So a buddy of mine and I were having this conversation after seeing a Maxim PDW kit go up for sale on one of the discount sites. After doing some research the only velocity tests I could find stopped at 16 inch. However the spread between a 16 inch and 24 inch barrels for this round was documented at 100 ish fps. 2400 at the top and 2300 at the bottom (approximate numbers.) The next data point I found was "dude on a forum" who said he was getting between 1950 and 2050 fps out of his 7.5 inch barrel. Now on the Maxim web site they say out of their 5.5 inch barrel they average 1675 fps. Only based on the data I found this number seems inside the realm of possibility but I could not find any hard data to support it. Also a wide range of info out there concerning minimum velocity for expansion. I hear anything between 1600 and 1800. Both numbers would effectively mean the 5.5 inch barrel is an expensive flame thrower / range toy with no real world application. Interested to hear the opinions of the masses here. What is the shortest you would go on a 7.62 barrel and why? And to be clear, neither of us are actually considering buying or building a 5.5 inch 7.62. However I may build another 7.62 and am wondering "how short is too short."
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