I am looking at a used CVA Scout single shot rifle in 243 win and it has a 20" barrle. Was wondering if any one had any experice with a shorter barrle 243 WIN... what type of bullts have you used and what types of powder... what is the efective range to be looking at.

Like how light and manuvarble the gun is .. it has open sights but with the comb being is high as it is I cant look thru the sights I am looking over the top. Was thinking of putting a redfield 2-7 on it or a Leupold FX-II 2.5X20mm with the German #1..

Ive got a single shot 243 with a 16 inch barrel, 1.5-4.5 powered scope on top. Real handy rifle. Mine prefers 85 gr bullets, but I have a couple more 90-100 gr to try once the snow melts.

I had a 18" Remington 788. Had a pretty heavy medium barrel on it. It was a nice handy carbine but a touch heavy. When I first Chronyed it I was only getting 2680fps w/Sierra SPBT 100 grainers & IMR-4350. Not exactly a Barn Burner.

Ended up using 85 gr. Speer SPBT's & IMR-4320; still only clocked a few fps over 2800.

Years ago SPEER tested factory 100 grain 6MM Remington ammo in long and short barrels. The results will be reasonably close to those with a .243. Here is what they came up with:

Barrel..Velocity
26"......3174 fps
22"......3012
20"......2955

No hunter or game animal will notice the difference between a 22" standard barrel and a shorter 20" barrel - unless all they hunt are chronographs.


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quote:

Originally posted by TX Nimrod:
Years ago SPEER tested factory 100 grain 6MM Remington ammo in long and short barrels. The results will be reasonably close to those with a .243. Here is what they came up with:

Barrel..Velocity
26"......3174 fps
22"......3012
20"......2955

No hunter or game animal will notice the difference between a 22" standard barrel and a shorter 20" barrel - unless all they hunt are chronographs.


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If you track those numbers you will notice that the barrel lengths over 22" were averaging 40.5 fps per inch but once cut under 22" averaged 28.5"

I have a Ruger M77 RSI with an 18.5inch barrel. With IMR 4350 and a 100gr. Sierra GK, it'll do about 2700 f.p.s.. By using Imr 4064 and same bullet, it's doing 2800 fps. Both above loads were with max charge of powder.

Biggest problem is the noise. Very loud.

Accuracy with the 4064 load runs a inch and less.

Mine handles and points great.

Joe A.

quote:

If you track those numbers you will notice that the barrel lengths over 22" were averaging 40.5 fps per inch but once cut under 22" averaged 28.5"

Yep, they sure do.



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I had a Ruger .243 with a 20" barrel and it shot very well -- good, tight groups. I didn't have a chronograph, so I don't know what the velocities were doing with it, but I'm sure they were down compared to same ammo shot in longer barrels.

I cut a Remington 700 .243 back to 20.5" many years ago to make it less muzzle heavy for my wife (that was before I realized that attempting to make a wife who doesn't want to hunt into a hunting partner is an enormously counterproductive endeavor). However, I still have the .243 (and, surprisingly, the wife!) and it has made a great "kid" gun.

Chronographed velocities don't fall off all that much from the more common 22" barrel. I do tend to use slighly faster powders with the shorter barrel -- not because they produce superior velocity to the slower powders, which they do not, but because they do result in slighly less muzzle blast.

A twenty-inch .243 does just fine as a deer rifle. With appropriate handloads that run closer to the cartridge's potential, your ammunition from a shorter barrel is going to be faster than the woefully underloaded factory ammunition from a longer barrel, anyway.

quote:

A twenty-inch .243 does just fine as a deer rifle

The same thing can be said for the 18 1/2" barrel on my M-600!

The only thing you will really notice is muzzle blast!

quote:

Originally posted by Moorepower:
The only thing you will really notice is muzzle blast!

and with all due respect folks....I don't even notice that much either.....they are all loud!

I would try Hodgdon/Hornady new Superperformance Powder. I bought a 8 lb. jug and I plan to use it in Win.243 and 300 WSM when the weather gets better. I haven't got to get numbers on it, but I have loaded some cartridges to try.

So it's conclusive, you don't need a barrel longer then 20 inches in a 243. Is that what I'm hearing?

quote:

Originally posted by SmokinJ:
So it's conclusive, you don't need a barrel longer then 20 inches in a 243. Is that what I'm hearing?

I can't speak for the others.....IMO my .243 Rem M-600 with an 18 1/2" barrel has been killing deer since I bought it....

I've mostly loaned it to "kids" locally and they always get their deer. One needs to remember.....this is a walking gun and not a posting gun.....and also....it really don't take much to kill deer.

I load a Rem ultrabond 100 grain in it....it just works here!

quote:

Originally posted by SmokinJ:
So it's conclusive, you don't need a barrel longer then 20 inches in a 243. Is that what I'm hearing?

Yeah, but with only a 20" barrel, you won't be HEARING it for long.

Seriously, a 20-incher, or even a 16-incher will do for shooting one shot at a time at deer. If your purpose is as a varminter or target gun, then the answer would be very different. I have a .243 heavy barrel varminter with a 23" barrel, and I wish it were 26 inches.

quote:

Seriously, a 20-incher, or even a 16-incher will do for shooting one shot at a time at deer. If your purpose is as a varminter or target gun, then the answer would be very different. I have a .243 heavy barrel varminter with a 23" barrel, and I wish it were 26 inches.

Some are more elequent than I am .....

Sat in a seat w/a German Forester and he signaled over his left shoulder (I was sitting on his right side; I'm a Lefty) as a Fox trotted by .... I pulled the rifle left and pushed it out as far as I could over his chest. Cut one loose. Dead Fox.

The entire afternoon he was guiding me thru the Forest as I followed him. He kept tugging on his left ear. That 400 Hz tone musta been really uncomfortable for @ a week.

I guess I could have used a lot more barrel length in a .243 Win, but it's "shortness" did the job anyway.

Unless you're shooting from hilltop to hill top the 20" barrel is fine.
I assume this is a deer rifle.