School me on Revolver barrel length

[glassparman]

Ok so many of you know i recently purchased a Ruger Police Service 6 in 357.

It has a 4" barrel which seems like a good length for a sidearm.

I see on fleabay a minty 6" barrel. Is this a good idea to change over? Will i need a smith to recut the forcing cone? Is it not worth my effort?

All opinions welcomed!

Mike

 

[Rick]

It only matters when it does. Depends on your intended use, short range defense, plinking? If that's the case leave it alone. Longer range accuracy? The longer barrel could be an advantage, longer sight radius for one thing, higher velocity and better on target momentum for another. What are you going to use it for?

 

[Winelover]

First revolver purchase was 6" Python in the mid to late 70's. In hindsight, should have went with a 4" for more portability. I'm not a long range shooter. Anymore, I gravitate to 2-3" barrels. Have 7 1/2" revolvers for hunting. Put a scope on them and they are less portable than my pistol cartridge carbines.

Handgun is for fighting your way to a long gun.

 

[Brad]

I like a 4” barrel on a double action. A 6” just seems too long to me. For carry the 4” is the only way to go.

For a range Or hunting gun the longer barrel has some benefits.

I would definitely not replace that barrel unless the original is damaged.

 

[RicinYakima]

I have a 6 inch Colt 357 that is fine for plinking and shooting varmints. However, I carry a 3 inch when I want to have a 357 on me. A six inch is much harder to carry than a four inch unless you are walking or riding a horse.

 

[Glaciers]

I go with 4” a my favored go to length. Carries easy handles well. I have a few 6” and longer guns but like Winelover above I have gone to 3” guns for the convenience. Fit in the pocket better. The service 6 4” needs a holster which is great useful sizing for a belt gun. On an occasion I’ve stuffed my 4” Service Six in my back pocket for a very short term need.
I’ve owned a couple of 5” guns without complaint.
The larger revolvers like the RSRH is quite large and I now only own one in 480 and that’s a 5.5”
The S&W “X” Frame is just a waste to me.
After 4” I find myself grabbing a rifle. It’s just more practical.

 

[Jeff H]

The Service Six is particularly suited to personal protection/carry use with its fixed sights. My first handgun was a 6" Security SIx, after a few weeks of deciding which barrel-length to get. The gun was meant to be a do-all gun, to include personal protection, but precluded convenient concealed carry. The 4" I eventually got worked much better for that and wasn't too much of a compromise for target use at 25, 50 and occasionally at 100. The 4" barrel kept me from getting bored with target results anyway.

The most recent Service Six I had was a 4", but I now (and for a long tine) prefer 3" in DA revolvers, because if I shoot past 50 yards these days, I'm wasting ammo with a revolver. I considered cutting it to 3" but sold it instead, because it would be to much work to re-install the front sight. Not long after that, I ended up being convinced to remove an integral front sight on a Charter Arms revolver and installing a new tenoned front sight, just like the Rugers use anyway, so maybe I should have kept it.

4" is a hard barrel length to beat for versatility. If I were going to do a 6", I'd want adjustable sights. If a fixed-sight gun is off by an inch at 25 yards, I can make up for that easily. I'd only want a longer barrel to shoot farther and that inch at 25 will theoretically be at least two inches at 50.

Note too that the 6" barrels had a ramp for the front sight, and that the extra height might not work well with the low fixed sight on the Service Six.

Anything's possible. What a fella wants is what he should try for. If someone could regulate the ramp height (or remove it), you would have a unique gun with pretty nice handling qualities. If traipsing about the mountains in a buffalo robe, the extra two inches would make the gun "hang" better tucked into your sash.

EDIT: If you want to make it really unique, cut an extra inch off the six-inch barrel. 3" guns and 5" guns seem to be sort of a sweet spot for me, but the 3" guns carry much better and don't give up much to the 4". I'd likely not dedicate either to silhouette shooting anyway, so 3" sort of rules in my DA options.

 

[RBHarter]

There is no better explanation of barrel length results than the Speer article "why ballistians get grey" complete with a nifty table from lab tested data .

I have 4 , 5-5/8 , 6, and 7.5" ....... When I carry for business it's none of those .

Most places want 4" or more for hunting which is my base for decision making .

The added weight and length of the 6" is nice on the range . I've hunted the 6" Sec 6 just 2 seasons and it just wasn't what I personally wanted it to be . The BH at 5-5/8" just feels better but I will probably never carry it in the field as it's reached a point in it's time cycle where it's just too valuable to make memories with .....or something like that.

I've carried the life out of a 7.5" 45 Colts RBH that shouldn't carry for beans . It's long , heavy , the bulky Pachmar grip shouldn't fit me for diddly , and all of the holsters short of a custom special order are too long or expose the muzzle . It's also not really well proportioned and leaves a little something on the table for balance . I love it . It would be the first choice to go to the boonies as a all purpose tool . If I could have it in a 5-5/8 or 6" it would be a deal where I'd really have to try it out . It might be perfect or it might defile the whole.........Jen sa' qua' or something.

I don't like the 5.5" S&W but I really believe it's an aesthetic thing with the skinny barrel thing . I like the 3.5" chopped sister but again it's the aesthetics there . I have this mental picture of a M10 4" heavy barrel scaled up to the N frame as perfection. But I have a 6.5" M55 target barrel waiting on me to do a thing too .

Sometimes the ideal ain't what it is and the out of balance off scale train wreck is exactly what you need ......

 

[Bret4207]

Do you have a reason for wanting a longer barrel? Unless there is a NEED for longer barrel, then don't even consider it. And by the time you get the switched over with the costs of todays gunsmithing you are pretty much doubling the cost of the gun, but you'll probably never get that investment back if you sell it.

IMO 4" is about the perfect length in a DA handgun. 5" is good too. 6" is pushing things for me, but part of that is that I still think in LE terms and the idea of a 6" barrel pushing up into my hip in a car for 8-12 hours a day is a nightmare scenario to me.

 

[glassparman]

Well, sounds like i should just stick with the 4".

Not going to use it for hunting, just like the 6" look. Obviously look doesn't win a fight.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Jeff H]

They don't all have to be for fightin'.

Sometimes we do things just because we want to and owe no one else a reason or excuse.

I've long admired the 6" Charters with fixed sights on the tapered barrels. Not as practical as the 3" I carry, but one sure would be a neat woods-bumming/messing-around gun.

 

[Rick]

Quite true. Just because one person's only use of a handgun is self defense carry has no basis in reality that's the only use for everyone.

 

[Joshua]

I stumbled into my 357 Mag Ruger Security Six, w/ 6” barrel. I found it at a garage sale years ago, paid 175 bucks for it. It’s a 6 inch with factory target sights. I love it but for a carry revolver, I wish it was shorter. As a hunting revolver I wish it was a 41 magnum, with a 6 inch barrel. But as a range toy it’s perfect, just as it is.

 

[Brad]

Quite true. Just because one person's only use of a handgun is self defense carry has no basis in reality that's the only use for everyone.

Exactly. A longer barrel on a range or hunting gun makes sense. It all depends on what the buyer wants to do with it.

I kinda like the 6.5” S&W N frames but a 4” would work too. My Ruger BH preferred barrel is 4 5/8” but I do own a few 7.5” BH too.

 

[Winelover]

I take caliber in consideration, when choosing revolver barrel length. I consider 357 to be marginal for taking deer sized game. Even in a carbine. Yeah, I know, plenty of deer sized game have fell to the 357 Magnum. However, a bigger hole is always going to trump a smaller one. However, for CC there is always that trade off.

 

[Rick H]

My longest barreled revolvers are a 4 5/8" Ruger Blackhawk and a 4 1/8" L-Frame S&W. I don't like longer barrels, they feel awkward in my hands. That is just me. If your 4" has a decent barrel I wouldn't change it. If your heart is set on a 6" barrel I would look for another revolver that way you have your choice of either one when the mood strikes you.

 

[JonB]

I like a problem free revolver that is accurate. Doesn't matter the barrel length.

I say, shoot that 4" barreled 357m Ruger Police Service 6.
If you like how it shoots, it seems foolish to change anything.
I'm not a gunsmith and I don't play one on the internet, but I do know that, changing, modifying, customizing is expensive, so when I've acquired a pistol that seems it'd be better with a different barrel length, I just flip it, and shop for the next handgun, LOL.

 

[CZ93X62]

In a D/A 357 Magnum, the 4" barrel is likely the best all-around multi-purpose barrel length. Cutting or changing out the barrel on that Service Six borders on "War crime"--not much different than a tagger crew in the Sistine Chapel.

If you want a 6" revolver, the most cost-effective route is to just buy or trade into one already made that way.

 

[KeithB]

Somewhere out there is a guy with a 6" barreled gun that is contemplating cutting the barrel off to 4". You gotta find that guy...

 

[glassparman]

Thanks for that Keith but after reading all this, just gonna keep it 4".