Have a Howa ranch hand or land, forget exactly, but it is a 20" light contour barrel, a #1 I think they call it. It is a 223. Never put it on the chronograph. But it shoots 1/2 moa to at least 300 with it's favored factory load, a 62gr. bullet weight. Won't group the lighter pills well at all. Most other 60gr.+ stuff it will shoot, but not much better than 1 1/2moa, which is OK for most uses. I really like the gun a bunch, it goes along with me quite a bit. Good trigger and just feels good. I do have a Rem M7 in 7-08 with a 20" tube. It performs well with BT's, Interlocks, Core-lokt and the like, on deer and elk. I suspect it has lower velocity due to the 20" tube, but not dramatically so. Most 308 based and similar sizer cases do OK with 20". That said, I stick to medium weight cup and core style bullets and avoid the monolithic styles like X bullets. Hope that helps.
