Barrels are deceptively easy but essential to the precision required for long-range taking pictures. I as soon as visited the store of Benchrest Corridor of Famer Cecil Tucker, and I acknowledged a novel alternative to study from a legend. So I requested him the million-dollar query: What’s crucial factor on the subject of precision rifles? Cecil didn’t hesitate. He appeared to have been getting ready his complete life to reply that elusive query, and it was on the tip of his tongue: “The barrel and the bullet.” Deceptively easy.
Retired Military Ranger Sniper and revered precision rifle trainer Ryan Cleckner explains, “Simply because the receiver is the primary a part of the rifle for authorized functions, the barrel is the primary a part of the rifle for accuracy functions. rifle with a foul barrel is not going to shoot precisely. Conversely, a poor-quality rifle with a superb barrel can shoot precisely.”
I just lately surveyed the highest 200 ranked shooters within the Precision Rifle Collection, and this text will share all the info associated to the barrel these guys are utilizing to compete on the highest ranges. This text shares perception into every of those facets:
Barrel Model
Barrel Size
Barrel Contour
Whole Rifle Weight
How usually do they clear their barrel?
Greatest Precision Rifle Barrel Manufacturers
Let’s begin by taking a look at what manufacturers of barrels these pro-level shooters selected to make use of:
49% of those top-ranked PRS shooters have been utilizing a Bartlein barrel, which is as a lot as the subsequent 10 manufacturers mixed! That included 4 of the highest 10 shooters and represented 40% of the highest 25. Bartlein barrels have been the main model amongst these professional shooters yearly I’ve reported on this because the PRS started in 2012.
“Our rifling machines are so correct, we are able to carry the twist charge to the 4th decimal level (instance: 11.3642),” explains Bartlein. Wow. I’ve additionally heard some veteran gunsmiths say that each one barrel manufacturers have duds once in a while – however Bartlein has the least.
The subsequent hottest model was PROOF barrels at 12%. PROOF has a few of the best pricing of any barrel model, with a few of their pre-fit barrels as little as $649 (on the time this was written). That may be a metal barrel that’s pre-chambered and has a threaded muzzle that is able to be put in in your rifle. (Study extra about pre-fit barrels.)
PROOF can also be recognized for its carbon fiber barrels, however these guys weren’t operating carbon fiber barrels. Nearly 90% of those pro-level PRS shooters are operating rifles that weigh 20-26 kilos in a “prepared to fireplace” configuration (together with optics and different equipment). So, a carbon fiber barrel is counter-productive to the rifle weight and stability they’re going for to be aggressive on the highest ranges.
Krieger Barrels is the third hottest model, representing 10% of those professionals. One of many high 10 shooters was utilizing a Krieger barrel. Krieger is one other model that has been on this record of barrels that the professionals have used yr after yr, all the best way again to the inception of the PRS.
Benchmark Barrels and Hawk Hill Customs each represented 9% of those high opponents. 2 of the highest 10 shooters have been utilizing a Benchmark barrel, and a couple of have been utilizing a Hawk Hill barrel.
Talking of Hawk Hill, one attention-grabbing notice is that two-time PRS champion Austin Orgain just lately purchased Hawk Hill’s barrel manufacturing operation and tools. Austin has moved all of it to his hometown of Hammon, Oklahoma, and rebranded it “Customized Rifle Barrels.” CRB didn’t launch till just a few months in the past, however I already know a number of of those professional shooters utilizing a CRB barrel. I’d anticipate these to be represented nicely amongst this group the subsequent time I ship out the survey, so that they’re price testing.
The manufacturers above represented 90% of the shooters, however there have been a variety of different barrel producers that have been represented by 1-3% of those shooters:
Barrel Size
Okay, now let’s take a look at what barrel size these nationally ranked marksmen selected to run in long-range rifle matches.
95% of shooters have been operating 26” to twenty-eight” barrels. 58% have been operating a 26” barrel, 26% have been operating a 28” barrel. Of the fellows who completed within the high 10 by way of PRS Season rating within the Open Division, 4 of these have been operating a 26” barrel, 3 have been operating a 28” barrel, 2 have been operating a 27” barrel, and 1 was operating a 25” barrel.
Barrel size desire may fluctuate by cartridge, so under is a extra detailed breakdown of the entire cartridges that 8 or extra shooters have been competing with. The chances signify what number of shooters utilizing that cartridge stated they have been operating that particular barrel size.
You possibly can see {that a} 26-inch barrel is hottest throughout the board, however a lot of these taking pictures a 6BR or 6 BRA opted for a 28-inch barrel. The 6 Dasher is similar to the 6BR, and there have been a big variety of these shooters who opted for a 28-inch barrel – though the vast majority of these taking pictures a 6 Dasher have been utilizing a 26-inch barrel.
A standard false impression is that these guys primarily select longer barrels to maximise their muzzle velocity. If the first objective was to maximise muzzle velocity, the BR/Dasher instances wouldn’t be the dominant cartridges. For many of those shooters, the most important issue that performs into barrel size is making it no matter it must be for the rifle weight to completely stability 4-5 inches ahead of the magwell. Which means should you set your taking pictures bag down on a barricade, rock, or different prop after which put your rifle on high of it, your rifle must be completely balanced in your bag. When your rifle’s heart of mass is correct in the course of your positional bag, it’s going to enable you to be extra regular for photographs and in addition make it simpler to identify your personal impacts. Each of these issues are infinitely extra essential within the sport of precision rifle taking pictures than just a few extra ft per second in velocity. (Hear ideas from a professional on tuning your rifle stability.)
One other issue that impacts what barrel size these guys select is maneuverability. We sometimes have phases the place we have now to shoot out of a number of home windows in a brief period of time. Transferring a 26-inch rifle in/out of home windows generally is a little simpler/quicker than a 28-inch rifle. I’m not saying that could be a extra essential issue than stability level, however it’s merely one other issue a few of these shooters contemplate when deciding barrel size.
Barrel Contour
10 years in the past, all of us used customary barrel contours (see the info), however that’s not the case anymore! About 1/3 of those guys are operating some sort of customized contour, and by that, I merely imply it’s not a contour that goes by a typical title like MTU, M24, Heavy Varmint, and so forth.
How I’ll Strive To Standardize The Contours Knowledge
Over the previous a number of years, these professional shooters have migrated to heavier and heavier barrel contours. As everybody has trended to heavier contours, there aren’t established names for all of them. Lots of the contours they’re operating solely have a slight taper to them and are heavier than the usual contours that have been most typical for barrel producers to make for the previous 50 years. So, a few of these don’t have names – or they may go by a number of names, which is much more complicated!
So I reached out to barrel producers and these shooters to get particulars on all of the contours they stated they have been utilizing, after which tried to group and standardize these, hopefully in a method that makes this simpler to grasp! 😉
One of many complicated facets about evaluating contours is commonly the diameter on the muzzle is referenced as a dimension – however it could be for a 26” barrel or a 28” barrel and even longer, and that may fluctuate from one producer to a different and even inside the similar producer’s specs! That makes it arduous to do an apples-to-apples comparability of contours.
Because the majority of those guys are operating 26” barrels, I’ll standardize the muzzle diameter that I reference for every contour to mirror what it’d be at 26”.
Lots of the barrel contours are variations of a typical MTU contour, which on the shank or chamber facet of the barrel is 1.25” in diameter for five”, after which it has a straight taper all the way down to 0.93” diameter on the muzzle on a 26” barrel. Many of those guys will run an analogous contour, however it’s going to merely taper much less and have a 1.00” diameter muzzle on a 26” barrel, or possibly 1.10” inch. There aren’t standardized names for these contours, or they could go by quite a lot of names, like MTU+, Comp, or VCC. To attempt to make it extra clear on this article, I’ll group all these into a reputation that begins with “MTU” adopted by the diameter of the muzzle on a 26” barrel, like “MTU with 1.00” muzzle” or “MTU with 1.05” muzzle.”
Listed here are the outcomes:
There have been a number of well-liked contours, however a straight barrel with no contour was the most well-liked selection, with 32% of those 200 top-ranked shooters within the PRS Open Division. 2 of the highest 10 shooters have been utilizing a straight barrel. I’ve been doing these “What The Execs Use” surveys of the top-ranked PRS shooters each couple of years because the inception of the PRS round 2012. The primary time I noticed any of the highest shooters utilizing a “straight” contour was in the course of the 2018 season – and there have been solely 7 shooters of 173 surveyed (4%) utilizing a straight barrel that yr (see the info). 2018 appears to be across the time this migration to heavier barrels and rifles started within the PRS.
The subsequent 3 hottest contours are all very related contours. An MTU barrel has a 1.25” barrel shank for five” after which a straight taper all the way down to 0.93” on a 26” barrel. That customary MTU contour was the third hottest, representing 18%, however the 2nd hottest was nearly similar, however it solely tapered to a 1.0” muzzle. We may have known as a “Heavy Varmint” contour an “MTU with 0.90” muzzle” – however since “Heavy Varmint” is a typical/frequent contour, I left it beneath that title. However the Heavy Varmint contour has the identical 1.25” barrel shank for five” after which tapers to a 0.90” muzzle at 26” in comparison with an MTU at 0.93”. That’s VERY related! Which means the contours that have been the 2nd, third, and 4th hottest have been principally an MTU contour the place the muzzle diameter assorted from 0.90” to 1.00”. These 3 contours mixed to signify 54% of those top-ranked shooters, together with 7 of the highest 10 shooters.
The M24 contour was the fifth hottest, representing 10% of those professional shooters. One distinctive facet of the M24 contour is it has a barely smaller shank diameter at 1.20” in comparison with 1.25” on most different contours utilized by these guys. The M24 contour is the barrel contour used on the legendary M24 Sniper Weapon System, which was a heavy-barrel, bolt-action rifle constructed on a Remington 700 motion that was utilized by the US army from 1988 to immediately. When these long-range rifle discipline matches began within the late 90s and early 2000s and ultimately developed into the PRS in 2011/2012, the M24 rifle was very consultant of what everybody was utilizing. That rifle might be thought-about the grandfather of this fashion of aggressive taking pictures. Whereas most different elements of a contemporary competitors rifle have developed, it’s cool to see remnants of that M24 design which can be nonetheless represented on the highest ranges.
Listed here are the foremost dimensions of every sort of contour, listed from lightest to heaviest:
Why such heavy barrel contours?
It isn’t essentially as a result of they suppose heavier contours shoot tighter teams. A couple of years in the past, I used to be speaking about barrels with Wade Stuteville, Total Champion of the 2012 Precision Rifle Collection, and I bear in mind a profound assertion from that dialog. Wade defined, “I don’t suppose it’s that heavy barrels essentially shoot higher, as a lot as I shoot higher with a heavy barrel.” He felt the elevated weight and stability of a rifle with a heavy barrel helped him be steadier and made it simpler for him to remain on track.
Like barrel size, it’s usually extra about how the rifle balances, and the vast majority of these high shooters I’ve talked to need their rifle to stability at a exact level that’s sometimes 4-5” in entrance of the magazine nicely.
The barrel contour these guys select additionally has quite a bit to do with what they need the general weight of the rifle to be – so let’s take a look at that subsequent.
Whole Rifle Weight
Ten years in the past, most PRS shooters have been operating 12-16 pound rifles. Over the previous 5 years or so, the match rifles these guys are operating have drastically elevated in weight.
I requested these guys to share what their rifle weighed in “prepared to fireplace” configuration (together with optics), however I additionally stated that in the event that they didn’t know precisely to easily depart it clean. So all weights I’m referring to are for the rifle in “prepared to fireplace” configuration, which incorporates optics, mount, and no matter muzzle machine they’re utilizing (most use a muzzle brake). It sometimes doesn’t embrace a loaded journal.
90% of those shooters knew precisely what their rifle weighed, and listed below are these outcomes:
89% of those top-ranked shooters are utilizing a rifle that weighs between 20 to 26 kilos, with 60% falling between 22 to 25 kilos. Sure, there have been just a few guys operating rifles that have been over 28 kilos! And none of those high shooters reported utilizing a rifle that weighed in beneath 18 kilos.
All the guys who completed within the high 10 by way of general season rankings within the PRS Open Division have been operating a rifle that weighed 19 to 24 kilos. The common weight reported among the many high 10 was 21.25 lbs.
In 2018, the overwhelming majority have been utilizing rifles that weighed 18-21 kilos (see the info). That’s the final time I reported on the full rifle weight that these top-ranked shooters have been operating, and it was round that point that the shift to heavier rifles began. Sadly, I didn’t ask about whole rifle weight in any survey earlier than 2018, however I’d guess should you went again to round 2014/2015, most rifles would have weighed 15-18 kilos.
I bear in mind after I was first uncovered to somebody utilizing a 22-24 pound rifle in a PRS-style match. I used to be taking pictures in a squad with Jake Vibbert, who has extra nationwide wins than anybody in precision rifle taking pictures. We had a stage the place we needed to climb up on a fireplace truck to interact targets. After Jake shot, he handed me his rifle as he was climbing down – and I bear in mind considering, “WHOA! That is ridiculously heavy!” I even stated it out loud, and Jake laughed. However I additionally watched how Jake’s rifle didn’t transfer one bit as he ran the bolt, and even when he was taking pictures from a barricade, his rifle barely moved beneath recoil.
Despite the fact that I believed it was ridiculous, I believed, “Don’t knock it till you strive it.” So, nonetheless extremely skeptical, I ordered a weight package for my rifle, and earlier than the top of the primary vary session, I used to be bought! So, whereas a number of individuals prefer to be crucial about this development within the PRS by saying it’s develop into “barricade Benchrest,” earlier than you knock it … I’d problem you to strive it for your self.
The heavier the rifle, the extra it resists motion (elevated inertia) – which, once you’re taking pictures off a prop at a tiny goal a good distance off, is a really welcome benefit. That is a part of the rationale match administrators must continually shrink goal sizes and make matches tougher. If we took our heavy rifles and sandbags again in time to a 2016 PRS match – I’d wager that many of those guys (if not most) would clear the match. And should you transported a high 10 shooter with their 16-pound rifle to immediately, odds are they’d battle.
How Typically Do You Clear Your Rifle Barrel?
This yr, I additionally requested these guys how usually they clear the barrels on their match rifles. Here’s what they stated:
61% stated both after about 200 or 300 rounds, and that included 90% of the highest 10 shooters. A typical national-level, two-day PRS match consists of 180 to 200 whole rounds. Which means they are going to clear their barrel earlier than a significant match, then fireplace just a few rounds to “foul” their barrel, after which they may verify their dope at distance or follow with just a few rounds on the tune-up day the day previous to the match. Then they’ll shoot the complete two-day match with out cleansing their barrel.
Many of those guys are taking pictures 10-20 main, two-day matches per yr – in order that cadence of a match or two each month leaves you cleansing your rifle each 200 or 300 rounds.
I do know just a few of those guys who may clear out the chamber portion of their barrel between Day 1 and Day 2 of a match. Some (presumably most) may solely do this if the circumstances are actually dusty. Only a few of those guys really run something down their bore between Day 1 and a couple of of a match, though there could be just a few that do this.
I do know one former PRS Season Champion who instructed me that the yr he received all of it, he didn’t clear his barrel one time! He requested me to not point out his title as a result of his dad taught him higher, and he’d be dissatisfied to listen to that! 😉
Coming Up Subsequent
If you happen to loved this content material, there may be extra to return! Over the subsequent few months, I’ll be publishing a ton of knowledge on what the highest precision rifle shooters are utilizing. Try the opposite “What The Execs Use” articles which have already been printed.
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