From: Paul F Austin <paustin@digital.net>
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: Bull Barrels On .22's
Date: 27 Apr 1999 10:50:19 -0400

Emmanuel.Baechler@hospvd.ch wrote in message
<7g1ppc$ci0$1@xring.cs.umd.edu>...
#
## I've heard a lot about .22 rifles and pistols having bull barrels to
improve
## accuracy.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was led to believe that the
## purpose of the bull barrel is to add weight to the end of the barrel in
## order to reduce muzzle flip.  I didn't think recoil or muzzle flip was an
## issue with the .22LR.  Heck, I've shot air guns that had more kick.  Are
## they really more accurate?
#
#Bull barrels heat up slower than conventional ones. Their vibrations modes
#are also different, and this helps accuracy. Finally, flip does matter for
#ISU rimrfire. The last four strings are shot in ten seconds on an ISU c50
#precision target. Of course, they are shot with a single hand. The 10 is a
#5 disk of 5 centimeters of diameter, and, as there is 2 seconds, on
#average, for each shot, anything that helps keeping the gun on target is
#useful to improve scores.


Heavy barreled pistols are also more twitch-resistant. I started with a
Ruger MkII with a tapered barrel and shifted to a Berretta 89 with a very
heavy barrel when I was shooting 800 out of 900. When I made the change, a
twitch in rapid fire that would throw me into the seven ring stayed in the
nine ring. My score immediately improved by 10-15 points. I'm shooting
850-870 now and twitch a lot less. _Now_ the heavy barrel gives me more time
to pick my shots during rapid fire. Pistol shooting is almost always
operator-limited rather than exterior ballistics limited. The main
distinguishing elements among target pistols are human factors ones: sights
and trigger mostly.

"people of means-decent folk-should be given more votes
than drifters, whores, criminals, degenerates, atheists
and indecent folks-people without means."

Paul F Austin
paustin@digital.net