How short to go on a .223?

I'm intrested in building a 223 for the range out to 500 or 600 and just all around truck gun. I'm just curious as to how short you can really go on a 223 barrel before you start sacraficing major performance. Ideally I'd really like something around 16 or 18 but if that means Im just gonna have a have a club I'll deffinately focus on something else. I only as because I know alot of SPR AR's use 16-18 1/7 or 1/8 barrels but I understand those are completely different animals. Thanks in advance fellas!

-Art

here is a test on progressively shorter .223 barrel.

http://www.accuratereloading.com/223sb.html

Hope this answers your question.

Steve

Interesting statistics. Just be careful as anything less than 16 inches is a Federal No No.

uj

I'm not the expert, but....it really depends upon what powder and bullet you want to shoot. I played around with H335 and 70+ gr bullets in a 1 in 7" barrel and I found 18" was the right answer for me. In a 1 in 8" DPMS NM barrel 20" worked best with the heavier bullets.

With faster powder and lighter bullets, 1 in 9" and down to 14.5" barrel is fine accuracy wise. That was done in a registered short barrelled AR.

I have built AR's down to 11" and the accuracy is OK at 100 yds, but the muzzle blast is awful and while I haven't run them thru a chronograph, I bet the velocity has dropped to not much better than 22 mag levels at that point.

I use a Stevens 200 with a Boyd's thumb hole in 1 in 9" cut to 17" as my suppressor test gun for my 70 gr subsonic loads. Works great with 55gr full velocity loads as well and would make a nice truck gun, but not for shooting over 300 yds or so....really need tighter twist and heavy bullets out there....IMHO.



If you really want to shoot long distance with a 223 you need heavy high BC bullets and they do not perform well form a short barrel, mostly becasue it takes slower powder to push them at the best velocity.

Good "stuff" Corsica! I would agree with everything you have stated!

Dave