I have been thinking about my next project and have already asked some questions about the .416 Taylor. I would like to know what ballsitics one would get from a 20" barrelled, or how short can the taylor be made before you sacrifice to much speed in the .416 Taylor. I mean I would go 18" if at all feasible. It would seem that the .416 Taylor is efficient enough to cope with a short barrel and thats why I thought it might be practical for this project.

I am wanting to build a big bore that is compact and light and will be used for hunting from my trail bike on pig hunting trips. The short barrel would simply be as when your riding along through scrub chasing stuff there is less chance of bush catching on the barrel.

I see many Taylor owners have long barrels RIP has a 26" etc.

If I go ahead with this one it will be on a Ruger MK11 .338 I am opting for a blued action at this stage as there said to be slicker than the stainless Rugers. I will go for a stainless barrel and I will have the whole rifle done in matte black and I will add some sort of irons as back up maybe just a set of rem irons and a 1-4x20 leupold. I will probably just use the Ruger Tuppaware stock if a blued action can be had with this, if not I will try and obtain a Bell & Carlson stock.

If anyone can suggest a bigbore better suited to short barrel fire away ??

Don't you already have a short barreled big bore?
Something similar to a Marlin 1895 45-70?

You can never have enough guns though!!

I wouldn't mind having a short barreled .375 H&H or 400 H&H.

David

That 425 Express in Nickudu's recent thread looks good.

David

18" or 20" will work but if you are a good handloader you may want to try a faster than ordinary powder. You can still get relative velocity and it wont be quite as loud. If you want really good irons look at Brockman's ghost peep sets or similar. He can also set it up for a Scout Scope. Part two of your question: This will work with the 458 Win Mag too. If you want somrthing exotic, try the 458 x 2 inch wildcat. it's slower but still a hammer.

[ 10-26-2003, 01:41: Message edited by: tigertate ]

If you are not hunting Dangerous Game where you need a bolt action you might try this on some sort of single shot. I don't know if Encores are available in Oz, but if they are that would be perfect. I have a .350 Rem Mag with 20" barrel that measures 34 1/2" roughly. Talk about a light handy rifle. I have often wondered if I could enjoy a .40 caliber of similar design. There may be only one way to find out .

If the Encore is not available to you then I can't see why you couldn't do a 20" .416. My advice would be to start with the longest barrel length I wanted to try and then work down from there as you wanted to. You know maybe start at 22" and see how the rifle feels. It is a lot less expensive to take the rifle back to be shortened than it is to have a longer barrel installed. Sean

David,

I have a lever Marlin 45/70 but I am thinking of something a little more flat shooting than the 45/70 but with heaps of power.

Also I do not have a short Bolt actio rifle yet all are full elngth cz 550's etc.

I feel the .416 Taylor may be an efficient enough round to cope with a short barrel.

I like the suggestion of adding ghost rings as well thanks for that tigertate.

My reason for going for a .416 cal over the .458 is that it will probably shoot a little flatter than a .458 calibre rifle. But a .458 win mag also seems feasible, brass is plentiful and it can utilise faster powders than my .458 lott so it would be more suited to a short tube, I suppose with say a 400 gr woodleigh protected point it would be reasonably flat shooting as well and not a wild cat to boot

Also recoil will still be managable.

18" may be to short but I reckon you could gain decent velocity with 20" or 21"

[ 10-26-2003, 03:30: Message edited by: PC ]

My Dumoulin is in 338 WinMag with a 20.5" barrel and full length stock, although I have a Ruger RSI in 308 with a shorter barrel I probably wouldn't go any shorter than 20". Even the 338 has a little muzzle blast at that length.

Browing Guy what velocity do you reckon your running with that length barrel in a .338 ??

I have a short, light 416 Taylor and it shoots well and is comfortable. For a dedicated dangerous game rifle, I believe the 425 Express is tops in this type of gun, since it has marginally more performance and will still work through a standard action. For a gun such as you want, or a combination DG/elk/bear rifle, I prefer the Taylor, since there seems to be a lot bette selection of longer range bullets, such as the MagTips(good and cheap) and X-Bullets in a couple of weights. The 425 seems to be like the 425 Westley Richards I am building. You can use any of the bullets available as long as it's 410 grains.

With the factory Remington 250 gr. loads I think I'm getting around 2430 fps. I say "think" because I don't own a chronograph yet and when we shot it across a friends last summer it seemed like it was dropping about 1/2 the shots so I'm not sure how accurate it was.The factory loads are supposed to be around 2660 so maybe this is reasonably accurate. I'm pushing Santa Clause for a chrony for Christmas so I'll be able to check it better then.

ART,

what barrel length do you have on your Taylor and would you think 20" would be to short ??

I wonder with a 20" barrel would you still get say 2600 fps with a 340 gr woodleigh protected point ??

ART I think the woodleigh 340 gr protected points in Oz are the same price as 350 gr speer magtips.

[ 10-26-2003, 10:20: Message edited by: PC ]

PC,
An S.O shorty bullpup converted to the 416(rem or taylor)would be a good choice but I don't think they will be made again.
Maybe ask hermann if any second hand ones are appearing yet?

Karl.

[ 10-27-2003, 07:06: Message edited by: Karl ]

PC,
Realisticly you need at least 20 inches to still have a simbulance of a 416 Taylor...With less you will be losing that needed muzzle velocity unless your happy with 2100 FPS, which still works IMO, but having read a number of your post I wonder if you could live with that for very long.....

Ray,

I am a Glutton for punishment mate and I doubt 2100 fps will do it for me But I reckon with 20" or 21" I reckon you would get 2300 fps with a 400 grainer and thats a lot more gun than a Marlin 45/70. I would probbaly stick with 340 gr woodleigh protected points in this rifle.

Karl,

your spot on a shorty in .416 Rem would be the item of choice without a doubt !!

There bloody dear those shorties however.