The 416 Barrett remains one of the holy grail ELR cartridges for many current and prospective ELR shooters. With the advent of Extreme Shot Italia V, coming up from 4-12 October 2025 with some 226 teams from 30 countries and 30 Partner Brands, the interest in heavy class calibers has increased exponentially. The first outing of ESI Heavy class has attracted 76 teams from around the world, almost have the amount of shooters in heavy class on the first year from continents away.

416barrett elr rifle

 

For those that bit the bullet and upscaled to the 50BMG-based cartridge bolt-face, there is no going back because now you’ve scaled up everything, from your press to your dies, the weight has increased on everything and so has the cost, probably tripled. Here is my setup for the 416 Barrett with the Prazi Press in the background. This is a must have for loading really large rounds like the 416 Barrett, 460 Steyr or 50BMG.

The TURBAN PRAZI PRESS needs to be mounted on a solid bench, I had my setup built on a custom made bench. I only size on the prazi press but i seat using an ARC Ballistics inline seating custom made die for the 416 Barrett. Below you can see a Short Actions Custom gage for the 416 Barrett to make sure we don’t over size those expensive 416 Barrett Brass.

Below, Silvain’s 416Barrett from PGM Precision (sponsor of Extreme Shot Italia V) mounted with a March Genesis 6-60×56

As a converted myself to the 416 Barrett, and after having gone through the 18 month process of acquiring all parts for mine, I will detail the experience of another experienced 416 Barrett user from Switzerland who has been very helpful about his experience and journey, Silvain Lami Monney. Silvain has also been our foot on the ground at various competitions internationally especially in the USA and together with Stefan Van Der Heide from Holland, have contributed to Rifletalks 416Barrett knowledge from a competition shooter perspective. Competition shooters bring a level of knowledge that is unsurpassed due to the amount of time invested in getting to know a racing cartridge.

Below: .416 bullets such as the 553gr windcut and the 550gr Cutting Edge Bullet Lazer both known to perform well at extreme distances.

Analysis of the .416 by Silvain Lami Monney – (Geneve, Switzerland)

For the .416, I ventured into unknown territory, as it was a caliber I knew nothing about. However, I discovered many extremely interesting things about it. Unlike other calibers such as the .338, .308, 6.5 Creedmoor, and many others, this one stands out in a unique way. (By the way, I find that the 6.5 Creedmoor is, in my view, the most fun caliber to reload and the most forgiving of mistakes, which makes it ideal for beginners.)

Regarding the .416, I was very lucky because I quickly found a load that worked. In short, it only took me 10 rounds to dial in the grouping. However, after returning from the United States, following the KO2 final in Raton, I made modifications to the rifle. These adjustments completely changed the barrel’s vibrational behavior.

From that moment on, I had to really deepen my knowledge and seriously focus on this caliber. I had to redo a load development ladder. This is when I really began to learn about this very particular caliber.

The first thing I noticed was that with the change in the barrel’s vibrational behavior, my load remained correct: the one that grouped best was still the same. However, even with this optimal load, the impacts no longer touched. As soon as I deviated from this load, either increasing or decreasing the powder charge, the groupings opened up again. This confirmed that my initial load was indeed suitable.

While running more tests, I realized I had significant velocity variations. I then turned my attention to analyzing the brass cases.

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Case analysis

The cases used are RUAG (200 units split into two different batches, called lot A and lot B, purchased about 9 months apart). I started by cataloging them all to take precise measurements. The cases had been pre-cleaned, full-length resized, trimmed, empty, and left unprimed.

1. Case weighing:
I weighed all the cases. The weight differences were present but small (much less than what I’ve seen on GGG cases in .308, for example). I still created two groups (red and black) with an average weight for each:
– Average 860 grains in red
– Average 855 grains in black
I also measured the thickness of the case head rims to look for a possible correlation with weight. Result: no notable correlation.

2. Neck thickness:
This time, the neck thickness difference was significant. Turning the necks would probably have helped to make these differences uniform.
I measured the neck thickness at three equally spaced points on the circumference of the neck for each case, then created three new groups (red, blue, and black) based on the averages obtained:
– 0.49 mm /0.0193″ in red
– 0.51 mm /0.0201″ in black
– 0.53 mm /0.0209″ in blue

3. Headspace length:
On about thirty cases, even after full-length resizing, the shoulder was making strong contact in the chamber, making bolt closure difficult. I checked each case by chambering and locking the bolt, marking them with colors again according to these observations:
– Smooth closure (no marking)
– Slightly stiff closure (red)
– Difficult closure (black)
This also led me to wonder about a possible difference in H2O volume between these cases.

4. H2O volume measurement:
I plugged the flash hole with grommets and filled the cases with a syringe to ensure no air bubbles distorted the results.
Big surprise: the differences in H2O volume between the hard-to-close cases and the others were almost non-existent (between 14.32 and 14.45 grams of H2O). The variation was negligible and did not justify creating specific lots for this criterion.

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Results of the observations:
At the end of this analysis, my cases were marked with red, blue, and black lines according to various criteria. However, despite all these efforts, no notable correlation emerged between the markings. In other words, apart from getting a “peace flag” on my brass, these distinctions didn’t teach me anything significant.

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Refining the research:

1. Primers for the 416Barrett
On the advice of François Dreuil, Yannick Letchek, and François Brion (director of PGM), I weighed all the RWS primers and grouped them by weight differences.

2. 416Barrett Powder charge:
I used 4 kg of RS 80 powder from the same lot to avoid any variation (note: it’s a double-base powder, which becomes truly stable when the pressures are quite high, unlike single-base powder, which destabilizes when pressures get too high).
I also noticed that for this caliber, extreme precision in the charge is needed. For example, a 171.2-grain load must not deviate to 171.24 grains — very demanding and surprising.

3. Bullet control: 416Barrett WINDCUT BULLETS
I used 553-grain Windcut bullets. I must highlight the exceptional quality of this batch: out of 200 bullets, I measured length with calipers and diameter with a micrometer. The differences were insignificant, with barely 1 grain of weight variation between the lightest and heaviest — remarkable for a caliber like the .416.

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First range tests:
I made a first test with two lots of 4 cartridges:
– First lot: thin necks
– Second lot: thicker necks
(All from cases where the bolt closed easily)
Even at bullet seating during reloading, the differences were noticeable. At the range, unsurprisingly, the velocity variations produced chaotic grouping. Unlike my other calibers (where all necks are turned), these issues were clearly visible here.

I therefore reworked all the cases with the TPM tool’s expander to obtain uniform neck tension and avoid velocity jumps.

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Problem resolution:
1. After standardizing neck tension, regularity improved. Neck thickness was no longer a problem.
2. However, since my brass came from two different batches (lot A bought 6 months earlier and lot B), I concluded that cases must come from the same lot (like powder). Otherwise, differences in brass properties cause different deformations and thus velocity variations — important for the .416, which is a finicky caliber.

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Performance optimization:
With sorted brass and homogeneous lots, I returned to the range with two lots of 4 cartridges. The results were much better. Once velocities stabilized, I just had to play with the freebore to further improve grouping without causing significant velocity changes.

For now, I kept the distinction between lot A and lot B. I made some trials within these lots without distinction, only checking groupings (not velocities), which were rather positive.

 

However, I set aside the cases with shoulders that contact the back of the chamber and make bolt closure difficult — these cases likely come from a different brass plate and are slightly softer.

Finally, I tried increasing velocities, which logically raised pressures. Unfortunately, the RUAG cases proved too soft and deformed to the point of sticking in the chamber. At 830 m/s with about 180 grains of RS 80 and 550-grain Windcut bullets, the grouping was excellent, but I had to extract the cases with a rod from the muzzle.

To go further, resized 12.7 cases could be more suitable, as their headspace is thicker and can handle pressure better.

Silvain also conducted some more tests at 500 meters with the 416 Barrett. Take a look below. I will be conducting some similar tests on my 416 Barrett build it is a larger version of the Tac50A1 with 40″ barrel, a 1.8 and 1.9 twist barrels were ordered. More tests from Silvain will be posted here. You can also follow them here https://www.instagram.com/teamtld_monney_revel/?hl=en

416 Barrett with 550 grain at 500 meter tests.

 

Meanwhile Rod is also loading for his recently completed 416Barrett and will be posting more on here.