Gary Reeder
on the subject of friction in the barrel, we had a fellow
Monday, September 10, 2018, 11:11

from Louisiana send us a Marlin guide gun with a 20" barrel. He told me he wanted a 36" barrel as all his friends told him he needed that for any accuracy and speed. I tried to talk him out of it but he wouldn't listen. He had chrono'd the factory load in the 20" barrel and decided he could jack those speeds up a lot with that 36" barrel. So we put him a 36" barrel on it and sent the gun back to him. Within a week he called screaming. He said he had dropped almost 250 fps with the 36" barrel. I reminded him that I told him it would do that due to the friction on the barrel. He still wouldn't listen. He sent that gun back 3 times and each time we whacked off another couple of inches. When he got it to 20" he was happy as he was about 80 fps faster than his factory barrel. He spend almost $1000 in the work and shipping and learned an expensive lesson. Once that powder has all burned and the residual gases are gone that bullet starts slowing down real quick. Long barrels don't always mean faster bullets.