I’m looking for a gun to hunt out west. I think I’ve settled on a 7PRC. I’ve read and watched a lot reviews on the Seekins PH2, but that comes in a 26" barrel. All the reviews have been great, but I don’t like the 26" barrel. I’m a fan of the bergara ridge B-14 rifles. I have several and they shoot great for the price. I looked at a 7 PRC in the B-14 and it comes in a 22" barrel. The B-14 has several other magnum and standard cartridges that utilize the 24" barrel. Why is there such a discrepancy between manufactures? They both have a 1:8 twist. Will the Seekins have significantly better velocity to justify the extra length? Seems like there is a different philosophy between Bergara and Seekins. I shoot suppressors and prefer the shorter barrel.
I’ve said a lot, but can any explain why the seekins has a 26" barrel and the bergara has a 22"?
One focuses on the shooting part of long range or extended lon range hunting (Seekins). The longer the barrel the faster the bullet, right… more speed means better ballistics at extended ranges.
The other focus on the other parts of long range hunting: weight, portability, agility, adding a supressor, tranportability, etc.
I have the Crest Carbon in 7PRC and with a mid to long break on it it has a nearly 25" barrel. Adding my Banish 30 reduced down to 7" is 29"!!! So even at 22" that barrel supressed is crazy long to deal with.
If I were to do it all over again, I would have purchased the Crest, not the Crest Carbon and then the Hnt26 stock from MDT with the folding stock option. This would have a more packable solution than what I did.
Do you think you can compensate for loss in velocity of the 4" shorter barrel by reloading? I’ve starting buying reloading gear, but haven’t started reloading yet and have little knowledge outside of reloading shotgun shells when I was younger.
I’ve found a lot of information online that was very misleading on velocity differences between barrel lengths. Does anyone have any data points on velocity changes in a 7 PRC at different barrel lengths?
Ammo Manufacturers test at 24" typically. You lose roughly 50ft/in as you get shorter. These a general numbers. You can find youtube videos of shooters chronoing their ammo, factory and handload that will give you an idea for the 7PRC. Its what I did. There are also a few threads here that go into the 7PRC.
I searched on here and found some interesting results. Should have done that first…lol. Looks like Jim tested a 20" and 24" with minimal velocity loss. Around 50 FPS i believe. Looked closely at the Crest after you brought it up. Not sure why I didn’t look at that before. Looks much better than the seekins IMO and a few bucks cheaper (non-carbon). Going to do some more research and may lean that direction since I’ve been very happy with my ridges. Thanks
The recent discussions we had on here regarding the really short barrel 6.5 PRC make me wonder if a similar thing can be done with a 7 mm. Either PRC or 280ai.
Don’t really see anybody making either of those from the factory with 18, much less 16 in barrels.
I was just thinking more and more recently about that talk we had regarding the short barrel 6.5 prc. I think it would be a neat thing to do to have either one short barrel and one regular Barrel 6.5 prc, or a single gun with switch Barrel with one short and one long.
With the long barrel you’d be getting 270 Winchester performance, and with that short barrel you’re getting 6.5 Creedmoor performance but with a much shorter package which could come in quite handy in a small box blind or climbing tree stand. You could hunt just about anything on this continent with that combo.