Originally Posted by
Failure2Stop
14.5" barrels were of limited utility when the primary ammunition types in use were using 175gr SMKs and similar, and the task was primarily mid-range precision.
If distances are within 600 meters, the performance of the 14.5s and 16s will be pretty similar, given that high precision past 300 is going to rely on precise distance determination for precise elevation adjustment as well as fairly accurate wind calling ability.
If you go to the lightweight screamers (110-130gr) built for crushing terminal performance, inside 300 meters is going to be pretty much identical between the 16" and 14.5", and the gun just gets that much more handy and easy to move around with.
I have a pinned and welded 14.5 that I use for fast action shooting and pig crushing, and it does a great job at that. I can take it out to 600 on torso sized steel with no issues with a decent 1-8x, but spotting splash on mixed terrain backgrounds is not easy.
Mine shoots right around 1.3 MOA with 168gr FGMM, about 1.7 MOA with 130gr SOST. I just got some 125gr FedTRU that I am looking forward to trying out since the SOST has gotten more difficult to source.
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