whats the difference in a heavy barrel rifle and regular barrel rifle.?

Answer 1

While the barrel of a firearm may seem very stiff and resistant to significant vibrations, the force of an igniting cartridge, which goes from zero pressure to 10,000 to 60,000 lbf/in² (70–400 MPa, 700–4,000 bar) or more in less than a millisecond, creates enough force to make the barrel ring like a tuning fork at its natural frequency. It has been experimentally shown that such ringing can open groups up several minutes of arc, especially with long, thin barrels that ring at lower frequencies and higher amplitudes than short, thick barrels. Harmonics don't really have an impact with handguns, since the barrels are far shorter and thus inherently far stiffer than rifle barrels. Most target rifles have larger diameter barrels, appropriately called "heavy barrels"; some go so far as to have no taper at all along their length, and these are called "bull barrels". The large diameter barrels reduce the amplitude very significantly, but at the expense of a lot of weight. Sporting rifles and rifles made for target matches that have a maximum rifle weight cannot afford to have a barrel that heavy, and legal and internal ballistics considerations set a minimum practical length. For these rifles, alternate methods of dealing with harmonics must be used.
No method can completely eliminate the effects of harmonics, and because of that, an accurate rifle attempts to make the harmonics as consistent as possible. This is generally done by "free floating" the barrel. This is done by opening up the stock channel under the barrel so that there is a small amount of space free--the general rule of thumb is enough to slide a business card between stock and barrel. This will allow the barrel to ring at the same frequency even when the barrel heats and expands, or when the stock swells and contracts with changes in humidity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accurizing



D58


Hunting with Rifle, Pistol, Muzzle loader and Bow for over 3 decades.
Reloading Rifle, Pistol and shotgun for over 3 decades.

Answer 2

Heavy Barrel Rifle

Answer 3

Bull Barrel Rifles

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
whats the difference in a heavy barrel rifle and regular barrel rifle.?

Answer 5

When you fire a rifle, there's a thing called "barrel whip" that many people think has something to do with recoil, but actually it's about something else entirely: the barrel actually oscillates as if you were shaking a rope. There's a tiny amount of variation in whether the muzzle is pointed up, down, or neutral relative to the average axis of the bore from one shot to the next. A sporter-weight barrel isn't exactly limp, but it does have its harmonics. A heavy barrel is thicker and stiffer, so there's less whip, and this should improve accuracy. In addition, there may be some improvement in heat dissipation.

Answer 6

Several good answers here but the key point to the question, I don't think was touched on.

A standard barrel is one that the barrel tapers down to less than the bullet diameter in thickness when it reaches the muzzle. A heavy barrel or a "bull barrel" is one that the barrel wall thickness at the muzzle is greater than the diam of the bullet.

In other words, a standard .22 cal tapered barrel would have a barrel wall thickness of less than 22/100 of an inch at the muzzle. A bull barrel on, say, a .30 cal rifle would have a barrel wall thickness of greater than 30/100 of an inch at the muzzle. A .50bmg with a barrel that tapered down to a barrel wall thickness of 45/100 of an inch at the muzzle would be a standard barrel....whereas one with a barrel wall thickness of 60/100 of an inch at the muzzle would be a bull barrel.

All barrels tend to whip themselves in spirals when a bullet travels down them at high speed....and by using a barrel with thicker walls than the bullet is wide, the barrel will always be somewhere in its major axis and thus is more easily aimed for close to perfect accuracy.

You can think of it sort of like a motorcycle rider doing doughnuts in a parking lot. As long as his leg is long enough to match the radius of the tightest circle the bike can do (the barrel wall thickness), his grounded foot will stay in one place and the bike will circle around him in a well controlled doughnut. If his leg *isn't* long enough to match the tightest circle the bike can do (if the barrel is thinner than the bullet's diam), his foot can't remain planted in one place and the doughnut ends up going all over the place.

I hope that helped...and that it made some sense.

Answer 7

A heavy barrel on a rifle is the same diameter from chamber to the muzzle, whereas the regular barrel is tapered. An example , a .22 caliber varmint rifle will have a one inch diameter barrel. The heavier the barrel the less the rifle kicks.

Answer 8

Heavy barrel does not heat up to interfere with sight picture* and is more stable, and easier to shoot more accurate with while giving you better support*...

Answer 9

D58 is right on, no need for my imput.............