Comparing a "bull barrel" 6PPC that was 22" long to a varmint (still pretty heavy) 28 or 29" savage .223, I noted about 1/3 the vertical variation per grain of additional H322, which I attribute to the increased stiffness of a shorter, heavier barrel. These were on the exact same action. (and with similar weight, though different caliber bullets).

Unless you badly badly need the tiny bit of extra velocity, I'd recommmend the heaviest, 22" barrrel you can get. Shilen has prefits for savage and was able to make me one that stayed at the same diameter the entire barrel out to 22", right into the threads.


Now as far as GROUP size, there are many more factors that go into it, such as getting the brass to fit tightly in the chamber, using a fitted (turned) neck, getting trigger pull way way down, using benchrest type 3" flatt fore-end on a high quality fitted rest, and on and on. With the bull barrel I'm getting down to 1/4" groups, while with the varmint barrel was more like 1/2" median group size. My trigger is not the best, so others may have better results than I (and may be a better shot than I).

I have a sporter (thin) weight barrel also from Savage, and after a few shots from it, I didn't bother trying to work on its accuracy: the groups were huge.


gordon