Thread: Old School No Suppressor No Brake

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Not a fan of suppresors these days, used to have the on all my rifles but would much prefer the barrel length instead, rifle looks better, handles better, performs better. I have a suppresor on my Forbes 243 but only because it has been cut to 18.5" before my time, if it were up to me I'd rather have the rest of the barrel back and bin the suppresor but it is what it is for now. I've had a 375 HnH and that would have just looked silly with a suppressor, it wasn't bad to shoot at all

Coming to the same conclusions as you is what prompted me to start this thread .
Barrel length and the performance you forfeit by lopping of multiple inches from the barrel is a topic that seems to have slipped under the radar and is seldom acknowledged .
My caliber selection has got smaller over the years because advances in projectile and powder design has upped the effectiveness of the “ little “ rifles over the last 30 years .
Velocity has always been a major component of effectiveness when your talking about 6.5mm rifles and smaller , removing 4 - 6 inches from the muzzle just moves you back to the 1980’s - 1990’s performance wise . There are many reloading threads talking about how to get more velocity from short barrels and even after their best efforts most will still fall short of achieving what is standard in a standard length barrel.
Give me a 22 - 24 inch barrel which will still be shorter and easier to carry than a suppressed 17 -18 inch barrel and the extra 100fps - 125fps is free apart from the cost of some foam earplugs.
Yes I do own a 18 inch suppressed 6.5 which is a beautiful rifle, but if I had my time again I’d save my money and have some speed back .