Barrel length

[grayfox]

The 2450-2475 I was speaking from is from my 20" HB howa.
I will confess that I have pushed it to 2525 +/- but the pressures were above 52ksi for gas; in a bolt action it is below the 58-60ksi limit.
There is a node, sort of, in the 2510-2525 region with the right powders, but I am coming to think it is a narrow one.
So next time I take out my howa I will be looking at the 2450-2475 range. That range can also work in my AR style grendel, also 20".
With 123 Eldms and SSTs. Maybe the 120 gold dots if they come back in stock.
You don't lose much distance down at 2450, lose 50 ft/s translates to about 25 yds. But you still have 300 in your pocket.

O one more thing. Mfrs like to say expansion down to xxx ft/s, but in reality they are saying any expansion, even just an itty bitty expansion of the nose. I like to keep my lowest velocity/range so that there is some room for a decent expansion... say "mfr min+ 200" and 1000 ke lbs -- something like that. It's more of an art than a science.

[kiwi shooter]

http://www.65grendel.com/forum/showthread.php?23452-Surprising-ES-SD-with-Leverevolution

CFE 223 and Power Pro 2000- MR have similar burn rates and are reasonable alternatives.

[Harpoon1]

[Stinky Coyote]

20-25 fps per inch is my experience from factory barrels. which is inline with well known rules of thumb from most centerfire hunting cartridges, cz 527 American with it's 23.5" barrel did 2552 fps average 5 shot string with hornady black (rated at 2580 fps), it did about 2475 un broken in on a howa 20" to start and got up to about 2500 fps after some rounds, and my ruger 16.1" barrel rigs are doing 2386 fps and have a fat whitetail doe from Alberta at 420 yards (1800 fps impact) that exited on a quartering shot, I did put a 24" proof carbon barrel on one rifle and it shot that hornady black at 2605 fps average...but hand lapped custom vs factory, you can math it from there, I only shoot hornady black fyi

as for the shooting experience, we are not allowed suppressors here, I would not go shorter than the ruger 16.1" barrel for anything without a suppressor, it's about the max muzzle blast and sound you'd want, equivalent to a 20" plain barrel in a regular short action cartridge like a .308...so consider that your standard comparison, brakes are the dumbest things ever unless it's just a range queen and you don't hunt so forget that nonsense, suppressors would be the ideal way to go and my personal minimum length would be 16" with or without suppressor as we hunt up to approx 400 so that's as much velocity we'd give up, suppressors apparently add a few fps anyway so maybe expect 2400 fps out of the ruger ranch suppressed with that ammo