Boom Stick Wrote:
> Couple of questions about the 416 whisper (since I'm totally ignorant of the possibilities)
1. Will the 416 whisper fit comfortably inside the confines of an AR-10 magazine with long high ballistic coefficient bullets?<
Depends on the bullet length and seating depth. AR-10 mags accept about 2.85" max cartridge length. 308 SAAMI length is 2.80". The 7mm BR case is 1.51" long and only changes a little if necked up. I don't like to load the shank of a bullet deeper than the length of the case neck for best accuracy. Of ourse a larger bullet takes up more case capacity and a heavier bullet needs more. That case capacity is still reasonable for bullets which will fit the case and magazine, but the bullets won't have super high BCs. Personally I think the 338 Whisper is a better compromse for a 308 length cartridge but thats only if you want long range over short range energy. Shooting subsonics over 300-400 yards opens the whole can of worrms of vertical dispersion and precision loading depending on your target.
> 2. Is it possible/safe/smart to use a 40s&w pistol suppressor for subsonic 420 grain projectiles traveling around 1040fps?<
Bullets of twice the mass will need roughly twice the propellant mass to drive them to the same velocity. Check with the suppressor manufacturer both for whether it will hold up but also for whether it will give adequate suppression. I'd think you'd want a suppressor with twice the internal volume. How much suppression is adequate is subjective.
>3. Anyone actually use the 416 whisper? If my two above questions prove affirmative then I would have a hard time thinking of why more people don't use this combination (or the 416 whisper at all.) Cheap suppressor, tons of energy, bullets can be found for less than some pay for Barnes MRX's, 7mm-08 level recoil, and it all fits inside a convenient host (Ar-10 already comes with necessary bolt face)<
Tone of energy? My 50 Bewoulf pistol shootiing subsonic 600 grain RBTs has 50% more muzzle energy. A 416 Whisper shooting 420 grain bullets will give about 1000 ft-lbs at the muzzle. How much downrange depends on the bullet BC. Cheap suppressor? you must live outside the US. And you wont fit high BC bullets in the magazine. It may still be a good trade off if it matches your range and energy needs.
I haven't built or shot a 416 Whisper. I've done Quickload simulations on many cartridges and bullets trying to find things which work in various cartridges and magazines and considered the effort do to the projects. I'd suggest you get Quickload which is ballistics simulator program for PCs. You can experiment will all kinds of loads, barrel lengths, bullets, and seating depths. It can handle bore friction and engraving forces and do it much more quickly and at less expensively than building a rifle for each experiment. It can even show bore pressure curves vs time and distance which are needed to figure gas port locations. It calculates recoil energy and velocity energy, two separate parameters which help in predicting felt recoil.
You haven't said what range you want to shoot or what size your targets will be or how much energy you need at that range to be effective. Without pinning that down first discussing what cartridge or bullet or rifle is best is mostly a waste of ttime. To maximize short range energy you want to shoot the heaviest bullet you can squeeze in. To get the longest range yoiu want the highest (subsoinc) BC you can make fit. Anywhere in between is a tradeoff of the two. Fat bullets don't have high BCs. Heavy high BC bullets give the best long range energy and accuracy. Exotic materials like tungsten or DU cores can help but aren't generally practical but give higher BCs and energy for a given diameter and length. . Copper alloy bullets are always long for their weight, but they can have very high BCs.
> Please tell me I'm crazy on this one (cause if I'm not then I've got another rifle in the works
) <
You're only crazy if you can't afford your hobby and still feed yourself and your dependents. If you can then you're simply eccentric and that's ok.
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