jwai86 wrote:It's my understanding that a thicker heavier barrel is less affected by vibrations caused during shooting and accumulates heat more slowly than thinner barrels. The added weight also contributes to overall stability and recoil management.
I got the impression that a varmint rifle is mostly for prone or bench shooting because the additional weight is not ideal for carrying around for extended periods or shooting offhand. Is this as much of a strict trade-off as I think it might be?
jwai86 wrote:It's my understanding that a thicker heavier barrel is less affected by vibrations caused during shooting and accumulates heat more slowly than thinner barrels. The added weight also contributes to overall stability and recoil management.
I got the impression that a varmint rifle is mostly for prone or bench shooting because the additional weight is not ideal for carrying around for extended periods or shooting offhand. Is this as much of a strict trade-off as I think it might be?
bladeracer wrote:If you can slow down your shooting, open the action ASAP after firing, and let air flow through the barrel for a few minutes between shots I doubt you'd benefit from a heavier barrel. Or simply reduce your loads, heat and pressure are what cause problems. When I first got my .204 and was working up loads I did find shots starting to move around, but I don't recall how many rounds it took. Unfortunately I lost the logbook covering my first 460rds in the rifle in a hard drive crash. I would think 15-20rds would be fine, with my warm loads. My reduced loads I can probably shoot all day long with no change in POI.
jwai86 wrote:What I'm looking to confirm is if a heavy barrelled rifle is always going to be less versatile when it comes to shooting from positions other than prone and bench. I wish to avoid limiting my practical options when comes to trying out shooting from a variety of positions.
in2anity wrote:You are right, they do limit you to prone and bench. Don't get a varmint barrel for field positional shooting.
jwai86 wrote:On a similar note, will dropping a rifle into a chassis limit its usage too? Models like the KRG Bravo and MDT XRS have some polymer parts to reduce their weight, but I'm not sure if those are light enough for use beyond prone and bench shooting.
jwai86 wrote:in2anity wrote:You are right, they do limit you to prone and bench. Don't get a varmint barrel for field positional shooting.
On a similar note, will dropping a rifle into a chassis limit its usage too? Models like the KRG Bravo and MDT XRS have some polymer parts to reduce their weight, but I'm not sure if those are light enough for use beyond prone and bench shooting.
in2anity wrote:It all boils down to weight and balance - really depends on the rest of the setup, largely barrel profile.
jwai86 wrote:bladeracer wrote:If you can slow down your shooting, open the action ASAP after firing, and let air flow through the barrel for a few minutes between shots I doubt you'd benefit from a heavier barrel. Or simply reduce your loads, heat and pressure are what cause problems. When I first got my .204 and was working up loads I did find shots starting to move around, but I don't recall how many rounds it took. Unfortunately I lost the logbook covering my first 460rds in the rifle in a hard drive crash. I would think 15-20rds would be fine, with my warm loads. My reduced loads I can probably shoot all day long with no change in POI.
I posted this thread with .22 LR in mind, although I don't doubt that waiting between shots will still help when using that calibre.
What I'm looking to confirm is if a heavy barrelled rifle is always going to be less versatile when it comes to shooting from positions other than prone and bench. I wish to avoid limiting my practical options when comes to trying out shooting from a variety of positions.
bladeracer wrote:Shooting offhand I'd rather have a shorter barrel regardless of its profile, it gets the bullet disconnected from the the shooter sooner.
jwai86 wrote:bladeracer wrote:Shooting offhand I'd rather have a shorter barrel regardless of its profile, it gets the bullet disconnected from the the shooter sooner.
For a while I thought a CZ Scout rifle might be a cool idea, but between the additional cost of fixing the short length of pull and the price of those models recently going up, I think the idea is DOA.
SCJ429 wrote:3P shooters appear to have extremely long barrel however they use a bloop tube which also lengthens their front sights distance from the rear sight.
SCJ429 wrote:For positional shooting and PRS the guys appear to use 24 inch heavy barrels and ammo manufacturers seem to cater for this length of barrel. This weight of barrel also balences up your rifle which otherwise would be tail heavy. Some of the best chassis are made by Anschutz but Fenwerkbau and Walther make some very nice 3P rifles. If you have a look at the price of an Anschutz in a Precise stock, you may need to keep saving for a while. You could build something on a CZ 455 or 457 action and have a pretty capable rifle. For a budget starter rifle, you could try the Tikka T1.
jwai86 wrote:SCJ429 wrote:For positional shooting and PRS the guys appear to use 24 inch heavy barrels and ammo manufacturers seem to cater for this length of barrel. This weight of barrel also balences up your rifle which otherwise would be tail heavy. Some of the best chassis are made by Anschutz but Fenwerkbau and Walther make some very nice 3P rifles. If you have a look at the price of an Anschutz in a Precise stock, you may need to keep saving for a while. You could build something on a CZ 455 or 457 action and have a pretty capable rifle. For a budget starter rifle, you could try the Tikka T1.
I don't know anything about those match disciplines, but I'm not after something highly specialised for competition. Merely a setup for finding out what I like doing without being tied to the ground or bench straight off the bat. From the responses I'm getting, it doesn't look like I need to do much to a factory standard sporter rifle to meet that end.