Barrel shortening, again!

[Tedward]

Hi All,

Can anybody tell me,

what is the minimum length you can shorten a .243 a barrel to, yet still keep it deer legal?

(I appreciate a lot of people consider this calibre border line for the larger species, so to prevent getting sidetracked,

for arguments sake lets specify legal for roe in England).

Many thanks for any help,

Tedward.

[Bambi-basher]

Hi Tedward

 

The Legal minium muzzle energy for Roe is the same as any other larger species of deer in England, your rifle will need to make 1700lbs of energy.

 

Each rifle is a bit different but here are the figures I got with my 243 Tikka with a 22” barrel using Hornady factory Loaded 95gn SST bullets. Its muzzle velocity was 2864fps, now that just scraps with in the legal limit regarding muzzle energy.

 

My home loads are a bit faster but as you see you have not got a lot to play with, I might be able to cut a 1” off and still be legal with them.

 

Remember that if you take your rifle into Scotland it is going to need to be more powerful for everything above roe deer IE 1750lbs of muzzle energy and you must use a 100gn bullet. If it is definitely England only you could try a 80gn bullet, but I doubt that would help you any.

 

One of the kind chaps on here may run it though a ballistic program for you, but you would still have to check on your rifle on a chronograph after the barrel had been shortened, and you can’t go and stick it back on if you find it does not make the legal limit.

 

In a nut shell I would say 22” min’ to be on the safe side.

 

B-b

[Tedward]

Thanks B-b,

I must admit I thought there was more room to manouver than that. I'll have to get access to a ballistic program and do the number crunching. I was hoping 20'' would be a practical solution, and was just enquiring if it was possible to take it further with careful hand loading using a faster powder?

Thanks again, Tedward.