Barrels - how short is too short?

[Liam Porter]

So all day yesterday and so far all day today, I've been fiddling with my L96 trying to sort various problems out.

During this, I realised I only need 4 more parts before I can make a whole new gun out of the spares I have lying around.

Obviously it would be somewhat pointless to build another 500 FPS, full length L96 out of these parts.

So, I've decided I want a short barrelled L96, to run at around 400 FPS. Plan on putting foam all the way down the outer barrel, fitting a silencer (for looks), packing the stock with foam, putting a smaller, low-powered optic on it rather than a full on scope, and using it for urban game days. Because it will primarily be used at urban, I thought a smaller barrel would be more suiting, which brings the question; how short is too short?

I'm not on about for looks (well maybe a little bit), because that's all personal preference and opinion based, but I mean for performance.

To get the look I want, the inner barrel may have to be as short as 200mm, which is 295mm shorter than the original length (495mm).

Will I notice a massive drop in performance by using a 200mm barrel? What about a 300mm barrel, or even a 363mm (standard M4 length) barrel?

The above is all about sniper rifles, but, use this thread for discussion about other guns too.

What's the shortest barrel you can put in an AEG without suffering massive performance loss? I know an MP5 has a short barrel, yet I've seen some pretty accurate and long-range MP5s around before.

What about pistols? My TM Glock 17 has an accurate range of around 30m, it doesn't really go any further than that. If I were to stick a longer barrel in it, would this change anything? Increase accuracy and range, or maybe decrease them due to the amount of gas actually released per trigger pull.

And finally, if anyone has a short barrelled rifle, or a long barrelled pistol for that matter, feel free to post pictures of them here and state what's good, what's bad and what made you go for that specific barrel length.

 

[kentsg]

Hi i am sure barrell length does not really affect accuracy, more to do with the hop up unit used, due to the way the bb is fired not like gas or real ammo. So talking about having a mid length barrell should not give you any problems, best thing to do if you have two similar pieces is just test it and see what results you get. That way you'll be happy

 

[Liam Porter]

That's what I thought, and what I've found out from experience, but there must be a limit as to how short you can go before accuracy and range are lost. Otherwise, I'll stick a pistol barrel on my L96 and basically have a stock with a bolt and scope.

 

[jcheeseright]

my 5-7 is pretty accurate out to at least 35-40m and the barrel is shorter than my little finger, I'm sure there is a 'sweet spot' but to all realistic intents and purposes I believe barrel length is irrelevant when it comes to accuracy. Power on the other hand... whole other kettle of fish.

 

[Liam Porter]

Hmm.. I may be able to just have a 10cm or so barrel on an L96 then, meaning essentially having a stock, a scope and a bolt. It's all looking good.

But, this will be a higher FPS than a pistol, so do you think that would have an effect on it? Something along the lines of more power requires a longer barrel?

 

[Nutster]

Something like this?

Bizarrely I quite like it

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

Does anyone else get an overwhelming sense of deja vu from reading this thread?

I'm sure I've read the OP before...

 

[M_P]

Yeah I read it about 15 mins ago :lol:

 

[Airsoft-Ed]

No I mean like, months and months ago.

But anyway, why don't you just test it, Liam? You can fit any inner barrel you want, it'll just have to sit inside the outer barrel. If you don't see a change, cut the outer barrel down to suit the length of the inner and job's a good 'un. Simples.

 

[Liam Porter]

I might have posted one similar before, but asking in general. Didn't want to necropost and couldn't really be bothered to find it even if I did.

Also, this post was going to include what I have done to my L96 today, but I posted that in the review thread I made a while ago, because I knew exactly where to find that.

And yeah Nutster, something like that, maybe even shorter barrel if I can find an AEG barrel that short...

 

[Liam Porter]

Sorry for double post, but if I edit, it won't get seen.

What's the shortest AEG tight bore barrel from a decent brand that isn't too expensive? Don't want something that'll be crap, but then again don't want to spend too much on this rifle.

The shortest I've found is either a 229x6.03mm MadBull or a 182x6.02mm Deep Fire.

 

[Nutster]

You don't wanna go too short, it won't reach the end of the rifle stock

I'd measure up from how much outer barrel you want, and go from there

 

[TacMaster]

229mm is the MP5 length, with a madbull 229x6.03 I got the sort of performance you'd want for a rifle aimed at fibua operations, and a dedicated sniper rifle would have an even better hop (therefore accuracy) then my 'lil MP5.

 

[Tariq]

My MP7 is pretty accurate up to 40m with a 180mm barrel.

However it is GBB, where BBs behave slightly differently than AEG propelled BBs.

 

[Liam Porter]

Is it an AEG barrel though? This'll be in a sniper, it's just I have a different hop unit so have to use AEG barrels.