Another Happy Member Of The SBR Family

RedNeck Jim · Sep 29, 2014

Getting my 22Sparrow suppressor last year was so cool. Finally, I could shoot on my own property without disturbing the farm animals or neighbors... and especially the wife. I no longer had to find time to go off property to shoot, I could now shoot at my convenience just by jumping in the Gator & heading down to my range in the bottom pasture.

Life was great but not perfect. The suppressor made the gun rather long & unbalanced. Nothing horrible or unmanageable... just not perfect. So after reading threads here I decided to submit my Form 1. I had to decide what length barrel I would want because that info is required on the form. I choose to do as others suggested and settled on a very short 4.5", so as to be able to shoot high velocity ammo & keep it subsonic. Even by sending the form thru snail mail, it only took a few months for my stamp to come in. Two weeks later, my short barrel is back from Adco & my engraved lower is back from Orion Arms.

My biggest concern with the 4.5" barrel is how would it impact accuracy. Since I don't use my 15-22 for long range work (I normally shoot under 35 yards), I wasn't too worried but didn't want a shotgun pattern either. The target below was shot at 25 yards with me resting on the Gator. No bags, just leaning. I also shot 25 rounds rather quick... maybe one every 2 seconds. I am not a great shot but was happy with my group. It is plenty tight for my type shooting & tells me cutting down that barrel didn't hurt the gun's accuracy all that much. I am sure a target shooter with proper rests could tighten that group up real nice.

little_airwolf · Sep 30, 2014

Lucky jurks! Up here in Canada suppressors are prohibited.
Silly I know. Anyway would you say with the barrel cut and supperssor on, is the noise as loud as a stock 15-22 @ full length?
Im abit worried that cutting the barrel down to 10" will increase the noise level.
I had a 8" 10/22 and with HV rounds it was too loud for me.
I found some subsonics for the new 10" barrel to test.
I also have m22, AE 38g hp, Win dynapoints and Win HV
I think the Rem subsonics will be the best. But I wont know till I try.

Congrates on the rifle!!!!! I like the deflector.
I have a cadwell brass catcher net. I dont like leaving bass in my feild

KEN L · Sep 30, 2014

Looks good!

You spent some money on that bad boy!

RedNeck Jim · Sep 30, 2014

little_airwolf said:
Anyway would you say with the barrel cut and supperssor on, is the noise as loud as a stock 15-22 @ full length?
Im abit worried that cutting the barrel down to 10" will increase the noise level.

Any barrel length with suppressor is MUCH quieter than the stock 15-22. I didn't notice any real difference in noise with the 4.5" barrel. I would think all powder in that tiny 22lr case is fully burnt by the time the bullet has exited the short barrel. Only thing I noticed was a more pronounced first round pop than with the stock barrel. Actually now acts just like my Buck Mark pistol... as one would expect.

As far as I understand, only thing the short barrel does is keep the bullet from going supersonic, where you hear the loud crack as the bullet goes thru the sound barrier. With the stock 16: barrel, I had to use subsonic ammo to achieve that. Today I'm gonna reload some magazines with high velocity ammo to verify even it will stay subsonic with the 4.5" barrel. Seems logical it will, as I have always been able to use HV ammo in my pistol without any sonic crack.

RedNeck Jim · Sep 30, 2014

KEN L said:
Looks good! You spent some money on that bad boy!

As I like to tell folks, I don't drink, smoke or gamble. This is my addiction.

The Eotech was originally on my AR but last year I purchased an Aimpoint Pro & had it on the 15-22, however I liked it so much, I moved it over to the AR & put the Eotech here. Everything on this rifle serves a purpose. I don't dress my guns up for show. I have a quick disconnect mount for the light but since I live in the country, I have a need for it to control night time predators. I choose to keep the light on, even during daytime practice shoots, to stay accustomed to the feel of that added weight.

sithlord · Sep 30, 2014

little_airwolf said:
Lucky jurks! Up here in Canada suppressors are prohibited.
Silly I know. Anyway would you say with the barrel cut and supperssor on, is the noise as loud as a stock 15-22 @ full length?
Im abit worried that cutting the barrel down to 10" will increase the noise level.
I had a 8" 10/22 and with HV rounds it was too loud for me.
I found some subsonics for the new 10" barrel to test.
I also have m22, AE 38g hp, Win dynapoints and Win HV
I think the Rem subsonics will be the best. But I wont know till I try.

Congrates on the rifle!!!!! I like the deflector.
I have a cadwell brass catcher net. I dont like leaving bass in my feild

Without a supressor, shortening the barrel will make it louder.

My buckmark (5.5") with subsonic ammo and no suppressor is louder than the 15-22 (16") with subsonic and no suppressor. A hv round out of the buckmark sounds very much like the subsonic round- no sonic crack, but you can tell there is powder still burning - that's the only think that I can think of that would cause the noise..

BigWaylon · Sep 30, 2014

Very nice. It's hard to wipe the grin off after the first time out with that combo.

RedNeck Jim · Sep 30, 2014

Shot some CCI Mini-Mags today, to see how high velocity ammo would work. They did stay subsonic but danged if they weren't too loud for me. I feel sure I'm gonna stick with my Norma & CCI subsonic ammo. Much more pleasant sounding.

With this is mind, if I had it to do over again, I would have gone with a 10" or 12" barrel. Short enough to bring the suppressed barrel length mostly back to normal length but long enough to have a bit more rail space. I did have a couple of friends shoot the SBR & they had a blast. Neither had shot an AR styled gun before & both were incredibly accurate. That little gun with very short barrel is real easy to keep on target. I guess because there is no weight out front. They were 3 times more accurate with the SBR than they were with the Buck Mark.

little_airwolf · Sep 30, 2014

Awesome since I cant own a suppressor. Getting a 10" barrel sounds like I made the right choice. Now I wonder if even a fake can would help abit with noise?
I have the subsonic ammo ready to go!

strobro32 · Sep 30, 2014

There are many things that significantly affect accuracy. Barrel length is not one of them.

Congratulations. It looks good and I'm sure if feels nice. Try some CCI Standard Velocity. They sound quiet and shoot well in mine.

RedNeck Jim · Sep 30, 2014

strobro32 said:
There are many things that significantly affect accuracy. Barrel length is not one of them.

I have to agree after this project. I am no expert but seems a perfect barrel crown is rather critical. That is why I use Adco as opposed to anyone local. Also I know with them they thread concentric to the bore.

strobro32 said:
Try some CCI Standard Velocity. They sound quiet and shoot well in mine.

I have 2 cases of it. My go to ammo.

I also buy Norma Tac-22 by the case and find it shoots as well, or maybe even a bit better, than the CCI SV. Also shoot CCI Sub-Sonic HP & CCI Green Tag, with the Green Tag probably being the best ammo I use. I don't shoot it too much, as I'm holding on to it.

Love my subsonic ammo & keep much more of it than any HV.

Kayback · Oct 1, 2014

I'd put an edge on the end of the rails, just to make sure your hand doesn't stray and get perforated

KBK

RedNeck Jim · Oct 1, 2014

Kayback said:
I'd put an edge on the end of the rails, just to make sure your hand doesn't stray and get perforated

KBK

That is actually a concern with a rifle this short. I don't use any of the fancy combat grips, where you wrap your hand around the hand guard. I always use the vertical grip & actually moved it back a bit from the end.

Decipher · Oct 1, 2014

Whoa Jim! That thing's crazy. Congrats. I'm a bit surprised at the accuracy you're still achieving with such a short barrel. Very cool. Nice Eotech, too. You have some serious money into that little guy.

RedNeck Jim · Oct 1, 2014

Decipher said:
Whoa Jim! That thing's crazy. Congrats. I'm a bit surprised at the accuracy you're still achieving with such a short barrel. Very cool. Nice Eotech, too. You have some serious money into that little guy.

Thanks. Because of the suppressor, I shoot this gun a lot. I figured if that was gonna be the case, I might as well have a nice rig. When my stamp comes in for my Saker 7.62 suppressor, then I will be able to shoot my AR on my property. From all I have read & seen, 300 Blackout subsonic ammo shot suppressed is as quiet as this 22. However with 300 Blackout at $1 per round, I think I still will be mainly shooting my 15-22.

I too was pleasantly surprised by the accuracy with that tiny barrel. The vast majority of the 25 rounds were within an inch group. When I get a chance, I will try to lock the gun down or at least use bags to get a better idea of what the gun can do. I'm beginning to think it might still be around 3 MOA... but surely at 4.

little_airwolf · Oct 1, 2014

Thats 4moa corrected or 4" @ 100yds.
If your sbr even in a rest can do 4" @ 100yds ,
That is sick! You must be using good ammo or atleast shooting stuff the new barrel likes.
Congrates.
If its 4" @ 25yds Id hate to see it @ 100yds

RedNeck Jim · Oct 1, 2014

little_airwolf said:
If its 4" @ 25yds Id hate to see it @ 100yds

If it were that, I'd need bigger targets.

Looks like to me, cutting the barrel had minimal impact on accuracy. It should be able to do 1" at 25 yards, or 4 MOA. Might do better. I will not know until I lock down the gun. That grouping I showed was by no means the best the gun can do. I was shooting 25 rounds rather fast just leaning against the gator.

BigWaylon · Oct 1, 2014

As long as it was cut/crowned properly, the length shouldn't impact the accuracy. It simply reduces velocity. That would result in a bigger drop at distance, and possibly affected more by crosswinds while projectile is moving at a slower velocity. So, your POA/POI shift may be greater with the short barrel, but the accuracy itself shouldn't be affected. Those shifts should be repeatable, which would say accuracy is just fine.

I'm not surprised at all with those results.

ETA: the exception to the explanation above would be if the combination of barrel length, twist rate, powder, bullet weight, etc, resulted in a situation where the projectile hasn't stabilized before it leaves the muzzle...if that's the case, baffle strikes and poor accuracy are sure to follow

Gopher Slayer · Oct 2, 2014

Looks like fun

RedNeck Jim · Oct 3, 2014

What the engraving looks like. It is fuzzy due to the polymer material. Laser engravers will not even attempt to do it. Orion uses cutters, so they can still do it. If I wanted to, I could use a magnifier & some tool to clean it up, but I am perfectly fine with the outcome.

Another Happy Member Of The SBR Family

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