Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles How likely to ruin a very accurate barrel by cutting it shorter?

My buddy cut his .300 wthby vanguard to 19" and accuracy was very good. It would hold 3/4 of an inch all day long with handloads. The only negative was the excessive muzzle blast. It were a fire belcher.

fish head

Well, it looks like I'm going to be odd man out on this one. Based on the "Troy Axiom". Which is never, never screw with success. You have a rifle that's shooting well right? Contrary to popular opinion, accurate rifle are not that easy to come by. In some areas, couple inches can be very important, but not so much with a rifle barrel.

Yep,

Load up the Hunter Class for a go, because its the most accurate and a couple pounds means nothing either.....


I guess if I wanted to cut it I'd have it cut and not look back.

I've had it done and later regretted it because the 26" barrel never really was a problem but I got the itch to have it shortened to 22". Accuracy never changed and may have got a little better.

I agree with the "don't fix what ain't broke" part of your post, but, for me personally a few inches of barrel makes a world of difference. I prefer shorter.

And that's my dilemma here <g>.

Jeff,
You know you will not be happy until you do it, so....
Let us know how it all works out.

It's actually the same as the 30-06, not the 308. 20" would work but it gets too loud. Even 22" is a bit louder than I like, even though I've cut all mine to 22".

23" is a nice compromise but I'd still go 22". 20" would be out of the question for me.

if your cutting a barrel it usually isnt so it will fit in a smaller case.
meaning that you making it more usable, hence "USE" is the intent. i dont think that a substantial amount of degration would occour that would decrease the "use" of the rifle.
If i had a rifle that was accurate from a 26" barrel but i only shot it at the range i would think nothing of chopping it down if it meant i would actually use it. even if accuracy did degrade it wouldnt mean anything in the woods.

OK Brad, I'll concede that the 338WM is closer to the 30-06 in bore/case volume.

At any rate, there's plenty of room to differ on favorite bbl lengths. Wasn't that long ago I was shooting 26" bbls on my 308 and 30-06. Glad I've decided to cut them. My longest nowadays is the heavy '06 with 22.5" bbl.

20" works well for me on my sporter 30-06,


Love the balance and handling. Noise at 20" seems the same to me as it did with the original 24" length. My ears are kinda beat up though, that could be a factor in my noise perception.

Got my XCR .338WM barrel back already, now 23". Crown looks great, will get out soon to check accuracy with the previous loads, as well as velocity loss.

I've had 30-06's as short as 18.5"... 21" is as short as I've gone recently, and 20" as short as I'd ever go again.

Thing is, the 338 WM is burning a fair bit more powder, so the noise is more. I've kept my hearing in tact by the judicious use of hearing protection while shooting and at work over the years. I absolutely notice the difference between a 21" 30-06 and 22" 338 WM.

A 20" 338 WM is not comparable to a 20" 30-06 noise-wise IME.

But I've only had five 338 WM's and only four have had 22" bbl's. Others no doubt have more experience with the round.

Have a early '60s model rem 700 in 280 rem with a 20" stock barrel and love it. There isn't a problem of accuracy and easy to handle

Well, I've only had one 338WM, but I'd still cut it to 20".

What's the shortest you've used with the 338 WM?

26"

Gotchya.

never shot a 20" 338 WM I assume?

I get the noise thing, I've played with a 20" 300 WinMag.

To me it's just not that big a deal. My 20" 30-06 loads are producing around 12K lbs-psi muzzle pressure (blast), the 338 looks like it would go 13K or so. It's more, but in the overall scheme of things it's about the same as a 24" 7mmRM.

Nope. Have you?

I wish Remmie had just catalogued a damn 24" .338 when I bought mine. In fact,I bought it thinking there was a real good chance I'd not be able to handle that ferocious .338 recoil <grin> which turned out to be no big thing...

The irony here is that not only did I not want a 26" sporter, I also wasn't thinking in long-range terms for it either. But it turned out to shoot so good, and the 225 AB works so well in it, that it became something I'd never intended: kind of a dedicated longer-range sporter rifle, due to it's length and how I scoped it.

But I've decided I'd rather set it up more as a general purpose rifle, something that'll get carried and used more, so I've got the scope on the classifieds (3.5-10 Conquest) and thinkin of chopping that barrel.

Practically speaking, it will still do everything it did before, even with a lower powered scope and at 75 fps less.

Blah blah blah. Sorry to ramble; I'm fried. I skied my a$$ off today....