The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - How much compromise is there really in a light barrel versus heavy barrel?

Art Eatman · July 22, 2010, 08:33 AM

Heavy barrels maintain point of impact better than light barrels, when shooting longer strings of fire. E.g., prairie dogs or 10-round strings in competition.

No reason that I know of for light barrels not to give very tight three-shot groups in a hunting rifle. Even my skinny Minis would hold 1.5 MOA for three shots--which is close to a pencil-barrelled Weatherby's one MOA for three shots and its opening up after that. Half-MOA for three shots from a sporter-weight barrel has pretty much been a standard for me for a long, long time.

But eons back I had a heavy-barrelled Swift which gave five-shot 3/8 MOA groups, and I could generally hold it to around 5/8 MOA for ten.

July 22, 2010, 08:33 AM	#7
Art Eatman Staff in Memoriam Join Date: November 13, 1998 Location: Terlingua, TX; Thomasville, GA Posts: 24,798	Heavy barrels maintain point of impact better than light barrels, when shooting longer strings of fire. E.g., prairie dogs or 10-round strings in competition. No reason that I know of for light barrels not to give very tight three-shot groups in a hunting rifle. Even my skinny Minis would hold 1.5 MOA for three shots--which is close to a pencil-barrelled Weatherby's one MOA for three shots and its opening up after that. Half-MOA for three shots from a sporter-weight barrel has pretty much been a standard for me for a long, long time. But eons back I had a heavy-barrelled Swift which gave five-shot 3/8 MOA groups, and I could generally hold it to around 5/8 MOA for ten.