Do you think you get an actual accuracy or group size boost by switching from a 4 to 6 inch barrel?

I know ive read about "testing" dont by a PPC gun builder in the 1980s that decided that dropping to a 4" only resulted in about 1/8" increase in group size.

But that same builder determined shooting 38 wadcutter ammo in a 38 special chamber decreased the group size versus being fired in a magnum chamber about an 1/8".

Longer barrel is longer sight radius, theoretically less effect from sight alignment errors. You don't specify range, but your wibbles & wobbles are going to have a much greater effect than chamber or sight radius differences.

I find that if I can maintain a good sight picture (getting more difficult as these eyes age), I shoot better groups with shorter barrels.

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George

The decrease in group size realized by firing 38's in a 38 vs. a 357 can be attributed to several factors:

The first is the shoulder in the magnum chamber sitting just ahead of the wadcutter bullet. No big deal, you say? Maybe, maybe not.

Accuracy/group size is all about a bullet going down a bore, and emerging in as pristine condition as possible. Contact with that shoulder is going to render that bullet less pristine than it was before it hit it---a little or a lot.

Next we have the added distance the bullet is going to travel in the magnum chamber vs. the 38 chamber---whatever that is---1/8"-1/10"---not much, but it's not about the distance; it's about the increase in velocity gained in that distance. I have no idea how much that is, but it's some--more than otherwise. So what?

So the bullet is going to enter the barrel at a higher speed fired from the magnum chamber than from the 38 chamber. Given that, it's going to skid/slide further in the barrel before the rifling grabs a hold of it---and it's going to emerge from that barrel in accordingly less pristine condition than otherwise.

It's the little things that count.

No doubt we will now hear from some folks who say they shoot 38's from their magnum better than they do from their 38. That comes under the heading of a personal problem---get over it.

Step one is to become a believer. That can be accomplished very easily: Get your grubby, little paws on a machine rest, and you'll see the combined effects of the variables I've described above---without you and your grubby, little paws in the picture. And a machine rest costs less than pretty much any gun in your stash!!

And machine rests don't lie!!

Ralph Tremaine

Definitely use the shorter barrel. What works for the shooter is more important than group data.

Shot silhouette in the 80’s…… nobody shot a 4 or 6”barrel.

Targets aren't hard set anymore so the extra velocity isn't much of a factor. We have a guy that can get into double digits in Field Pistol using a Centennial revolver! (It's only 100 yards, but the targets are half size.) More depends on the shooter's eyesight and the individual revolver than the barrel length itself, up to a point.

The best shooting revolver I ever had was a 686 2.5" with combat grips. 25 yd bullseye target with 158 LSWC 38 SPCL 4g 231. IMHO stable grip fit is more important than sights.

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"Don't Give Up the Ship"

Maybe distance is more important in a general sense for barrel length discussion. Some guns being more accurate than others is not the topic.

I mostly shoot revolvers out to 100 and 200 yards ringing steel gongs; once called Silhouette with animal steel. I've not known any shooter that shot better with snubbies rather than with 8 3/8".

If you are dead steady and have Superman eyes maybe. But for the rest of us, longer barrels show the wiggle better.

I believe machine rest shows us that longer is not inherently better accuracy than shorter. Of course machine rests don't wiggle and don't have eyes. Apples and oranges.

I admit to being prejudiced on this HOT topic. It's the guys that don't admit it that I find scary.

Prescut

Barrel length has no effect on accuracy, but does affect velocity, which affects bullet trajectory. A longer barrel has a longer sight radius which makes it easier for most people to shoot accurately.

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VCDL, GOA, NRA

As most "competitors" now utilize a red dot sight of some type, the barrel length has reached the "immaterial" difference status. Since very few "bullseye/precision" shooters use revolvers any longer, the group size for any type of "action shooting" is far less critical.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244