.204 Ruger in 24" or 26"?

[abhound]

Hi all.
Great forum you have here.  I'm going to be getting an OTT .204 Ruger barrel for my Encore and was quandaring weather to get it in 24 or 26 inch.  I mean, I know the 26 would probably be a little more accurate do to more bullet stability "probably negligible at best", but the powders for this round are on the fast burning side so you might loose some velocity with the extra 2".  All the tests I've seen so far have been with 24's.  So what do you all think.  Will the 24" be slightly faster than the 26"?  I'd like to eke out as much fps out of this round as I can.

[Mirage]

Fred Smith of Bullberry did some testing on .204 bbl. he started with I believe a 26" bbl. and cut off 1" increments and measured average velocity for groups wityh an oehler chrono. His conclusion was that 23" seemed to be the most efficient with respect to velocity / std. deviation. You can see the velocity  std. dev. changes and see patterns where length significantly affects outcome. Check out the data at bullberry.com.

I too am contemplating a .204 and will go with either a 23" or 24" bbl. I think you are probably better off with a shorter / fatter  bbl. than a longer / thinner one for accuracy.

Mirage


Mirage.

[abhound]

Hey thanks a bunch Mirage.  That's exactly what I thought would happen.  Looks like I'll be going with either a  23 or 24 inch.