Help and Advice

Sako 3006

Well-Known Member
I have a Sako 30.06 to which I am going to fit a moderartor,a friend of mine has the same gun and has had 2" chopped off the barrel,and to be honest it handles beautifully,my question is does this affect the ballistics and perfomance in any way,and would anyone in my position do the same,I do not want to have it threaded, and regret not having it shortened later.I would appreciate some good advice please.
 
I'm far from an expert but seeing as no one has replied yet I will give you the benefit of my lack of knowledge:

The cartridge uses the barrel to burn power and accelerate the bullet however if you were to make the barrel, just to be extreme, 40 feet long then the powder would all be burnt in the first few feet and pressure would be falling after that so the friction from the barrel would be slowing the bullet down. It probably wouldn't exit the muzzle. On the other hand if you made the barrel only 3 inches long, in a 30-06, then all the powder would not be burnt and so the bullet would be moving quite slowly when it exits the barrel, the noise and blast is likely to be most impressive. So, there can be problems with both too long and too short.

From what I've read and been told with normal rifle length barrels and normal powders then you might lose in the region of 50 feet per second in velocity for each inch you chop off the barrel. However, as you can see from the extreme examples above, this seems to vary quite a lot depending on the length you start off with and the load you are using.
 
Bruce Potts wrote an article about shortening a barrel on a .308. It is on the shootinguk website, and is worth having a look at.
 
Chop it with impunity!

With the moderator to balance, as well as reducing blast and recoil - for most of us mere mortals, performance change is negligible.

Extreme case in point: I have a .270win that is used with downloads that make it just 'deer legal'. At 200m it will STILL easily punch through a Red Stag. Makes you ponder just how much energy we dump into backstops!

The barrel is chopped to 14" and looks a little strange without the LEI mod that generally caps it!

Mouflon.jpg



Rgds

Ian
 
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Chop it with impunity!

With the moderator to balance, as well as reducing blast and recoil - for most of us mere mortals, performance change is negligible.

Ian,
Is that a Parker Hale? as I am toying with the idea of reducing the length of my .270. It feels a little long and cumbersome combined with a PES.

What do you recon the cost would be including re-threading.

John.
 
That statement may not be entirely correct
The problem comes when you sell the weapon
The law states it is an offence to sell a weapon that is not in proof.
It also says somewhere that if a firearm is altered in its structure it has to be subjected to re proofing,
Removing a section of the barrel in my view affects the structure suficeintly that it needs to be re proofed. obviously its a matter of interpretation of the wording.
 
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Both of you are right on this one ,I was told by Nigal that it is better to be safe than sorry,there is no law to say it has to be proofed,and I think Jackson Rifles prooved that in court?,but I am quite happy to have it proofed for piece of mind,and of course resale
 
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