Barrel length and twist rate for .308

[MOA]

What bullet do you want to shoot? Thats the main thing for twist. Then deside how long you are willing to go with it.

[AR15barrels]

Let's assume 175smk's and 178 hornady BTHP bullets as the standard 1000yd 308 fodder.
Then let's pick 26" as a good compromise between weight and length.
Go 1:11 twist and you are good to go.

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

I have looked through several barrels and the two I listed keep coming up in discussions with shooters at my local club who shoot long range (1000 yard) competition, several of which I personally know and were snipers for the Marines and Army. If you have others to recommend, please do as I have not built the rifle and still have time for research. Thank you.

Brux, Lilja, hart(of NY), Pac Nor, there are a lot more but these are the ones I have used. I made the barrel profile mistake once, The barrel litterly shot the best of any barrel I have ever had but it was useless for anything but prone shooting. I will never again pic any barrel larger than a sendero profile, thats about .850 at the muzzle.

I also like long barrels its just me, I like to get every bit of speed I can and I think they look good. Of the 3 rifles in 308win I have, I always go with a 1-10 twist. I like to play with a lot of bullet weights and prefer heavy bullets.

The barrels take the longest to come for some reason, unless you buy one that the builder has just lying around.

Do you have a gunsmith? Thats another factor, the better the smith the longer the wait.

Jon

[taliv]

5 of my last 6 barrels were bartlein and the other was brux.

If you order from the maker it will take a while and it depends on where you catch them in the their production schedule since most make a run of 6 then 6.5 then 7 then 7.62 etc before going back. (not necessarily in that order of course)

However you can almost always find them in stock at retail places. I bought my Bartleins from Accuracyone because they always have had them in stock. Grizzly also keeps them in stock.

[hotrodder636]

Brux, Lilja, hart(of NY), Pac Nor, there are a lot more but these are the ones I have used. I made the barrel profile mistake once, The barrel litterly shot the best of any barrel I have ever had but it was useless for anything but prone shooting. I will never again pic any barrel larger than a sendero profile, thats about .850 at the muzzle.

I also like long barrels its just me, I like to get every bit of speed I can and I think they look good. Of the 3 rifles in 308win I have, I always go with a 1-10 twist. I like to play with a lot of bullet weights and prefer heavy bullets.

The barrels take the longest to come for some reason, unless you buy one that the builder has just lying around.

Do you have a gunsmith? Thats another factor, the better the smith the longer the wait.

Jon

Thank you for the info. You have now brought in something I hadn't been thinking about and that is the profile. I do have a smith, I have shot some of the rifles he has built and they are quite nice. I was thinking of 175 grain SMKs. Once I get the setup and throw a few hundred factory loads down range, I want to reload my own. I have reloaded thousands of pistol cartridges but no rifle. Again thank you all for the advice so far.

[anthony1]

My 308s have all been 1-10 with one 1-12, l cant tell much of a difference they both shoot 175smks without any problems.

l have always used 26 inch varmint barrels, l dont have any reason to switch. If your not gonna be hunting or lugging the thing around all day l'd get a 24-26 inch barrel in a standard varmint profile which is usually around .890. l also dont care for the huge bull barrel profile.

[nineteenkilo]

ETA; Of course you can go the other direction...

Remington 700 SPS-T ($500)
Wal-mart Special Scope ($100)
Wal-mart base and rings ($50)

Add some Krylon camo paint ($4 @ Wal-mart) in Khaki and Army Green and your good to go.

Singularly one of the most useful pieces of information I've ever seen given to a long range rookie. It may have been intended as tongue-in-cheek, but it is what more people need to do. Spend enough money on ammo and range time to get the 'Wal-Mart' rig where you want it - then start looking at Nightforce, etc.

Some people don't want you to believe you can score thousand meter hits with 'junk'.

[SRT72]

As far as barrel length to me it would depend on what you want to do with it. A 20 inch barrel will get you to 1000yds with no problem. I'm sure an 18 inch would do the same. Having a short barrel is nice for maneuverability. If you are just going to be shooting prone at a range it doesn't really matter.

[orkan]

A 20 inch barrel will get you to 1000yds with no problem. I'm sure an 18 inch would do the same.

What exactly are you basing this information off of? A 24" barrel 308 isn't an authority at 1000yds. It's anything but, actually.

So if that's the case (and it is) then how can a shorter barrel pull it off?

Answer: It can't.

A 28" 308 shooting 155 lapua's can basically match a 300WM shooting 190SMK's. Not on energy, mind you, but on trajectory and pretty close on wind.

If getting to a thousand yards is the only qualifier, then just about any cartridge would do it. Being proficient at that distance is entirely another matter. I have thousands of rounds through an 18" and 20" 308. To 600yds on full size IPSC plates, they do their job regardless of the conditions. Past that however, once the wind gets up over 10mph, shit gets quite difficult. My 22" barrel eats it for breakfast at 800-1000yds using the exact same bullet/load.

Put the best shooters in the world behind an 18" 308 at 1000yds on a gusting 15-20mph full value wind... and I bet they wouldn't go 50% on first round hits. Probably much less, actually.

[SRT72]

My point was it depends on what you want to do with the rifle. If you are going to use it to shoot prone on a range then by all means go for a longer barrel, but if you are going to be running around with the rifle you might consider something shorter. He said anywhere from 100 - 1000yds so it will not just be a 1000yd rifle.