How much loss in velocity is there in the 7-30 waters going from 14" barrel to 12" barrel with a muzzle brake? The contender that I am looking at has a 12" barrel and the muzzle brake looks like it's made on the barrel and not removable. It also has a Redfield 2.5x 7 scope. Is this a good set up and they are asking $450 for it. Just want to make sure I am getting a decent deal.This will be the first handgun that I hunt with.

Thad

That 12" barrel will have about 10-1/2" of actual bore to work with. My first Waters tube was a 16-1/4", unbraked, and got around 2,550 FPS with factory ammo, whereas the 10"er I bought after it would only get 2,050 FPS with that same load. That 10"er went down the road once I saw how anemic it was, and got a 14"er to replace both of them as 16" is a long barrel. I wouldn't recommend anything shorter than a 14 if you wish to reach 200 yards.

Best guess around 100-150fps.

the general rule of thumb is 50fps per inch but it will vary from gun to gun.

My chrony says more like 250 to 300

From 24" to 16" that would be correct, even a little less, but from 14" on down it drops off the cliff.

I lost around 500 FPS from 16" to 10" with the same load.

The muzzle flash, and flip, was significant with that short tube.

The gun is a Cabelas here in Gonzales,La. I will keep looking. Maybe they will get something else in that is in that price range.
Thanks for the info.

Thad

If you get the complete gun, scope and barrel, that is a decent price. Drop 400 cash on the counter and see what they say. You can always sell the barrel and buy something more suitable. Once you have a Contender, the barrels just seem to breed.

Best bet is to get it and try it. Internal dimensions and condition of the bore will be the biggest difference.

I have seen as little as 35 fps/inch and as much as 100 fps/inch, every barrel is different. I usually use 60-75 fps/inch until I can check with a chronograph.

Like s4s4u stated, you cannot count the muzzle brake as part of the barrel. It has to be taken into consideration as well.

I like at least 14" for a 7-30 Waters.

From what TC has told me you can usually get 100 per three inchs, or .33 per inch. If you look at Hornady’s reloading manual and compare the rifle and pistol data for the same caliber it is pretty close.


Something else, don’t forget that the 10in to 14in range is one of those special case scenarios. Like it has already been stated you/can loose 150-200fps in that case.


Man you guys are right on. The Hornady book lists the same max vel for a 35 rem rifle and a 35 rem pistol. So there are ALWAYS exceptions to the rules… LOL


DH

One thing I have noticed over time is that larger bore sizes suffer less from barrel length loss than smaller bores. A .284" bore is going to lose more velocity than a .357" bore relatively per inch of barrel loss. The chrony doesn't lie, some of the posted velocities in manuals make me wonder if they actually shot them over a chrony. All I know is what mine told me, and it is a severe drop from 14 to 10 in the Waters. I recently picked up a 13" MGM in the Waters and will soon see what it does on the clock.

I hadn't thought about it before but I think your right which is why I'm seeing such high velocities from my big bore single shots. The difference between rifle and my handgun velocities with my 458 Win and Lott where much less than I expected.

Rod... ok, S4S4U... is right on! A 22-250 will loose 400+ fps from rifle to handgun and a 44 mag will loose 50-100 fps going from rifle to handgun...

The bigger the caliber AND the heaver the bullet the less change in vel you will have in my experiences... JMHO...

This goes with you just said Rod... arg... Wapitrod...

LOL

This website is more geard towards handguns than rifles or hand cannon, but it shows much the same stuff. In handguns there is a real hook to the velocity graph betwixed 3-5 inches, but no so much between 8 and 10. Cool website none the less, check it out:
http://ballisticsbytheinch.com/index.html

As far as I can see they only offer factory ammo numbers. And a pretty select few in some cases, the 45LC chart is quite limited. If you could input your own velocity and bullet weight numbers it would be more revealing, but it does reinforce what we have been saying.