Thread: Hand loads and suppressors

Hi team

Pretty new to the hand loading scene. Have a basic loading set up and have been through my first box of projectiles with resonably decent results for what I aim to acheive. Have made a load that shots .89 of an inch at a 100yards out of my Sako for hunting purposes, haven't chronnyed it or worked out drops at this stage.

My question is, if I decide to shorten my barrel and have a suppresor installed will I need to re-do my recipe to get it to group again and if so how much is it likely to change? At the moment its just a standard 22.5" Sako 7mm08 barrel but my plan is to shorten the barrel to 18"s and have a DPT suppressor installed.

As I write this I feel as though I'm answering my own question in my head, all things point to yes it will change. But how much? I thought i'd carry on and post it any way to find out what others have experianced.

Cheers

youll see when you do it in some cases no and in some yes you wont know till you group it once done

any change of Effective Barrel length may cause the group to change. It'll certainly change your POI.

If you did your load Development using OCW then in theory it should be tolerant to this kind of change

Originally Posted by kiwi39

any change of Effective Barrel length may cause the group to change. It'll certainly change your POI.

If you did your load Development using OCW then in theory it should be tolerant to this kind of change

Since OCW is based largely on barrel vibration/harmonics/voodoo, surely chopping the end off it and adding a can will more than likely change the results you'd get from the OCW process?

sorta ...

OCW is based on that - but the big key to it is finding a charge in the middle of a range of charges which is highly tolerant to change of any kind ... including rifle ... and barrel length.

I know this can work for a fact as the loads that I developed for my 223 with a long barrel still fly like a charm in the same rifle shortened and suppressed ...

Generally the same load works with the suppressor but if it was fiddly and hard to get right in the first place it may need reworking.

Originally Posted by kiwi39

I know this can work for a fact as the loads that I developed for my 223 with a long barrel still fly like a charm in the same rifle shortened and suppressed ...

A happy coincidence I believe.

Originally Posted by kiwi39

OCW is based on that - but the big key to it is finding a charge in the middle of a range of charges which is highly tolerant to change of any kind ... including rifle ... and barrel length. ...

With respect disagree. Tolerant to changes in charge. It's optimum charge weight for a reason, not OBL. Maybe the underlying theory would hold for a few millimetres variation, but not 4.5" plus suppressor unless by happy coincidence.

My bet is that same load of yours will produce smaller groups with the shortened barrel and can.....due to reduced recoil - you'll shoot better!

Just my 0.02c$!
In my humble opinion if you guys re-read his primary message and his question you guys will find out that he "just found a good load" that group under 1" but he "Didn't" chronograph or work out drops yet for the load.

My answer to his question in my understand:

If you have a good load with your 22.5" barrel you are very likely to keep the accuracy of the load with the shorter barrel. As soon you ad a suppressor/can what is very likely to happen is, your load still will group well but your point of impact may change slightly.
That said, you still have a "50/50"% chance you may need a "tuick" in your load, but not a full "rework" load.

I hope it helps.

Cheers.

Mac

That all sounds very positive tbh! Will be a case of wait and see. A mate of mine also has a Sako with a suppressor he hand loads for but it has standard barrel length still, he has zero change in POI with can off or on so yeah its a 50/50 chance of happiness or rework!

I had an 8 inch POI change from can off to can on. No science can tell you what your rifle will do mate, you will just have to test it