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Anybody put on a long barrel to really reach out there? I don't recall seeing anything longer than 30" hanging off a factory action. I once had a target rifle in 6.5 Gibbs with a 34" barrel, but that was a custom action, and someone else had it built. I was thinking 34"-36" for a .375 RUM improved. Maybe with a barrel block.
Barrel legnth is required for only one reason. In order to achieve max velocity before the bullet leaves the barrel.
Anything beyond that length is unnecessary. As a rule with heavy bullets such as the .375, fewer powders are best suited,
which are of the slower burning variety. A number of years back, Dan Lilja of Lilja barrels conducted a test by starting out
with a very long barrel, and shortening it as I recall by 1 inch at a time. My memory also says it was a 338x416 improved
cartridge with 300 gr bullets. Also, years ago you wouldn't get proper velocity from a 30x378 unless you had a long barrel
of 34 to 36 inches. To make matters worse, almost nobody made barrels longer than 30". The ones I had were made by
Bill Wiseman in TX. who primarily made test barrels. Today however things seem to have changed regarding barrel length.
Powder formulas are no doubt responsible for that.
About 15 years ago, my brother in law had Bruce Baer build him a 338x416 with a 38" barrel on a Bat action.
His M V using a pretty much max load of H50BMG is slightly over 3000 fps. That case, which is beltless with a
standard type shoulder, has the same capacity as does the 378 Weatherby case.
About 3 years ago my son had Bruce build him a 338x378 wby on a large 3 lug Saco action with a 30" varmit taper barrel.
Theres about 50' per second difference in velocity between the 2 guns using 300 gr bullets.
In hindsite, I wish we had used a 32" on my sons gun, but Bruce assured us that 30" was enough and any more was just added weight.
He also tried to convince me that 30" was enough on my Big Baer, which is his version of the Chey Tac, and based off the 505 Gibbs case.
His cases are custom made for him with his headstamp on them. He uses the same case for the 338, the 375, and also a 35 caliber version which
he claims is the best of all for long range shooting.
Cutting Edge makes the bullets for him or anybody else wanting them of coarse and i believe they are 325 grain.
Heres a guy who has been building, competing, and hunting with these type guns for several decades.
A phone call would certainly be a wise investment of your time.
Another good source would be Dan Smitco at Cutting Edge bullets.
The F-Class guys use long barrels, but not for max velocity. They use them to get as long of a sight radius as they can.
I know almost nothing about F class competition, and it could be argued anything else either. lolQuote:
Originally Posted by darkker
But I guess I'm curious about sight radius?
My mind is saying that with metallic sights I can visualize an advantage in a longer sight plane.
But with a scope?
Yobuck i was going to say something myself but I went and checked the rules for F-class and no mention of scopes being required is there that I can find. Why anyone would handicap themselves with irons when shooting F-class is beyond me but longer sight radius would help.
I'm going to build an Ultra mag rifle...or two, but I can't help dreaming about reaching even farther out. I got my hands on some .585 Hubel Express brass. Two different guys have necked that one down to .375. The wildcats are called the .375 Warlord and .375 Lethal Magnum. The case holds nearly 200 grains of powder. Dave Viersco had a custom made case, also. His did not have a belt. His original idea was a .416, but he ended up with a .375.
I saw that Rock Creek makes .408 barrels. Would be interesting to get that barrel and have some custom Cutting Edge .408s made up with a higher BC than their 452gr .375.
F-Class is all open sights, as you suspected. So with a scope, you are correct, it doesn't matter. But when trying to shoot little groups a long way out, you need as long a sight radius as you can get.
**Edit** The F-class shooters I know, anyway. I suppose there could be other "classes" with different rules..
F-class is dominated by scopes and anyone not using a scope is handicapping themselves. For example, 1000 yard target has a 5 inch x ring where the palma and targets used for sling shooters have a 10 inch X ring. Perhaps you are confused on what they are shooting. F-class is shot off a front rest and sling is optional. F-TR is shot with a bipod with sling optional. The bipod and rest are not options. F-class is any caliber up to .35 that the range safety fan will allow. F-TR is 223/5.56 and 308/7.62x51 only. Perhaps the people you are referring to shoot Palma or any/any or service rifle all of which is sling only.Quote:
Originally Posted by darkker
F-class open is sometimes referred to as belly bench rest as a lot of the equipment is the same.
Almost forgot Palma is shot with the same caliber restrictions as F-TR but most long range shooters use the 308 instead of the 223.
Yes, sorry. F-Class is the off-shoot.
Fullbore and Palma matches is what my mine and fingers were arguing over:o