Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 7mm Rem Mag barrel length?

..............Nope! But as with all magnum rifle cartridges, you`ll always get slightly better performance from a longer barrel.

If you`re going to hunt in thicker brush country or in thicker timber country, a shorter, handier, more nimble and faster rifle is always a plus.

You won`t lose or compromise that much velocity or long range capability at all with 4" of shorter barrel length. With my 16.5" 300 WSM Ruger Frontier carbine, (7.5" shorter than a 24"), I`m running 4.5% to 5% behind in overall velocity to the 24" barreled 300 WSMs. There should be less an overall percentage of loss going from a 26" 7 mag down to a 22" 7 mag.

Sure! Shorter barrels are noisier and that may be a small downside. But, "WE ALL" should be wearing good ear protection anyway,,,,regardless of barrel length.

Anyone who is hard of hearing due to rifle noise and complains about the shorter barrel noise, has only himself to blame.

To me the only belted mag worthy of a short barrel is a 338 Win.Good case to bore ratio there.

guys i am a self proclaimed idiot in terms of reloading. i have been following all kinds of threads on the subject and various calibers being reloaded in. my comment, but really a question because i do not know is this. in terms of the 7mm rem mag and it's skinny bore to case size, i am under the impression from past readings here and other places that you really don't get the full benifit of that cartridge/powder capacity until you go to the longer 26" barrels and the heavy for caliber bullets to take advantage of the slower powders required for that much case capcity and bore size. not that you can't make it shoot well in other barrel lengths and bullet sizes, but to achieve the best that caliber and case size matched together has to offer. am i way off on this? have i over generalized in terms of the 7mm rem mag and it's abilities? again i don't know so i'm asking.

...................The only thing lost with a shorter barrel,,,,is velocity. Not accuracy or anything else.

Regardless of barrel length, whether it be the shorties like my two, a 16.5" tubed 300 WSM or a 20" tubed 375 Ruger, one re-loads the "EXACT" same way as though one were shooting a 24" or even a 26" barrel in the same given cartridge.

Regardless of the powder burn rate, the powder itself is completely burned up before the bullet leaves the barrel. HOWEVER, with the shorter barrels, you will get more left-over gases coming out from the muzzle as opposed to a longer barrel; hence more muzzle flash.

It is also perceived that faster burning powders are more efficient from shorter tubes. Just as in longer barrels, many faster burning powders do offer better velocity to the grains of powder used, but "NOT" more velocity.

The term "full benefit" from a longer barreled 270 WSM, 270, 7mm Mag, a 300 Win Mag, 300 WSM or whatever the cartridge happens to be, can only mean "additional velocity" or better ballistic performance, because that`s all there can be as far as "full benefit" is concerned.

I think I am going to do what one of the members here suggested and have it cut to 25".