Cartridge’s seemingly meant for shorter barrels/suppressors

[Mattphillips18]

I don’t have anything to add other than what I often read on threads about suppressors. Long barrels are awkward with suppressors, and how much speed will I give up in a short barrel? Are some cartridges just better in short barrels? Like short mags or short action cartridges? Or perhaps are some cartridges that use faster burning powders better?
If someone were to want to buy a riffle to use suppressed, what to look for?


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[Alaskanopolis]

Shorter the cartridge and larger the bore relative to the cartridge, the more efficient it'll be in a shorter barrel. 338/06 is more efficient than 30/06, but is less efficient than 338 RCM, which is more efficient than 300 RCM, which is more efficient than 6.5 PRC and so on.

 

[Formidilosus]

I don’t have anything to add other than what I often read on threads about suppressors. Long barrels are awkward with suppressors, and how much speed will I give up in a short barrel? Are some cartridges just better in short barrels? Like short mags or short action cartridges? Or perhaps are some cartridges that use faster burning powders better?
If someone were to want to buy a riffle to use suppressed, what to look for?


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Mostly it’s all BS. You can’t find someone that has shot lots of cartridges and started with a long barrel, worked up loads, and then cut it down by an inch or two, worked up loads, etc.

They all lose somewhere between 20-30fps per inch on average when the load is tuned to the barrel length. In practical terms there are not cartridges that are better than others.

I’ve seen dozens of long (26”+) and short barreled (20” and under)-

50BMG
338 Lapua and Norma
300 WM, PRC, Norma, RUM, and 308win
7mm RM, 7mm08, 7WSM
6.5PRC, CM, 260rem, 6.5x47, 6.5 Grendel
243, 6CM, 6 Grendel/6ARC, BR/Dasher, etc
223, 22-250, 22CM, etc

Count on 20-30fps on average with all of them.

 

[Mattphillips18]

Thanks, that helps, especially from a guy that has seen the most.


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[762 ULTRAMAGA]

I don’t have anything to add other than what I often read on threads about suppressors. Long barrels are awkward with suppressors, and how much speed will I give up in a short barrel? Are some cartridges just better in short barrels? Like short mags or short action cartridges? Or perhaps are some cartridges that use faster burning powders better?
If someone were to want to buy a riffle to use suppressed, what to look for?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I went from a 25" barrel on my 6.5 saum to 16".
The exact same load with 142's shot 3050 at 25" and 2850 at 16".
200 fps in 9"
I love it with a suppressor btw

 

[Ucsdryder]

I have a suppressor in jail. I have a tikka 300wm and I’m trying to decide what to do. Considering rebarrelling and rechambering, or just cutting down to 21”. Realistically it will still kill anything I’m hunting at 600 and in at 21”. The thought of a full length barrel plus a can seems ridiculously long.

 

[chutinlead]

I went from a 25" barrel on my 6.5 saum to 16".
The exact same load with 142's shot 3050 at 25" and 2850 at 16".
200 fps in 9"
I love it with a suppressor btw

That's good to know. I'm looking at a 7saum for my next rifle with probably a 18" carbon fiber barrel. Add an 8" can and you're back to swinging 26" out there packing.

As for OPs question, something like a 6.5CM probably suffers more than a fatter magnum case as they need 24" to be able to push a heavy 140 over 2800. I ran my 20" 6.5-06 with a suppressor and was still able to get 156gr bergers over 2800 with RL23.

 

[Sled]

The loss in fps hasn't been a game changer in my 6.5 cm's. I've cut a few down and loss was about 17fps/inch. A tight chamber to begin with and you'll still be faster than some factory long bbl's.

Fwiw, I've been considering cutting down a tikka 270wsm, that has a loose chamber, a few inches. If I do that I'm expecting to be equal to my 270 win that has a tight chamber.

 

[Kimber7man]

My 6.5 SAUM lost 80 fps cutting it from 24” to 20”. Same exact load.

 

[ORfish]

Has anyone thought about going to a hotter cartridge to get the same performance with a short barrel and suppressor. I thought that was the Ruger .375 concept- a 20" barrel to give .375 H&H 26 inch barrel performance. I was thinking of a 18-20 barrel on a 28 nosler to get 7RM performance. Say I look at the 175gr Berger Elite. That shoots 2700fps in 7rm and 3100fps in 28nos. If I cut the 26" barrel down 8 inches (8"*20fps=160 fps), could I roughly expect a 28 Nosler fire that at 2940 fps (which would be plenty fast). By that logic, a 16" 7RUM and 7STW would shoot the 175gr at 2840. Am I on crack, or is this a good way to design my dream suppressed gun?

 

[khuber84]

I have a tikka youth 6.5cm w/ a 20" barrel, and a 24" superlite. In the 20" I have had 143s up to 2884 fps w/ 50gr rl26 in Hornady brass(max capacity as 6.5cm is concerned, and maybe 3x firings at this pressure). In the 24" superlite I use lapua SRP brass which holds 2gr less powder, 48gr of rl26 has the bullet 2912fps. This is 2 different rifles with diff brass, but same chamber spec(both Tikka 6.5cm has 280k+ freebore) same powder and bullet.

To the prior posting saying non magnum cases will suffer more than larger cases for velocity loss per inch, in my opinion and experience, is the opposite. A 7 saum will lose less than a 7 mag. A 7mm-08 less than a 7 saum. Yes the final velocity will always be less, but so was the beginning speed.

Smaller cases are more efficient per grain of powder burned, always will be. They utilize faster burning powder rates which usually helps. An increase in bore size always helps as well. A 300wsm vs a 270wsm(same case capacity) will have less loss overall in fps per inch, due to efficiency.

I would imagine the desire of a lightweight short barrel supressed rig would be max hunting range of 600y perhaps? Run a lighter bullet, sacrifice some BC but keep the speed up to flatten trajectory. My pick would be a 7mm short mag(saum, Sherman max or SS) running 160 class bullets under a stiff load of RL26 in adg brass.

 

[Yellowknife]

Ignoring the velocity aspect (which appears well covered above), the other thing to consider is the shear amount of heat generated by magnums. Short barrel + lots of slow burning powder makes for a VERY hot suppressor within a few shots. How much difference that makes to the shooter depends on shot string length, the suppressor rating and if you are willing to run a cover to reduce the heat waves.

 

[83cj-7]

To answer the original question, I can think of two commercial cartridges that were specifically designed to be run in short barrels. .300 BO and 6.8 SPC. 6.8 had lots of testing done on its performance in 7-10 inch barrels. 8.5” won the tests with the Speer 90 gold dot bullet performing the best as far as terminal performance at the given velocity.

 

[wildwilderness]

The 300 Blk Out makes a lot of sense if you want to shoot Sub Sonic loads. It was designed to not have the extra powder burn. Also to have enough powder to push the heavy 30 cal bullets right at the top of the sub sonic range.

 

[wyosam]

Currently building a 7-08ai on a Remington model 7 at 18”. New barrel is threaded for a can. Went with the AI to try to pick up some of the velocity lost to barrel length, and because I like steep shoulders for brass longevity. Unsupressed, it will be a very handy rifle (well acquainted with it, I’ve had it for a few decades as an 18” .243). Suppressed it will be pretty manageable with a dead air nomad.


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[WRO]

6.5 prc is pretty great with a suppressor..

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[Phil j]

I run a number of rifles suppressed and the only problem with large magnums with short barrels is they are still not hearing safe so might as well have the longer barrel and use hearing protection.

 

[Alaskanopolis]

I run a number of rifles suppressed and the only problem with large magnums with short barrels is they are still not hearing safe so might as well have the longer barrel and use hearing protection.

Has to still be better than shooting without hearing protection.

 

[Sundodger]

As I posted in another thread on here over barrel suppressor seem like a great solution for this. They of course don't suppress quite as well, but only adding 4-6in seems worth it for hunting in dense woods where length is a pain.

I hunt Rosie elk in the coastal rainforest where a 100 yard shot is an almost unfathomable distance. Been thinking about building a rifle with a 14-16" barrel with a 4" over barrel suppressor so I have a 18-20" total barrel length including suppressor. Was thinking a 277 fury, 270wsm, or 300 wsm, their velocity in short barrels seems pretty reasonable all things considered, but would be open to recommendations.

I am sure the gunshot in this setup still isn't good for your ears, but still hunting in thick jungle rarely offers you an opportunity to put in hearing protection and this would be better for ears than without a suppressor.

 

[jaredg]

277 Wolverine, a necked down 300 BLK runs great out of 10" +/-