Longer barrel compared to short barrel

[newgunner]

Hi guys and gals,

just want your thoughts on the long barrel to the short barrel problem i am having

I am tossing up between a Remington 700 SPS Varmint and a Remington 700 SPS Tactical.

One has a 26 inch barrel the other a 20 inch barrel
The longer barrel has a 1:12 twist
The shorter barrel has a 1:9 twist

Which is better for a beginners rifle, which tends to be more accurate

I understand each person is different, hand size etc.

I have heard pros and cons to each.

Thanks

[headspace]

By those twist rates I assume you calibre will be 223. In that case you are more constrained by the bullet you want to use rather than barrel length.

However if it's for mainly target or varmint shooting I'd go for the longer barrel. The 1 in 12 is better suited to shorter bullets to around 55gn with 60 a possibility.

The 1in 9 better suited to longer bullets and able to handle bullets heavier than 60gn. Generally speaking though the longer barrel allows a more complete powder burn and therefore higher velocity.

JD

[Chronos]

as headspace said above

with the .223 cartridge twist comparison it's really important you know what you plan on doing with the gun. hunting, target shooting, handloads or factory ammo?

with a slow twist (1:12 twist) you can shoot light bullets (40-60gr) bullets. it just so happens this is what most factory .223 ammo is loaded with and most of them soft point, ballistic tip and hollow point hunting bullets

fast twist (1:9, 1:8 even 1:7 twist) you can run heavier bullets (60-90gr). It's unlikely you'll be able to buy factory ammo in this weight range though i've bought winchester super X NRA ammo loaded with 69gr HPBT bullets, perfectly suited to a 1:9 twist barrel

The short barrel (in this case 1:12 twist) will shoot a little slower than a long barrel because there's less time for the powder to push the bullet up to higher speeds than the long barrel. this could probably less important for a hunting .223 but more important for a long range target .223 shooting heavy bullets.

perhaps remington got it wrong here. i'f i was buying a hunting .223 i'd buy a 1:12 twist with a short barrel and if it was for target i'd prefer a 1:8 or 1:9 twist with a long barrel......but i'm a tikka fan LOL

Chronos

[Fozzy]

This is very good reading if .223

http://www.6mmbr.com/223Rem.html

[Baldrick314]

I prefer longer barrels in most of my rifles. That being said though I mainly shoot at the range and do very little hunting and the hunting I do is mostly spotlighting from a Ute so I don't have to worry about carrying the extra weight.

I have a Remington Varmint SF in 308 which is very similar to the long barrel rifle you're looking at and I couldn't be happier with it. Consistently shoots half MOA.

I'm looking at a 223 for my next rifle and I'm leaning towards the remington 700P. It has the 26" barrel with a 1:9 twist and also has a HS precision stock that I like better than the factory remington stocks.

Last time I quoted one of these rifles (December last year) it was about $1300 which is the same I paid for my Varmint so it's pretty cheap all things considered

[Lorgar]

Some feedback direct from Remington here.

I was at the Melbourne Shot Show last year talking to the Remington rep at their stand, asking what their most accurate rifle was.

According to him the .20" SPS Tactical is their most accurate rifle.

He also told me they do all their testing at 100m and when they talk about the accuracy of their various rifles this is what their comments are based on.