Barrel length plays a huge role in accuracy of firearms. That's why you don't see snipers just carrying around large revolver with magnum rounds and scope on it. Also bullpup rifles were designed to maintain the rifle barrel length for accuracy without having a gun that's rifle length and it works.
It works like this: The powder starts to burn. It burns fast but not instantaneously. So it takes time for the maximum power of the powder to develop. So the longer the barrel, the more time for the powder to fully burn and transfer it's energy to the bullet.
Carbines firing full load rounds usually have massive muzzle flashes from the unburned powder coming out of the barrel and burning in the air. (By the way, this is why massive muzzle flashes are more Hollywood than real. A muzzle flash means powder is burning in the air, rather than in the barrel. A well designed firearm will have a barrel just long enough so that all the powder burns inside the barrel, so that none of it's energy is wasted, and so that it doesn't cause a flash. Carbine rifles are standard rifles with a sawn off barrel, essentially, so they are less powerful than the standard weapon, less accurate and also more visible. Their utility comes form them being a lot shorter and lighter and thus easier to aim quickly.)
After a certain length though, all the powder is burned, but because it is confined, its pressure keeps accelerating the bullet. The longer the barrel the more the bullet will accelerate for the same load of powder.
So a 9mm pistol with 5 inch barrel will be less powerful and accurate than an SMG firing the same round through a 10 inch barrel and the SMG less powerful and accurate than a carbine with a 15 inch barrel,
The same bullet, with the same load of powder, will travel faster and straighter and have more energy when it hits if it is fired through a longer barrel (up to a certain limit, of course. Friction in the barrel has an affect if the barrel is too long). It's simple physics.
But that is not all. How many people know that some automatic weapons, like SMG's and MG's are fired from an open bolt?
With weapons that get hot fast, sometimes they are designed to help cool the gun, and prevent runaway firing, by firing from an open bolt. When the charging handle is pulled back, the bolt moves back against the spring and locks into place. There is no round in the barrel and the breech is completely open. When the trigger is pulled, the bolt flies forward, loading a round and firing it.
This causes such weapons to be inaccurate compared to the same weapon firing from a closed bolt, but they are more able to handle long bouts of sustained fire. An example of a weapon that fires from an open bolt is the British Sten Gun.
Another example of how the design of the gun can have a MAJOR impact on its accuracy can be found and seen in RO2. The MG34 has the butt stock in line with the barrel. When the gun fires, the recoil goes straight back and enters the shoulder directly behind the barrel.
The DP-28 however has the butt stock lower down, not directly behind the barrel like the 34. When it is fired the recoil travels backward and then pivots the weapon upwards because the force is not centred in line with the barrel, stock, and shoulder. A small amount of the recoil rotates the weapon, because it has nowhere else to go.
So that is a case where one design is inherently more accurate than another, regardless of the ammo loaded into it. There is so much more. A heavier barrel of the same length will be less prone to shake, and thus more accurate. I could go on and on, but I think I have made my point.
Let me just say, I've been debating politics and so on on the internet for almost as long as I have been FPS gaming. I tend not to say things I can't prove. Basically, if you think I'm bragging about my FPS skills, you really don't want to get me started on my debating skills
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