Barrel length vs accuracy

[LDP]

"Alan"Not necessarily. There are about 10 different factors which affect accuracy and barrel length is one of them. A good example is a stub nosed revolver. Obviously, they're not as accurate a say one with an 8 inch barrel. There is an upper limit too, but that is controlled by several of the other (unnamed) factors. The W.A.R. Warp has a rather short barrel (≈12 inches as I recall), and it is superbly accurate.

The barrel length on the snub nose revolver isnt the culprit for reduced accuracy compared to the longer barrel. The shorter sight radius of the shorter barrel is the cause.

sight radius has nothing to do with physics. the short barrel of the revolver makes it prone to muzzle rise from recoil. longer barrel revolver will be more accurate than a snub nose revolver because of the heavier longer barrel negating muzzle rise and recoil. I'm not an expert in rifle physics, its common knowledge from shooting different firearms.

You are wrong. Muzzle rise has no effect in a firearm on accuracy. The bullet is gone long before a firearm moves from recoil. Everything being equal like barrel quality the shorter barrel will be just as accurate and can be argued that it will be more accurate due to being more stiff. I work in the firearms industry for an ammo manufacturer. I run the loading department and part of my duties include accuracy testing and pressure testing. We have a railgun setup for accuracy testing our pistol loads and several switch barrel rifles for our rifle loads so I have experience with testing accuracy and pressures. Barrel quality, twist rate and number of lands and grooves are the determining factor of accuracy and barrel length and to some degree the bore size and rifling effect velocity. Remove the human factor and you will quickly notice barrel length is not the culprit. People shoot short barreled pistols with less accuracy due to a shorter sight radius and higher recoil. The higher recoil and muzzle jump has a psychological effect on the shooter inducing flinch and the shorter sight radius causes more sight alignment issues. So a shorter barrel pistol generally shoots less accurate but its not the pistols fault. Its the shooter not properly aligning his sights and flinching from the higher recoil and blast.

 

[Bob Buck]

Longer barrel means more velocity.....not more accuracy. However, with velocity comes increased accuracy at longer ranges. This is a general rule of thumb. If the barrel is too long it can actually slow the projectile down.....but this is rare and shouldnt concern you. It really comes down to velocity. A short barrel shooting the same velocity as a longer barrel does have a disadvantage still......the escaping gas behind the pellet is at a much higher pressure and therefore there is more turbulance on the skirt of the pellet as it leaves the crown.
My advice......if shooting long range stick with a proven long range platform. If shooting shorter ranges you will probably never tell the difference.

I'm trying to choose between two models of a .177 pellet historical replica revolver, a four inch and six inch. The four inch showed some slighty higher muzzel velosity than the six inch in one review, but the same reviewer found the six inch more accurate. Otherwise the guns are identical.

 

[Trucker3573]

I tend to think that the opposite is true more often than not. The only thing for sure a longer barrel gives you is more power. The longer barrel will enhance the shooters mistakes. With airgun super low velocities the projectile is in there longer already. Even longer with more added barrel length thus exacerbating any shooter error even more.

 

[Nomadic Pirate 66]

its very interesting what Ed has to say about it

I was gonna mention that same video,.....I found that longer barrelled guns are harder to shoot accurately,
I really, really need to do everything right
for me the 15" to 20" is the sweet spot for barrel lenght.