Has anyone here looked into, or actually chopped an MWS barrel down to 14.5"?
I curious what this action would translate to with regard to drop in velocity and carrier/cycling speed.
I’ve heard that the MWS cycles pretty hard and probably has some gas to spare, so it would seem that cutting the barrel a little might make it cycle a more softly but still have plenty of gas left over for reliable cycling.
As far as drop in velocity, I’m thinking that if 14.5" still gives enough velocity to reach out to 600 - 800 yards, then it might still be a viable option for getting the rifle even more compact.
LMT makes a factory’s 13.5 MWS only available to .gov agencies. There are a few photos on the net of chopped MWS barrels to 13.5" and a video of Gene from lmt shooting one on you tube.
I thought about doing the same thing but decided against it due to the extreme blast, I decided to bridge the gap with an Noveske 10" 300blk barrel in a cqb chasis. Seeing as you want to reach out to 600-800 yard I would stick with the 16".
When I had an MWS, I sent the stock barrel out and had it chopped to 16" OAL with a BABC pinned. If I remember right, I didnt lose much velocity from 16" stock barrel. Maybe 40fps or so. I never had a problem with it. I ran it pretty hard with a bunch of mag dumps with different ammo and it ran like a sewing machine. A blast to shoot!