Barrel length in a .22

First topic message reminder :

I noticed that Clark sells the optics dedicated barrel for the M41 in 5.5 and 6.5 length. With sight radius not being a factor what is the advantage to a longer barrel?

285wannab wrote:I find these posts very interesting.  The reason being is I have a new Xesse with a 6-inch barrel.  I seem to being flipping shots farther out of my normal wobble.  And I was thinking it has to do with the length of the barrel.
I was thinking of having the barrel cut down.

That pistol is really light, I think shortening the barrel would be more detrimental than flipping the shots. In my opinion at 25 yds it’s not the barrel length for errant shots, it’s user error. At 50 yds a longer barrel is one scoring worse for a flipped shot. If greater than that you need to work on your shooting process. Most shooters hold too long. Read that over and over again. Errant shots on the long line are typically forced shots. Pull trigger like a man (sorry Wobbley) with confidence!
Jon

Thanks, Jon, for the quick reply.  This is a new gun, so it probably is user error. I only shoot indoors at 50 ft. One shot will end up in the 4 ring.  Pretty extreme for me. Maybe more to do with grip/wrist than barrel length.  I think my flipping would be off paper at 50 yds. lol

Also, will work on getting the shot off faster.

Jon Eulette wrote:In my opinion at 25 yds it’s not the barrel length for errant shots, it’s user error. At 50 yds a longer barrel is one scoring worse for a flipped shot. If greater than that you need to work on your shooting process. Most shooters hold too long. Read that over and over again. Errant shots on the long line are typically forced shots. Pull trigger like a man (sorry Wobbley) with confidence!
Jon

I’m not completely sure what a flipped shot is, but this observation and advice are really helpful.

From my "bad idea" file; I have wondered how a longer barreled pistol would shoot if it was back-bored to leave only a regular, or shorter, length of rifling. Imagine a 6" 1911 with only 2" of barrel and 4 of bloop tube.

Merick wrote:From my "bad idea" file; I have wondered how a longer barreled pistol would shoot if it was back-bored to leave only a regular, or shorter, length of rifling. Imagine a 6" 1911 with only 2" of barrel and 4 of bloop tube.  

.22 needs minimum of 4” of barrel length to still group at 50 yds. I have a HS with 4” bull barrel I shoot on occasion.
Bloop tubes work fine if you need the added sight radius.
Jon

As per Jon, the Xesse is light--particularly if you're shooting irons. A muzzle weight helped mine feel much more stabilized. Oberle Enterprises has 100 and 160 gram weights in stock. Unfortunately, the price is $90.00! Maybe someone on the Forum has one.

The gun came with a 100-gram weight. And I do shoot with a dot.  Still thinking about cutting it down to 5 inches. Or 5.5 not sure yet.  This gun will be for a 50 ft. indoor league.

Jon is right, some time ago I was doing work on a friends Hi Standard Trophy. I ordered a Douglas barrel because the owner requested it. At the time I was making S&W 41 barrels for Floyd Aikman that had Mcgowen barrels made to Hammerli specs. Wanting to test my work and get all done while waiting for Douglas barrel to arrive I had a few drop-offs from the Mcgown blanks I cut to size. If I recall it was 4-1/8" (not sure if that was before or after finishing the length) Made the scope mount with screw holes same as I would on the Douglas when it came. I was surprised to see how good it shot! Could easily cover a 10 shot group at 50 yards with a quarter! When I made the 5" barrel it shot the same! I mentioned it to the owner and he bought the short barrel too and every time he came to the range he used the short barrel! He claimed he actually shot better with the short barrel! Was going to do short barrel tests since I had quite a few drop-offs but too many ideas and too little time!

Merick wrote:From my "bad idea" file; I have wondered how a longer barreled pistol would shoot if it was back-bored to leave only a regular, or shorter, length of rifling. Imagine a 6" 1911 with only 2" of barrel and 4 of bloop tube.  

I like this idea of back boring to leave a 4 inch rifled barrel but the weighted feel of the longer barrel. It would give me the feel that I prefer and the forgiveness of the shorter barrel that Jon espouses. Jon, how hard would it be to do this vs just cutting a barrel short?

Not unusual to see this back boring on old military rifles which have been shot a lot.. bore back until you fine good rifling and continue shooting. A well protected crown

orpheoet wrote:I noticed that Clark sells the optics dedicated barrel for the M41 in 5.5 and 6.5 length. With sight radius not being a factor what is the advantage to a longer barrel?

The advantage is that if you don't like the longer barrel, you can cut off an inch! 

I wonder (especially for us older shooters) how much weight comes into play.  An extra few ounces 9-10" from your wrist could be a factor.

orpheoet wrote:Well, I ordered the 6.5" because I do like the way the 7" balances. I probably should have asked what everyone thinks of the Clark barrels in general.....

Well I have both a 5 1/2" and 6 1/2" STC barrels. They are very accurate and missing the rear top strap it is very, very rare that a spent case gets caught in the action. When mounting a red dot, such as the Ultra Dot, if you have the rear glass with rubber overhanging the breach face there is the possibility of a case getting trap. It has happened to me maybe 4 or 5 times over 3 or 4 cases off ammo. Rare but it can happen. Other than that, alibies are associated just with whether or not the round fired properly.

This is probably getting off of the original topic, but your post above got me thinking.  I have both  5-1/2" and  7" factory barrels for my model 41.  I am still working through reliability issues, but I have significantly more problems with the shorter barrel.  I measured the barrels today,  the 7" barrel is 0.70" wide and the 5-1/2" barrel is 0.83" wide.  The top barrel extensions are similar widths.  I think this at least partially explains why I would experience stovepipes more frequently with the shorter barrel.  It is 19% wider, having more surface area to trap spent casings.

hg401 wrote:I wonder (especially for us older shooters) how much weight comes into play.  An extra few ounces 9-10" from your wrist could be a factor.

I have a Ruger Mk II SS 22/45 that I had the barrel cut down to 4 1/2.  It seems to be my go-to gun and just feels right.  I am trying the Hammerli to see if the Ruger gets replaced.  History says it probably won't be.