.41 magnum Barrel length ?

[tj3006]

        When i look at loading data for the .41 rem  Magnum, it seems like it is often a 10 inch barrel used to test the loads. My gun has a 5.5 inch barrel, Any body ever read of a test done like you sometimes do with rifles, where they Shoot over a Chronograph Cut an inch shoot again, and repeat ?  Curious how much velocity is lost per inch ?
                                          ...tj3006

[leadhound]

It has been done, but I know not where to look? Not certain that it it was the 41 mag specifically, but 44 and 357 for sure. At least once in an old guns and ammo, that was the cover, the barrel with each piece in succession. 8 or 10" down to 1"

[bradshaw]

Oct 18, 2019 18:41:36 GMT -5 tj3006 said:

        When i look at loading data for the .41 rem  Magnum, it seems like it is often a 10 inch barrel used to test the loads. My gun has a 5.5 inch barrel, Any body ever read of a test done like you sometimes do with rifles, where they Shoot over a Chronograph Cut an inch shoot again, and repeat ?  Curious how much velocity is lost per inch ?
                                          ...tj3006

*****

There is no rhyme nor reason among loading manuals to standardize a revolver for velocity testing. One company uses a factory revolver, another uses test fixture with interchangeable barrel, and so on. Some ammo makers used a test barrel with, as I recall, a .004-inch gap between chamber and barrel. Don’t know whether barrel length was standardized. If so, probably a length not found in Ruger or S&W catalog. Often, a closed breech delivers 150 fps more than a revolver with similar barrel length. Dave Andrews at Speer and perhaps others published velocity comparisons of same model, even the same barrel length, to show unpredictable disparities. An unidentified gun, or odd barrel length, probably is not a revolver.

Subtract----don’t add----at least 100 fps from non-revolver data for your revolver. Better yet, chronograph it to remove all doubt. There is a vogue for showing high velocity from a short barrel. Without a chronograph and another gun to compare velocity is a guess. To this day there are folk who think fast powder in a magnum connotes velocity. It does not. Uninformed use of fast powder connotes pressure. Pressure by itself does not make velocity. Velocity takes time. Too much powder with too little patience can’t tell the difference between a bullet and a chamber wall, launching both.

Velocity as a rule increases with barrel length. Just as a target is the final arbiter of accuracy, a chronograph is the final arbiter of velocity.
David Bradshaw

[Wadcutter]

www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/41mag.html

[taffin]

Oct 18, 2019 18:41:36 GMT -5 tj3006 said:

        When i look at loading data for the .41 rem  Magnum, it seems like it is often a 10 inch barrel used to test the loads. My gun has a 5.5 inch barrel, Any body ever read of a test done like you sometimes do with rifles, where they Shoot over a Chronograph Cut an inch shoot again, and repeat ?  Curious how much velocity is lost per inch ?
                                          ...tj3006

EVERY SIXGUN OR LEVERGUN HAS ITS OWN PERSONALITY--THERE IS NO FORMULA EXCEPT ACTUALLY SHOOTING OVER A CHRONOGRAPH/LABRADAR. I HAVE HAD 4-3/4" SIXGUNS THAT SHOT FASTER THAN 7-1/2" SIXGUNS. A 6" S&W WILL NORMALLY BEAT A 8" DW. A SIMPLE EASY TO USE CHRONOGRAPH CAN BE PURCHASED FOR $100 AND EVERY RELOADER/HANDLOADER SHOULD HAVE ONE.