .308's barrel is like a damn stovetop! my dad accidentally touched it and yelped. lol

 

[essayons21]

It is primarily a heat issue. As a barrel heats up, it causes the POI to shift. Better quality barrels show left shift, as they heat uniformly. Free floating also helps this for the same reason.

The easiest way to achieve consistent POI over a long string of shots is to go to a heavier barrel which heats slower.

However, heavy barrels are also more rigid than their thinner counterparts which helps negate some of the effects of barrel harmonics or barrel "whip."

Both heavy and light contour barrels have their uses. My bench gun wears a heavy varmint contour barrel which tapers down to just over 1" at its thinnest point. I can shoot strings of 30 shots or more before I see significant shift in the POI. However, I would never carry that gun around in the woods deer hunting, its too darn heavy (and the ergonomics suck).

My light contour .260 will only shoot a 3-5 shots before the barrel really starts heating up and the POI starts shifting. Doesn't matter though, because for its intending purpose (deer) I only need 1 shot.

 

[unwise11]

my howa m1500 purpose is defence, deer/coyote/boar, and long range shooting. where the time between shots is good enough for it to cool, while i take notes and adjust if i missed.

 

[wanderinwalker]

For a target rifle, a heavy barrel is more consistent as it heats up, as mentioned already. My AR match rifle has a pretty heavy contour, but doesn't shift POI during a match, even when run through multiple rapid fire strings. Actually, I once ran through a 200 yard rapid fire, a 300 yard rapid fire and a 20-round 600 yard slowfire back-to-back-to-back without losing zero. However, it WAS piping hot when done.

For a hunting/field rifle, less weight = more better to me. A lighter barrel will easily throw the first 3-5 rounds together and some will continue to group, some won't.

 

[Art Eatman]

All rifles are compromises. The problem is that many people play the "One size fits all" game--and that just ain't so.

The .477 Rigby double that H&H uses NEEDS to weigh in at around 14 pounds, for management of recoil--so, it has relatively heavy barrels to help provide weight. The Mini-14, if considered as a hunting rifle and not as a bench-rest paper puncher, does fine with the skinny barrel.

Target shooting? Generally, go heavy for better behavior with heating during long strings of fire.

A drawback to some rifles with thin barrels is balance, as well as being a bit wobbly from being muzzle-light if a hunter isn't really steady as he aims--the old huff'n'puff and adrenalin thing...

And so it goes. Purpose and compromises.

 

[unwise11]

my rifle is a .308, and is exactly 9 pounds, and i cant yet speak for the groups.

 

[Art Eatman]

Odds are that the barrel of a nine-pound .308 would likely be "medium". Medium sporter, or some such label...

 

[unwise11]

probly. but it aint no bull.

 

[browningguy]

I don't know of anyone biased against light barrels, for the right job that is. When I want to punch holes in paper I take one of the heavy barreled rifles as they just work better.

And 9 pounds is awfully heavy for a walkaround rifle. I use my Ruger RSI in .308 for that role and it's considerably lighter than 9 pounds with the 4.75x40 scope on it.

 

[kis2]

someone once told me 'there are many upsides to a heavy barrel, and only one downside. grow stronger'

nobody brought up fluting yet huh?

for the record, I agree with the above posts. especially Mr. Eatman's 'every rifle is a compromise'

 

[blackops]

Another option is to get a shorter heavy barrel like a 20 inch.

 

[HOOfan_1]

someone once told me 'there are many upsides to a heavy barrel, and only one downside. grow stronger'

The M24 and M40 both have heavy target barrels....I'm willing to bet their operators lug them around and through tougher terrain than most hunters. But, a 2.5 MOA gun is plenty good enough for hunting up to 300 yards, so there is no need for a match grade barrel.

 

[Shadow 7D]

Yeah, but a military sniper is willing to pay the premium for repeatability, after all, when was the last time a white tail shot back at you???

 

[hardluk1]

For a deer rifle all you need is the ability of a rifle to place a cold barrel shot where needed. A thin barrel can do that along with maybe several following shoots. For say ground hog hunting you will be shooting many rounds and that is when a heavier barrel is needed. For any type of shooting a barrel that can place that first shot on target is the hardest to come up with.

 

[mljdeckard]

I want to be able to have it both ways. I have conditioned myself to not minding heavier rifles. And since I hunt with my dad, whose mobility is limited, I don't usually walk very far. We will usually drop me off at the top of a hill and I'll walk down.

I have a Howa/S&W Model 1500 in .270, and it's great, but my long-term plan is an AR-10 with a lightweight upper in .243, and a heavy long barreled .308. That way I can switch out on the spot if the plan changes. (I not only want to be able to say that AR-pattern rifles are good for hunting, I use nothing BUT ARs for hunting.)

There is also stability and recoil between shots. A heavier rifle is easier to keep on target between shots.

 

[Maverick223]

The bbl is vastly more important than the contour. The contour only helps with heat capacitance (the ability to hold more heat at a lower overall temperature) which allows you to fire for a longer period of time without overheating (and bbl droop) problems. For the average hunting rifle, most any lightweight bbl is sufficient in the accuracy and repeatability dept., for long range hunting applications it is probably best to step up to a medium contour profile bbl by a good maker (I would prefer fluting in this application to better the strength to weight ratio). For target work a bull/heavy contour is best because the added weight is negligible (or often helpful) and the added capacitance is important for longer sessions.

 

[52grain]

Mav, I've never heard anyone use "capacitance" in the context of heat retention. Interesting.

 

[Uncle Mike]

All I want to know is who would heat up a sporter barrel to the point of objectionably degraded accuracy while gunning for whitetail....hehehehe

Ok, ok, I regress, I have seen it done in the southland...off a buggy....95 degrees opening mourning.....hey, hold my beer, I sees me a deer! lol

I guess it 'could' be done, but.....

 

[essayons21]

All I want to know is who would heat up a sporter barrel to the point of objectionably degraded accuracy while gunning for whitetail....hehehehe

Ok, ok, I regress, I have seen it done in the southland...off a buggy....95 degrees opening mourning.....hey, hold my beer, I sees me a deer! lol

I guess it 'could' be done, but.....

Ask and the internet will deliver

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk0HYn2u7c0

 

[Uncle Mike]

Ask and the internet will deliver

Hehehehe..... now that's funny!