Barrel lengths on revolvers and pistols

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I have been thinking about hand gun barrel lengths. Why are there 2 standards ?On a revolver the barrel is measured from the forcing cone to the muzzle .The cylinder holds the cartridge. In a pistol the chamber does the same thing as a revolver cylinder .It holds the cartridge. So why is the chamber measured as part of the barrel in a pistol but the cylinder is not added to barrel length of a revolver. Example ,My Sig 229 . If I measure the actual barrel length( the part that has the lands and grooves) it measures 2 1/2 inches .Same on my Commander length Colt , 2 1/2 inches of barrel and the chamber takes up a little over an inch. What I am trying to say that a 4 inch barrels semi auto pistol is basically a snubby since it only has less than 3 inches of lands and grooves. Has anyone else ever thought about this. Don't take my word for it ,get out you tape measure and do the math. Let me know what y'all think . Maybe I'm over thinking but that thought kept me awake half the night.
 
Did you know Benadryl, the antihistamine, is the active ingredient in most OTC sleeping pills?

:D

Actually, I've noticed that, too. I just accepted that which I lack the power to change and mentally shave off 1" or so when thinking about effective barrel length in a pistol. If I were a better shot, I might lose sleep over it.
 
Funny you began your post with Benadryl.

When I read HGWT (the real and original sigfan)'s post, I wanted to tell him that I got stung by something awful while spraying Roundup Sunday afternoon. This villain stung me right through my leather gloves and my left hand eventually blew up like a Macy's turkey day float. By evening, my wife was following me around armed with her Epipen and by 10pm, she was on her way to Wally World for Benadryl.

I took just one capsule and got more sleep than I have in years (actually, until almost 8 am).

So, I wanted to suggest that, the next time he ponders such heady questions, he go out in the yard and spray some Roundup. Doing so let me sleep soundly through the night while he was worried about barrel lengths.

Hey, I've typed this pretty well one-handed. I still look like I have a ham hock attached to the end of my left arm.

o_O
 
You're not losing pressure and velocity from the barrel/cylinder gap in a semi-auto though. That extra length actually has an advantage.
 
I wanna post that scene from City Heat where Clint Eastwood and Bury Reynolds are in a gun fight with the bad guys and they keep pulling out more revolvers when they run out of ammunition in one.

Each one pulls out one with a barrel longer than the other until finally Clint pulls what looks like a buntline special.

But wouldn't you know...City Heat is one of those movies with virtually NO youtube scenes other than movie previews.
 
Because varying chamber lengths just mean that it's easier to measure the whole thing.

Exactly.

A barrel is a named or numbered part on a schematic.

Two .30 caliber rifle barrels 22 inches long...one chambered for .308 and the other for .30-06. The first one has a longer rifled portion due to the shorter chamber.

Two 1911 barrels, 5 inches long. One is chambered for .45 Auto and the other for 9mm Luger. The former will have less rifled portion because the chamber is longer.

In order to equalize the rifled portion, they'd have to adjust the length...and even that would vary because the freebore would vary. The entire length itself can vary as much as +/- a tenth of an inch. I've seen that much variation in two Smith & Wesson 586 barrels.
 
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There are not too many revolving rifles or revolving shotguns, so most rifles and shotguns have a chamber that is an integral part of the barrel. The lengths of those barrels are measured the same way the barrels of autoloading pistols are measured. It may not really matter with handguns, since there is no legal minimum length for handguns, but it does certainly matter with long guns since having a barrel too short can get you in a heap of trouble unless you have jumped through all the hoops and have all the paperwork. If you include the length of the integral chamber in the total length of the barrel for long guns, it makes good sense and simplifies things if you do the same for handguns with integral chambers.

I assume that the legal minimum length of any revolving rifle that someone might make would not include the cylinder.
 
Sigmund Freud would have something to say about this post...
 
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