Affect Of 2" Barrel On .357 Mag Ballistics?

J

Jelly

New member
Has anyone established how a two inch barrel affects a .357 magnums ballistics?

When I look at the "charts", the tests are done with a 4" barrel and with the 180gr. rounds, they are done with an even larger barrel (6 or 8 inches).
 
Naturally your going to loose velocity from a 2" tube. Butt whatever or whoever is on the business end,isn`t going to care.
 
Thanks Tom.

I'm curious - Does the loss in velocity (and possibly energy as well?) remain consistent across the board, or do you lose a greater amount with the heavier rounds (180gr.)?
 
It really depends on the powder. A slow buring powder will tend to lose more velocity than a fast one when used in a short barrel.

I can tell you this much, a friend of mine ran some +P .38's and some .357mags through his 2" S&W and was seeing about 250 fps more in the magnums.
 
You may well loose velocity with heavier bullets,butt you also gain energy with them and they retain there energy more aver a given distance. Bullet energy depends on mass(bullet weight) and speed(velocity).
 
That is true... however, high velocity / low mass rounds tend to produce more muzzle energy. This is because E = MV^2/450400. Therefore, velocity affects energy by the square of the ft/sec whereas the mass just affects it directly.
 
General “rule of thumb”: Each inch of barrel length lost reduces muzzle velocity by approximately 50 FPS, with a concomitant muzzle energy reduction.
 
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