What type of velocities can I expect from the short carbine barrel? Any favorite loads and chronographed velocities? I'm building this as a my stepson's first deer rifle.

Thanks in advance!

Larry

Hornady Manual suggests approx 200fps less than those for 24"and 29" barrels so the velocities for the 18" barrel with 129gr bullets wil be in the region of 2500 fps and 2400fps for 140 gr bullets. Hope that helps.

Thanks Chris...I was guessing 200 or so fps less, but was curious if anyone had actually chronographed their loads in such a short barrel. Also wondering if anyone had a pet load that was a little different than a favorite load in a 24" or so barrel. (slightly faster powder?)

Guess I'll find out more when I get the rifle finished and start loading...

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Parkin:
Hornady Manual suggests approx 200fps less than those for 24"and 29" barrels so the velocities for the 18" barrel with 129gr bullets wil be in the region of 2500 fps and 2400fps for 140 gr bullets. Hope that helps.

I agree here and this is still a very good thing to do to put venison in the freezer.

I always look in the reloading manual to determine the length that was used to produce the published velocity, then I add about 40fps for each inch I'm longer than the test barrel (rare) and subtract 40fps for each inch my barrel is shorter. It'll give you a fairly good first approximation. Of course there's no substitute for a chronograph. Just one mans opinion. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

With my 94 carbine and it's 17.7" barrel, 120 grainers run app. 2700 fps, 129 grain Hornady SPs app. 2550 and 140 grainers just over 2400 fps.

For a low recoil load that's highly effective on deer to 200+ yards from that short-barreled carbine, try 38 grains Re-15 under the Nosler 120 grain BT or the Speer 120 grain Hot Core. You'll get app. 2475 fps and wonderful terminal performance. This load basically duplicates (actually slightly betters) 6.5 JDJ ballistics, and if you are familiar with Contender rounds, this one is the ne plus ultra for a small bore hunting cartridge and has tons of venison to its credit.

I have got to be the biggest dummy on the planet...I could have sworn I checked all of my manuals (a while back) and they all showed barrel lengths of 23" to 28" in their loading data. (Thus the question) And I usually use 40 fps per inch for a mental point of reference if the load data is for a barrel length difference of 2" or so. But...I was thinking that if the data was for a barrel that was 6 to 12 inches longer, the 40 fps idea might not apply. (Thought it might drop off faster as the barrel got shorter and shorter. But lo and behold!!! Dug my 1964 Speer #6 manual out and it shows a load for the 18" barrel. So does my 1970 Lyman and my 1971 Sierra manual and my 1980 Hornady and my 1988 Hodgdon. Duh!!!

Looks like most of the data shows 2500 fps as a max. for the 140 gr. and around 2700 to 2750 for the 120 gr.

Sooo...thanks to those that replied and I'll be getting 'er going just as soon as I sharpen my tools to inlet that maple stock!