r/canadaguns • u/A1B1C1D1H1 • Mar 22 '26
Gun and gear reviews Advice- barrel length.
Hi
I have 2 guns in my wish list
MRA renegade5.56 and a 357 lever
I just cant decide on a barrel length!
Im leaning towards renegade 12" and lever 16"
Whats your opinion ?
I dont hunt, just target, fun shooting.
I know longer is better but I just dont wanna carry a really long rifle.
Thx
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u/HappyCan7250 Mar 22 '26
I say go for the 16". I have a few 223 guns with 16" barrels and it's the best between compact size and decent velocity.
Look up a velocity to barrel length chart for 223. You can find them online. 16" barrels for 223/5.56 land in 2900-3000fps range, so still giving up a couple hundred fps. I believe it usually works out to about 50fps per inch. 223 our of a 12.5" . Most 223 ammo out of a 12" will land you closer to 2700fps. Still fast, but giving up a lot.
For 357 though, 12" is fine. Being a technically pistol rounds, it burns up about all its powder in 12".
The site "ballistics by the inch" is a good site for figuring out what barrel length for various calibers, although they're missing a lot of the larger rifle rounds, they have 223 and 357.
357 gains a ton of velocity out of a 12 of 16" barrel vs from a 3-6" revolver. 357 will push a 125gr at 2000-2100fps out of a rifle, so for 357 a 12" barrel is perfectly fine, but 223 Id opt for 16" unless your goal is just having some fun with huge fireballs and muzzle blast.
Even my 16" MVP Patrol, 16.1" RAR, and my 16.5" Troy SAR shoot some huge fireballs in dusk lighting. They're fun. I'm tempted to buy a 20-24" 223 next though to get a bit more velocity out of it. The speeds you see listed on ammo boxes are almost always out of longer 24-26" barrels.