1892 rossi 24" barrel 44mag vs 357 weight

[Deleted User 327]

Deleted

[Archer]

It has been a while since I checked out BBI. I had some issues with their methods some 6 or 10 years back. I don't recall now what the issues were and it looks like some of the notes I looked at may not be as easy to find looking now.

1st. Full power magnum powder loads produce higher velocities in the 24" barrel vs the 20" barrel. Yes I know that BBI's data shows that a 16" barrel is optimum, however, that is using commercial pistol ammo that is developed to perform out of short barrels. They don't have any data with magnum pistol powders like H110, 296, or Lil'Gun which come alive in longer barrels.

With 158grn bullets, my rifle at 6,100ft asl on an 84 deg day, chrono's 33fps higher velocities with H110 powder and 55fps higher velocities with Lil'Gun powder than my carbine. Better velocities give more ME at longer range and a flatter trajectory.

I was explaining that gain as the BBI data suggests that the velocity in a 24" barrel would actually be less than a 20", not more.

Ok, so now I'm maybe a little confused. Your first comment says you get 33 FPS higher V in the rifle than the carbine but your second comment says BBI's data suggests the 24" barrel would give a lower V.
I was agreeing with you that the 24" barrel with the right ammo giving 33 FPS increase over the 20" barrel was a good thing and was what I expected if you loaded for rifles as opposed to short barreled guns.

I went back and looked and it does seem like BBI generally showed a decrease in velocity beyond ~17" or so in many of their tests but sample sizes and ammo choices were small. I didn't see any testing at the time for 20" or 24" tubes or samples from factory barrels in lengths between 16 and 24+ inches. Ammo choices in particular were generally limited rarely duplicating the most common for caliber weight and I don't recall any consideration of handloads of any kind. Some of their data showed velocities still climbing albeit slowly at 18" and I did notice some velocity variations that did not make sense (A very low FPS increase say between 14" and 15" followed by about 4 times that increase between say 15" and 16" for example. )

To be fair, factory ammo IS designed for pistol barrel lengths and destructive testing is particularly expensive and difficult to run multiple times and testing handloads requires additional effort, safeguards and liability. I think they may have enhanced their methodology as well but as I said I haven't kept up with their testing.

As for the pricing,
One of the reasons I don't have a 24" .357 is I haven't found a deal on one like I did on my 20" .44 Mag round barrel. The 24" .44 Mag octagonal was acquired used and ran me less than list or Bud's and I had some spare cash that day. The 20" RB .44 Mag was again used and ran me less than half that price. My .357 RB was a bit of a pain to get. They were always out of stock a day after they were delivered and I finally pulled the trigger on it when I saw it hit Bud's one day.

The other reason I haven't picked up a 24" .357 Mag is I just have a lot of fun with the .44 and I think .44 Mag may be a bit more useful overall. The .357 is a lot of fun at the range and with friends and quite a bit less expensive even when you are making your own ammo but it doesn't have quite the same range of potential application I feel the in the .44 Mag. It is probably still a heck of a kick in the pants compared to say the early Henry rimfire rounds.

[Deleted User 327]

Deleted

[Archer]

I think we are in agreement and saying the same thing.