I am rebrling my Brno 602 to .416 Rem. and want to make the brl. as short as possible , this rifle is for Polar bears inside 50 yrds . how short can I go before I loose to much power as to make it not worth it. ( I already have the brl. it is 24 inchs long )
Take Care
gp

The bigger bores don't lose as much velocity per inch of barrel lost; you could go to a 21" or 22" barrel, and still have plenty of punch for any polar bears you might enounter.

Why not see if the 24" barrels works for you first. If it doesn't, you could cut it back an inch at a time until you reach the balance of controllability and handling you are looking for. Then crown the barrel.

George

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Shoot straight, shoot often, but by all means, use enough gun!

The big bores don't kill by velocity so any length will work just fine...

I personally like all my rifles to have a 26" barrel as they just "hang" better offhand.

I have never had any trouble with brush hanging up on a long barrel, that brush can be anywhere between 2" to 26" from your barrel, face or ???. so that carbine argument never carried much weight with me, the early pioneers, or old ivory hunters who like the long tubes.....

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Unless there's some specific reason for reducing the barrel length,I'd leave it the way it is.

If you reload you can drop back to 22 or even 20 inches and still have plenty of power by using faster rifle powders. If you shoot factory loads, they seem to use slower powder - you will lose a little more velocity - but more importantly, you will suffer more muzzle blast and flash. This can be blinding in twilight or darkness, ruining your vision and impairing your performance on follow-up shots.

Don

Don G.....your statement simply isn't true.

If you start with a 26" barrel in a .416 Rem Mag and test it with 10 different powders to find out which one gives the highest velocity and then cut the barrel off 2" inches at a time and re-chronograph each time down to, let's say 20", the exact same powder that gave the highest velocity at the longer length will continue to give the highest velocity at the shorter length.

The relative differential between powders may change as the barrel is shortened, but the powder that provides the highest velocity will not change!

Muzzle flash is another matter but the question was about power.

When considering barrel length in the bigger calibers, two things are critical 1. Weight and 2. Balance.

A light, short barreled big bore is not a whole lot of fun to shoot. Accordingly, most folks simply don�t shoot them well. There was a myth that developed many years ago that an African DGR had to have a shorter pull stock and a short barrel. The shorten stock was believed to shoulder quicker and the shorter barrel was believed to be easier to navigate through the bush.

Both ideas have proven to be quite wrong. You want weight and balance. Most folks, who understand the concept, want a barrel length no shorter than 24" and many like Ray want a 26" barrel. In a .416, I would suggest total unloaded weight to be in the 9 - 10 lbs range. You can carry it all day and it absorbs many times its weight in recoil.

Suggestion - Shoot the gun a bunch before you decide to do anything. Then, if you still want to cut the barrel, go out and shoot the gun some more. Do this repeatedly until you decide that you don�t need to cut the barrel.

(I have a similar suggestion for NOT using a muzzle break that is equally effective.)

Ground Pounder,
As I know you know this, when it is really cold the muzzle blast is more intense in the cold, very dense air, if for no other reason than that I would keep it at 24 inches so the muzzle would be as far as possible from my face.

This is even with malaqi-aaq on your head.

There's a .416 RemMag with 19" barrel and fiberglass stock for sale on GunsAmerica. Weight 7 1/2 Lbs....I bet it's just tons of fun to shoot. Sounds like one of those rifles that is sold with a box of 19 + 1 empty. Bet is's fun to carry though.

I wouldn't go shorter than 24 inches. Anything shorter than that just increases muzzle blast and rise period. If it was my rifle I would go 26" - 27".

Todd E

Bill T et al,

My answer had to do with what was shootable out of a short barrel, possibly in low light and possibly needing a quick follow up shot.

Use a fast burning powder to reduce muzzle blast and flash. Sure you lose another 100 fps over a slow powder, but you are not blinded for two minutes after the first shot in twilight.

If you wanted max power you'd never cut the barrel in the first place.

Don

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