standard or heavy barrel????
 

I'm looking to get a rifle for coyote hunting in either .223 or 22-250 but don't know if I should get a heavy barrel or a regular one. What is the difference and does length matter. A buddy of mine has a 22-250 with a regular barrel and says it shoots good and he can reach out pretty far with it. I just don't know what the advantages of a heavy barrel are. Here is a link to the rifle I plan on buying when I can come up with the cash. I think it's only available with a heavy barrel.

http://www.snipercentral.com/remspsv.htm

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

Depends how you plan to hunt.Heavy barrels are stiffer so should be more accurate but not a good choice if you cover a lot of ground on foot.

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

I hunt two small farms and my shots would only be about 250 to 300 yards maxbut I dont do much moving because there's just not that much land to cover. I would like to have something I could reach out there with just in case! I also plan on using it for target practice/play.

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

i have the SPS varmint in 22-250....i LOVE it. its a tack driver out of the box with good glass ontop of it! ive had confirmed groundhog kills out to 350yds....the only thing that holds me back is the lack of a range finder...once in a while i'll borrow a buddies so i know the range to the holes at 1 farm i hunt....

with a bipod and Leupold VX-II 6-18x40, its a HEAVY rifle...that 26" heavy barrel is long and heavy. i wanted a rifle i could reach out and touch with...not have to carry and walk and get closer....if i gotta walk more than 100yds from my truck, something is wrong! lol..perks of being best friends with the farmer!

i love it though!! that article describes them well...stock is pretty cheesy but isnt TERRIBLE. trigger aint TERRIBLE..better than most factory, but could be better...action is a 700 action and is a good solid action and can be made more accurate down the road...exactly why i bought it....good shooter outta the box, fair price, and when i get around to it, i can work on it and make it what i want.....

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

I haven't heard anything bad about it and it's a Rem 700 so it cant be a bad gun!! I know the stock isn't the best but it isupgradeable. Check out this scope! It's got a built in rangefinder but it's a little pricey!!!

http://www.swfa.com/pc-12315-983-zeiss-3-12x56-victory-diarange-rifle-scope.aspx

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

Get the regular lighter barrel unless you plan on a lot of bench shooting

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

you wont need a bull barrel gun for 300 yard coyotes.I shoot a ruger m77compact with a 16 1/2 inch barrel and leupold 4x12x40 scope the whole rig weighs a little over 7lbs and I have made some 290yard shots on groundhogs off of sand bags with it before.It is a 223 caliber,which I would reccomend if you like to shoot alot the ammo is cheaper,the 22-250 is capable of shooting alot farther but if 300 is your max range on a songdog then the 223 is perfectly capable of doing it.I have a remington 700sps in 243 and it shots sub-moa with the federal fusions so I think that this gun in 223 or 204 or 22-250 would be a good coyote rifle and you can get a remington 700 trigger adjusted by you gunsmith,Good luck!!

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

One of the best shooting .243's I ever had was a 700 BDL with factory sporter barrel. It was hand-bedded and loaded for, and was one of my favorite groundhog guns for years. It shot impressive groups with that skinny barrel.

A lot of groundhogs got impressed by it also.

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

That's one if the issues I'm facing in my search for a new rifle. It'd be nice to have the heavy/longer barrell, but for the distances I walk vs. the distances I TRY to shoot, it doesn't seem reasonable to me.

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

Obviously I don't know a whole lot about rifles and I keep hearing people reffering to sub-moa groups. What does that mean (moa)???

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

MOA= Minute of Angle. At 100 yards it is ~1". So a sub-moa rifle is usually 3-5 shots in an inch at 100 yards.That's the quick answer, it gets different as the range goes longer.

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

Jecole - Two years ago, I went out and bought a Kimber Longmaster VT (84m) in .22-250.It was a beautiful firearm with a laminated stock and stainless / flutted heavy barrel. I hunted with it 4 times and really disliked lugging 11lbs around. I sold it and bought a Remington 700 Mountain rifle in .243. It only weighs 6 lbs and accuracy is great. With the .55grain bullets, It shoots as fast and flat as the .22-250. But I also use it to hunt deer with 100gr bullets, something I wouldn't do with the .22-250.

Unless you're hunting prarie dogs / shooting multiple shots, I'd recommend the sporter (regular) barrel

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

Thanks, that helps alot. I wonder why they call it that though(minute of angle).

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

If all you're ever going to hunt are those same two fields, then it probably doesn't matter WHICH of the two you choose. Coyote rifles tend to have different characteristics than your standard "varmint rifle". Most notably, they're light enough to carry from setup to setup. Leave the heavy-barrel jobs for the prairie poodles and the groundhogs.

My all-time favorite coyote rifle was a Remington 788 in .243. The .243 did cause significant pelt damage (though bullet weights less than 75 gr weren't available then). I use a variety of .223s on coyotes today

If you're just learning, stick to the basics. No need for that gee-golly-whiz rangfinding scope. Especially if you're hunting the same fields all the time, it shouldn't be that difficult to set up some range markers to practice and learn to estimate ranges by sight.

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

Long story...short explanation is that it is physics/mathematical terminology.

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

The advantages of the heavier barrel are:
1) Stiffer - greater accuracy potential
2) More shots before overheating - longer barrel life and greater accuracy at the end of long shot strings
3) Heavier gun - easier to shoot accurately

So the heavier barrel is favored for:
1) Situations where you'll shoot fast enough to overheat a barrel - preserve accuracy and barrel life
2) Care about maximal accuracy - longer range shooting

Your situation sounds like it does not demand a heavier barrel, though you could still opt for it. The only real trade-off is weight, and you'll have to make that decision.

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

In its simplest of terms "sub MOA" means that a gun has the ability to shoot slightly smaller than 1" groups at 100 yds.

MOA is 1/60 of one degree of an angle. Extended out to 100 yds. this equals just slightly over 1". At 200 yds. the amount is linear and is just a bit over 2".

Most guns that are described as such on the internet fail miserably to perform at this level in actual use.

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

i wish you were close id let you feel just how heavy, and top heavy, my SPS in 22-250 actually is! its so top heavy i have to sling it barrel down...and when i walk, i have to watch because its so close to the ground(im only like 5'9"-5'10" but with the scope and bipod, its just a heavy rifle...when i goto a new stock it'll likely get HEAVIER. i cant see that stock thats on it weighing much.


great rifle...but believe me, if your walking very far, very often, you'll likely curse it lol....i carried it predator hunting uphill to 1 set....i wanted to leave it at the truck all the way...snow, up hill, cold and bundled up...i was in no mood to carry that sucker plus my light, up the hill lol. but, when the yotes and foxes hang up at 200yds i know all i gotta do is send em a 55gr pill and they will take a dirt nap so i suffer and lug it to some of my open field and long range setups...it aint fun to carry though....

heres a pic of mine fully setup...



great rifle....but it aint built to carry around IMO. im used to packing and carrying gear a good distance whether its the bow and treestand and pack, or surf rod and bait and cooler, or the predator gun and light, or 22, light and dog tracking system and fur...etc etc...im used to it and still find carrying the SPS to be a bit cumbersome...

when i redo it, its going to be made into a more compact, lighter, rifle...like the others said, 300yds and less, you really dont need the weight of a 26" heavy barrel....unless you WANT it..

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

That's a nice setup you got there. That is basically what I want and I have held the gun, it just didn't have the bipod on it but I know what you mean about it feeling top heavy. The stock on it felt really lightweight and cheap so if I get the gun I plan on putting a better stock on it.

I'm not going to be doing too much hiking with it and I'll probably be doing more target shooting withit than huntingso I think that's the one I plan on getting. Thanks for all the input.

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

MOA is close to an inch at 100 yrds, 2 inches at 200 yrds, 3 in. at 300 yrds and so on.

If you want a lighter gun but want the heavy barrel you ought to look into a Howa m1500 varmint. It weights under 10lbs without the scope. They will shoot under moa with ease. Nice rifles. And by the way I have one for sale if you are interested. Research them and im sure you will be impressed.

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

Howa

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

Well I think I found a gun I'm gonna get to start out with. I spoke with the gun sales manager at Sportsmans warehouse yesterday who happens to travel all over the country coyote hunting and he recommended that I get the Stevens model 200 in 22-250. They have it on sale for $299 and he said it is a great gun to start out with. It's got a standard barrel and the gun only weighs 6.5 lbs so it's pretty lightweight. The stock is kinda cheap and ugly looking in my opinion so I will probably paint it camo anyway but the guy said it's a good gun, shoots good and can take some abuse which is what I like. I like the fancy looking wood stock guns but they arent practical for me cause I dont want to have to worry about beating them up when I'm out hunting. Looks like I will get this gun to start out with and if I don't like it or coyote hunting then I'm not out alot of money!

http://www.savagearms.com/st_200short.htm
http://www.shootingtimes.com/longgun_reviews/stevens200_041106/index.html< review

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

If you're gonna use a bipod on that Stevens, you're gonna need to stiffen the stock up to keep it from flexing where the bipod mounts.
Some guys use an aluminum bar and epoxy it in the bottom of the stock, and then some guys just use an epoxy.

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

For a strictly coyote rifle, I'd opt for a sporter-weight barrel, especially if shots are going to be <300 yards. It'll be a lot easier to carry around, and will allow you to more easily move the rifle if the 'yote comes in from an unexpected direction. Heavy barreled rifles are USUALLY more accurate, but because of the weight and bulk are best suited for static shooting scenarios where you have time to bag it in or set up on a bipod (like prairie dogging).

Also, Minute-of-Angle is a unit of angular measurement. There are 360 degrees (°) in a circle, 60 minutes-of-angle (') per degree, and 60 seconds-of-angle (") per minute. You most often see this form of measurement used for coordinate systems on a sphere (Longitude and Latitude). For instance, the Statue of Liberty sits at 40°41'21.23" North Latitude X 74°02'39.93" West Longitude. The Minute-of-Angle measurement is useful because it is very close to 1" per 100 yards (one MOA @ 100 yards is 1.047197580733"), and can be easily used to describe absolute accuracy without the need to include the range, and to predict group size at any range. So it your rifle shoots 1 MOA that will be a 1" group at 100, 2" @ 200 yards, 3" @ 300 yards, etc... If I said that I shot a 1" group, without stating the range, the information would be useless because I could have shot the group at 25 yards (4 MOA, which is barely adequate, IMO, for a 100 yard deer rifle), or at 400 yards (1/4 MOA, which is outstanding accuracy). But if I say my rifle shoots 1/2 MOA, it doesn't matter how far I was from the target, you still know that it's a very accurate rifle.

Mike

RE: standard or heavy barrel????
 

Make sure you are wearing hearing protection because the 22-250 will ring your ears.