dpms .308 barrel length ,ammo ? please

kycaddy24

does the bullet not get enough velocity in a 16 inch barrel to be very accurate? also can you shoot surplus through these and put a decent shot group together. Just wanting opinions from people who have these rifles, LIke differences in velocity between 16 and 24 inch barrel, Is it enough to make a big difference when just plinking or shootin watermelons at 500yrds not into competitive shooting or anything like that. I like the 18inch flatop bull barrel but I like the 16 to. Thanks guys

nononsense

kycaddy24,

"does the bullet not get enough velocity in a 16 inch barrel to be very accurate?"

Accuracy consists of many more variables than just velocity. You can achieve plenty of velocity from a 16" barrel for plinking at 500 yards if that's where your interest lies.

"also can you shoot surplus through these and put a decent shot group together."

Be careful which rifle you choose because DPMS offers both chambers: the .308 Win. and the 7.62 NATO. No, these are not the same cartridge at all so don't get confused about what you want to do. If you want to blast away with surplus NATO ammunition, you need the 7.62 NATO chamber.

'Decent shot group' is a function of many more variables besides who makes the ammunition. See above. The rifle is capable of better than average accuracy as long as you put the effort into all of the other variables.

If plinking and shooting watermelons is your goal, the barrel length doesn't matter much. Bear in mind though that the shorter the barrel, the louder the noise because the muzzle is closer to your face and ears. Besides louder, the muzzle flash can be awe inspiring when you use those shorter barrels in low light.

For what you seem to want, any barrel length will work.

Best.

Hawkshaw

Let me take a shot at this(figuratively speaking).There are always caveats, in a complex discussion such as this. However, as a rule Bbl. length has little or nothing to do with accuracy, as long as the combination of twist rate, and muzzle velocity fully stabilize the bullet, (rotational velocity). That said, Bbl length has every thing to do with muzzle velocity, along with powder burn rate (read pressure), area of the bullet's base, bullet weight, friction in the bore etc. In the area of Bbl length vs. velocity, in the 16"-24" range you could see as much variation in velocity as 75-100 ft./sec. If you were in the range of say 22"-26", Your difference normally will be lower such as 40-60 ft./sec. or less. From there, and ignoring the bullet's ballistic coefficient, the higher the muzzle velocity, the flatter the bullet's trajectory. The last conclussion, is that the flatter the trajectory, the less vertical compensation, you have to make, to put the bullet on target. Whewwww.