Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles What caliber does best with short barrel?

I have 35+ years of chrono data in my notebook, and the cartridge that seems the least affected by barrel length is the 7mm-08.

Back in the 80's in two different articles in different gun rags the authors sawed off 7mm-08 bbls in one and two inch increments. I believe they chose the 7mm-08 randomly, rather than by design, but both rifles showed surprisingly small loss of velocity as the bbl was cut shorter.

^^^This^^^

Personally I've got two truck guns for just that purpose. One is a heavy barreled AR 15 with a 20" barrel. I use a 62 gr Barnes TSX in it

My second is a short barreled 308 in the RUGER Gunsight Scout. I'm cheap, so I use 150 Rem Corelocts since the shoot 1/2" MOA in my rifle.

I'd think the Howa mini 6.5 Grendel would be a good fit for you.

I always wanted to build a 6br at 18" with a DBM but went .223AI at 21" instead as it just kinda fell in my lap.

Thanks for posting those links Dollar, interesting info. Haven't seen anybody do that in a while.

I'm rather petrified that you and I were thinking the exact same thing.

Any cartridge is a hog cartridge.

Thinking the operative phrase is "expansion ratio".

RD, I'm puzzled why you need a short barreled truck gun. Never had any problem handling a full size gun in or around trucks myself, but I don't drive dwarf sized pickups either. On the other hand, if a compact rifle is what you need give some thought to a single shot such as a Ruger#1 or TC Encore.

A Ruger American with a 16" barrel in 300 Blackout will do most anything reasonable. 110 grain GMX at 2395 fps and 125 grain Nosler BT at 2250 and one hole accuracy at 100 yards. Groups better than you would think at 300 yards, too.

Sorry Dan, but it is Bore Capacity. I have Denton's equation to figure it.

Bore Capacity = Bore Squared / 1000. ***edit << -- Bore Dia.*** Squared/1000

The problem w/JR40s comparison is the 06 & 308 use the SAME bore dia.

Smaller bores have LESS capacity than larger bores. ( duh really)
If you run comparisons 308 - 708 - 243, using the same CASE size you'll find the 'smaller' bores
Lose MORE vel (speed) in SHORT blls.


Casey (alpinecrick) verified what I suspected per the 708. That's one cartridge I've never had but I've experienced the diff in bore capacity using
358/308/243 enuff to have predicted the 708 would do well.

To All: I have no horse in this race.

Jerry

That's a common theme the 6.8 fans like to repeat, but it's not really true. The 6.5 Grendel does just as well with shorter barrels as the 6.8 SPC. If we're going short, I will (and do) take a 12.5" 6.5 Grendel over a 12.5" 6.8.

I have a RU77 Tang with 17 inch barrel in .30-06. Gets 1.25 or so groups at 100. I have killed with it to 356 long paces on fairly open ground. My hunting partner refers to it as my "long-range rifle".

I'll push it to 400, assuming I have a ranged yardage.(I didn't on the the 356 - that was an eyeball estimate @ 300 - the bullet clipped the sternum and opened up the heart - lucky shot - I now have a Leupold 800i rangefinder).

You don't need a small caliber for such range, necessarily. But I'll push my .MOA .260 to 400 on animals up to 250 pounds or so. I'll only push myself on anything to 500 with my '98 with heavy bbl (.30-06) t, tho it gets inch groups at 300 if I can hold it steady enough. It is a 1,000 yard gun probably, but I'm only good to 500...

I DO know the trajectories for the bullets I shoot in the calibers I shoot. That is far more important than caliber ... And knowing the range via rangefinder is even more so. But so is bullet/energy for the game targeted.

Uh - no - edit. Of equal importance...

Of all that said- for your uses, I would personally go no lower than .6.5 mm with 140 gr min. bullets if you are whacking things to 400 yards, and want clean kills.

If you don't care about clean kills on hogs, even as they are a pestilence, ......well....get away from my coffepot.

....and inside 400, it won’t matter. You’ll generally burn a bit more powder in the grendel. I just find the spc easier to deal with in ARs, though I’m a 6.5 fan. If I only loaded, and didn’t care about some other stuff, I’d probably run the SPC case necked down to 6.5. If it’s a bolt gun, grendel or CM, or bigger, all the way.

If you are not set on those cartridges I would go with a 6br with 18" barrel.

Keep your ear pro handy. I have never fired an AR in a truck but Travis has mentioned the brass gets flung into the heater vents. Personally I would want some type of light closed breach manually cycled weapon like a bolt gun with a 20 inch barrel on it.

Maybe a Tikka T3 lite in 308 or 260, I have never been crazy about the 243 but I guess with 100 grain bullets.

http://www.aihpa.com/Sponsor/Tikka_T3_Mag_Options/Tikka_T3_Mag_Options.htm

6.5 Grendel with an 18'' barrel

Jerry, I understood the distinction, but bore capacity is a component of ER and in context of this discussion I'm fairly certain one cannot ignore the broader perspective.

In a bolt action rifle, I think a .308 and a 20" barrel go together like peanut butter and jelly.

My truck or Mule gun while feeding or checking cows and windmill output is either a 20 inch short rifle in .30-30 or a 16.25 inch TC G2 Contender carbine in .223. The .30-30 is not quite a 400 yard gun, but the ranch is stocked for bad times. With normal rainfall, you would not likely see a coyote or small to medium size hog in the taller grass other than on hillsides. The Marlin is topped with a 3X, the TC with a 4X. Either does the job rather well. The TC is borderline to being too short. A longer barrel on it may be better.

Jack

Short, to 400?

20” minimum for blast and speed to expand on impact on long shots.
6 or 6.5 Cm with heavies made for hunting.
7/08 fine also. 140 AB, 150 NBT or ABLR

243 assuming good bullets - look at a 95 BT

For me- Under 300yd a 223 and 6.5G fine using good bullets.