Very informative test. I too thought the 16" barrel would reign king. After watching this video I remembered another that mentioned a revolver looses a lot of gasses via the cylinder gap. Which is why the 16" performed poorly. I too have the 6.5" model so I'm good especially with the magnum loads.

I watched Paul Harrell's video and he reached the same conclusion. If these revolvers were made like an 1895 Nagant (where the cylinder moves forward into the forcing cone prior to firing) the result would have been what I think everyone expected, that size matters. Dammit, now I'm going to have to pick one of these up in the 6" size. Thanks again for your work, and I see about 6 more of your videos I'm going to check out right now!

This video has been more helpful on the topic of barrel length comparison with 22mag revolvers than anything I have seen so far. Thank you for the info.

I agree I thought the 16°would of done better but to my surprise the 6`was the best I thought Thank you I enjoyed the video and your analysis Be Safe and God Bless 👍🎅

I vaguely remember reading many years ago that there was an optimal barrel length for the 22LR, and that it was around 12" after that all the powder was burned up and friction started to negatively affect velocity. I maybe remembering that wrong, I'm 72 years old and have read a 53' trailer load of stuff on guns. Added to that I believe the manufacturers results are out of a rifle barrel with no cylinder gap. I only have one Rough Rider and that is the 16". I do have 3 Ruger Single Sixs a 5.5", 7.5" and a 9" all of them are convertibles and only the 5.5"er has fixed sights. Gotta love those 22LRs.

I just found this very interesting test you ran with the Heritage revolvers. I just bought a Rough Rider with the 6.5 inch barrel and both cylinders and I was wondering what velocity the magnums would get out of the handgun. It looks like the 6.5 inch gives optimum performance out of a revolver. I really appreciate all the ammo and gun testing you do.

Chrono testing is just what I needed to see. Thanks. If these were almost any other action than a revolver, the 16" would've performed better.

Very interesting. I appreciate your taking the time to produce this video. Barkeep is a great little gun and that long barrel is still a hoot!

Been searching for some good data on the Barkeep, particularly with the magnum cylinder. Glad I found your video. Love the technical stuff!

Love the effort you put into these videos. Absolutely perfect! Covered every inch of these guns. Awesome vids.

I thought the magnum would really benefit from a long barrel. Surprise! Great test.I would love to see a side by side test with pistols vs same length revolvers. Definitely going to keep my barkeep stoked with magnums.

Thx for the numbers. I just went in on a 6.5" so it's nice to see I can pretty much get the most out of any ammo I use.

Very interesting results. Thanks for the video.

Dang it I wanna see a 9 inch. I’ve looked all over the internet for 9 inch crono testing. But I guess 6 1/2 is close enough. Cool vidja friend.

Thank you. This video is exactly what I was looking for. I'm actually shopping for a barkeep and this was a beautiful video.

Paul Harrell did this test with a 6.5 vs a 16 in the heritage in 22lr only and came up with similar results. The 22 lr starts to slow down in longer barrels because the burn is very short and there is increased friction . Its less of an issue with a 22 mag which has a longer burn but gas still escapes enough in the cylinder gap to limit the velocity. In a closed rifle 14 inches is the maximum velocity for a 22lr about 17 inches for a 22wmr. .

Tools&Targets,always look forward to your videos,very informative,keep up the good work

So , please wear eye protection some will say I'm wrong 🤔. So great test of barrel length and calibers. My comparison is my Bersa thunder. 22 with Stinger s and my Pmr-30. Thanks T&T Tennessee

Great video, thanks. I have a number of these pistols, including the 16”. Was surprised by the results as well.

Definitely interesting!! Thanks for showing us this!! And of course thanks for wearing the hat ❤️

Great video. Saw Paul Harrel do a similar video a while back. Funny enough, but the 4.75 barrel was the fastest of all the tested guns.

BBTI (Ballistics by the Inch) says that velocity loss from cylinder gap is relative to barrel length. When the gas is fully burnt the extra barrel length only creates drag that slows the bullet.

Pretty interesting, so other than the looks the 16” is a no go, I’ve got the one with the best results, the 6.5” with the wood American flag grip. Good video! Keep’em coming.

Loved this video, I appreciate you doing videos like these 👍👍🇺🇸🇺🇸

On the 1st magnums, I could hear your phone call out the velocities. Cool!

Another surprise. Interesting, interesting. Thank you.

That is a pretty cool chrono!

Great videos like the heritage rough riders

I just got a Ryder 6.5. Haven't made it to the range yet. I need to get out my small feeler set and check cylinder gap and head space of both cylinders and measure bore of all three guns. Without those figures a side by side comparison using different barrel lengths as the "only" variable is giving partial data. I do look forward to shooting both cylinders looking for repeatable accuracy. And i am excited to shoot + sonic out of a 6.5 inch .22 revolver. Speed sounds cool. but accuracy kills.

I was like you. Thought the longer barrel would have been faster. Thanks for sharing

AWESOME ! I love those rough rider revolvers :)

My man has a Cleetus Hat on!! HELL YEAHHH BROTHER

thanks for the very informative vid boss i already have a 6.5 but i bought the 16in last Christmas because i was thinking the 16in with magnums would be several hundred fps faster i never imagined it would be slower😢 plus i find the 16in barrel way more unwieldy because of the weight and sight radius

Very interesting...actual vs what’s on the box....makes you wonder

Not sure how I missed this one but it popped up and I watched it. I am tickled at the results and I’m glad that I have the 6,75 model along with a Few types of different.22 magnum ammunition but I won’t do any shooting until it’s at least 45 degrees outside

First, all guns are different, specifically that 16" shooter may have a larger cylinder gap, so comparison of barrel lengths is not fair. However I did expect this result. 22 lr is a weak round, during the time it takes for the bullet to travel through the barrel some gases do escape through the cylinder gap and in case of the 16" shooter the friction of the bullet against the barrel may exceed at the last inches of the barrel the gas pressure, so the bullet will be slowing down instead of accelerating. If you'd use a bolt action rifle instead of the revolver - then I would expect a steady increase of the velocity with the barrel length because there is much less escaped gases.

That blue tooth Chrono is a sweet setup! I guess when you get complete powder burn, that's all you gonna get!

I have access to a 9.5" Single Six -- I've always wondered how the .22 WMR would fare through it. Interesting the addition of 10" of barrel length on the Rough Rider basically gets you no advantage (except for the increased sight radius).

I was hoping the magnum would tighten up that 16" barrel, but apparently there's just too much friction. Results similar to Paul Harrell's, however, he got much better velocity with a Ruger 10/22 in 16.5" barrel.

Yes! Finally! You know I ben waiting for this. Grips look great!

Time to buy the 9 inch model! Perhaps if you have any other rifle that can fire magnums we could see how they do in another barrel that is not produced by Heritage? Thanks for this presentation!

Very nice Sir!!

My thought are can you change the cylinder gap and what is the gap on your pistol ? It seems the only benefit of the 16" barrel is the sight radius. That surprised me. Great video . It answered most of my question.

Awesome cute little gun🤠

Rough riders been such a silent in the background thing I've had one for years loved it now the price is going to go up so I better go get a bunch of them😮🎉🎉😢😢😮

i think all the 22's out performed a 32 smith and wesson long in a snubnose 2 1/2" barrel, that magnum did better in that long barrell! i sure like that barkeep with the magnum in it thats sweet!!

There is a certain length too, whether the action is a revolver or not, where the barrel can be TOO long, after a certain length, it can actually put drag on the bullet. It would be interesting to do tests with that as well, to find out what the lengths for different calibers would be, to see where they reach peak and then go back down.

Good stuff Wildman! 👍👊👏

I just found by accident, why no notifications I'm a sub , YT hates us 2a guys. Cool will get back after !! Tennessee

Would be interesting to see the barrel cylinder gap difference between the three revolvers. Would almost bet the long barrel one has a greater gap. Thanks for the videos.

It's almost like that big slug of air in the longer 16" barrel was harder to push out. I wonder if we could measure the cylinder gap pressure? I don't know how that would be done, anyways I love these comparisons.

Definitely surprised on 16". I imagined that cylinder gap would diminish the barrell length velocity gains, but that long barrell perhaps created a drag on the bullet after gases escaped?

I wonder how much pressure escapes between the forcing cone and cylinder face. Would a bolt gun in 16 give better speed? but good video.

Pretty interesting test there, i dint think it was going to turn out like that

I saw another video with the 16" Rough Rider and the results were similar to yours....the 6.5' did a little better in velocity. Maybe it was Paul Harrel? Maybe it has to do with the rifling on this model...?

That was a teaching moment, huh!

Good video Sir.

the norma brass always expands in my cylinder and i always have a hell of a time ejecting the brass

Thanks!

I prefer the 6.5" barrel on the heritage, you get the best accuracy, best fps, and it looks the best

thank you!!

Like the video. Good stuff. I have a 6.5 inch barrel Rough Rider. Do you think CCI MaxiMag in 40 gr hollow points would be close in velocity to what you achieved. I saw another video o that only had 1080 or so for CCI Maxi msg JHP. Thought that was way to low your video confirmed that it should have been higher. Your thoughts? Thank you

I thought the 16 would be the fastest. Very interesting video

It appears the gap is too big on these. Paul Harrell got slightly better velocity with the 4" coompared to the 6" which tells me something is causing them to lose velocity to a mechanical problem, either the cylinder gap or a too tight barrel. The forcing cone may also be a bad design. Maybe their 16" barrels are bent. 😅

The 16" kills the velocity because of the gap between the cylinder and forcing cone. The loss of pressure does not allow an increase in velocity and has been seen actually decreases performance because the projectile is now having to overcome drag in the extra barrel length.

Very Good, indeed! I only wish that you added a long barrel .22 BOLT rifle to the mix,,, either a LR or Mag, just to see how much pressure per FPS your loosing in the wheel gun.? So,,, the ultimate question is,,, Does the 16" accuracy make up for the 100fps it looses? Very Interesting. lol,,, now we'll need a 50yd, 'clamp'em-in-a-vise' accuracy test.

My my Colt Single Action 22 is 400 feet per second faster than what my Heritage 16 inch barrel is. The reason is the cult has a proper forcing cone the Heritage has a 3/8 in forcing cone which means when the bullet leaves the cylinder all the gases go around the bullet before the bullet hits the riflings

Good idea

I think the gas loss from the cylinder gap lowers the “point of diminishing returns.” I would wager that with .22WMR the 16” rough rider has significantly lower velocity than a chambered barrel of the same length

I think, but not sure as I'm not a ballistician, or a speller, that maybe the more time the bullet spends in the barrel, the more gas escapes through the cylinder gap even to the point that the bullet actually slows down while in the barrel. I think you should check those speeds in a closed breach short barreled rifle to see if they come closer to the advertised velocity. Maybe measure the difference in cylinder gap to see if that's even a viable explanation.

So something interesting here, I was testing the velocity of some Super Colibri's. Here are the averages, my Heritage RR 6" had an average of 457 FPS, my Taurus TX22 was 543 FPS, my Ruger 10/22 18" 504 FPS, and my Marlin model 75 glenfield 16" was 580 FPS.. The cylinder gap on the HRR must be killing Velocity, iv seen higher quality .22lr revolvers have close to the same velocity of there semi auto counterpart, which must mean the cylinder gap on these HRR are quite large and there may be other factors with revolvers I just don't know about..

I wonder if there’s an issue with the rough rider 16” barrel? Twist rate, quality etc, good scientific method maybe would be to check the speed of all the rds out of a 16-18” 22lr and magnum rifle and see if there’s a big disparity. Maybe the 16” pistol just has a crap barrel.

Interesting results. I can't help but think there must be something going on here. Others have done the same test and 16 is definitely faster. Not an enormous difference but its there. It would be interesting to measure the cylinder gap distance between the 6 and 16 inchers. I mean these aren't very expensive pieces so it's not out of question there could be a significant difference or maybe even one being out of spec. Also looking on bbti the round does seem pretty inconsistent compared to centerfire rounds where velocity is lost and gained with barrel length. Also trying another brand of ammo might give us a better idea of what's happening since the 16 should take the most advantage with a super hot load.

I'd like to see the same test in a sealed chamber to rifling barrel ie. Auto pistol/rifle or bolt action ect.

Those are near the same FPS I see on chrono test for the North American Arms mini revolvers for the barkeep.

Lol I can’t see the use for the 16 inch except fun plinking I habe the bar keep and the 6 inch I keep 22 wmr in my 6 inch and 22 lr in the bar keep lobe the video

Good info here.

It's probably the gasses escaping from the cylinder. Through a rifle I bet you'd see a difference because it's all sealed up, but that cylinder gap lets a lot of pressure out. I'm not saying that's the cause, just a hypothesis.

makes you think rifles (granted sealed actions vs revolver gap) might not be worth going past 16" will have to find out max distance barrel for 22lr?

That was surprising to me too.

After seeing this I'm curious as to what the 4.75 inch would shoot and how big of a descrepency between the 6.5

Do test to find out what is the length best fps through rifle too.

Nice!!

I almost feel like the longer the barrel on a more inexpensive revolver the more gas is lost thru the cylinder gap which means less velocity.. I must admit I don't know much about revolvers, I do have a rough rider 6". The only thing I have ever chronoed thru it is super colibri, and I got around 480 FPS, out of my 18" 10/22 I got between 530 and 600 FPS.. there pretty inconsistent rounds. The box's says 590 FPS...

Just thought, sorry for blowing up chat cylinder gap to barrel is the thing. Stated velocities are with a rifle?

those long buntline revolvers, lose more gas from cylinder gap, over the time it takes to push it through the barrel. I had a cap & ball version long ago.

I was surprised by the results.

the cylinder gap has alot to do with the lack of velocity on the longer barrel

Great comparison with surprising results! Please post your videos on Rumble. They monetize and are more friendly to this type of content. I post On there also just to give KZfaq some competition

Have you shot this with CCI quiet, high velocity, hyper velocity, standard velocity and subsonic?

I really wish someone would do the 9" barrel. I want to know if it's too big or maybe the sweet spot?

Boomhauer "Dang Ol' 16 inch Barrel shorted me man." Hank "yeep" cracks beer...

1 last ask where did you get the head gear i want it. 👍💥🥳

Very informative video 👍

PS: Okay, which of you online gun enthusiasts will be first to invent the tescoping ejection rod that fits inside the barkeep grip and deploys by twisting and pulling an attached ring?

When I heard the first female voice read out I thought it was your wife or something (kind of like the Honest Outlaw). I was like: man he sure is talking right over her. Took me a minute to realize it was the machine 😂

Seems like the 6.5 inch loaded with .22 WMR, would be a good defense handgun in a small apartment.

Christmas time in TOOL LAND!

It's that cylinder gap. All these rough riders don't do well with the long barrels. That 6 inch is the biggest I'd go with em.

I sure wouldn't try to do a quick-draw with a 16" barrel revolver. My AR-15's 16" barrel works great.