Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Question about barrel shortening?

My 308 Win lost about 90 fps from original 26" length, to current 20.5" length. Same barrel, same load.

My 30-06 lost about 100 fps after being cut from 26.5" to 22.5". Again, same barrel/same load.

Like I said, my 338-06 results were from the same barrel with ONLY the length changing.
I didn't do 1" increments though, I lopped the whole 5" off at once.

Seems to be quit a few people out there that like shorter barrels, searching for the perfect rifle. Great information guys.

I'll take a 24"+ barrel any day over a 22" or less unless the rifle demands a shorter tube. The only reason I have a 19" tube on my 338-06 is because it is for a Mannlicher style stock and long barrels don't work with Mannlichers.
I've never found a few inches of added length to be a handicap.

With the heavier contours (Rem Varmint+) a few inches off the front makes a big difference in balance, and carrying comfort.

Counterbalancing a heavy bbl with weight aft is an option, but then the overall weight of the rifle is going up, up, up.

If I use a short tube then I generally use a bit heavier barrel to get weight up front..I have found a barrel heavy gun is best for quick jump shots at game and better for running shots at game and much better for off hand shooting and a long tube works a tad better IMO..If you run to the top of a saddle and have to shoot out of breath, the heavy gun and/or a long barrel will do you a much better job thus my preference of 26 inch tubes, but like I said a short heavy tube gets about the same effect.

I have never seen so much to do over 100 FPS and thats about the most were talking about on this thread. A few things come to mind such as 4 inches of barrel is about like my pocket knife, its no biggie either way..

I try to stay in the real world, and that is big overbore magnums need long tubes, smaller 06 lenth cartridges do well with about any barrel length and use a cartridge that has sufficient velocity to start with and the bottom line is both work, so take your pick, your sure not going to get a pat answer on one of these blogs, its all opinnion, some based on experience, some on fact, and some on guess and by gosh and I read it somewhere or Jack O'Connor said so.

If I use a short tube then I generally use a bit heavier barrel to get weight up front..I have found a barrel heavy gun is best for quick jump shots at game and better for running shots at game and much better for off hand shooting and a long tube works a tad better IMO..If you run to the top of a saddle and have to shoot out of breath, the heavy gun and/or a long barrel will do you a much better job thus my preference of 26 inch tubes, but like I said a short heavy tube gets about the same effect.

I have never seen so much to do over 100 FPS and thats about the most were talking about on this thread. A few things come to mind such as 4 inches of barrel is about like my pocket knife, its no biggie either way..

I try to stay in the real world, and that is big overbore magnums need long tubes, smaller 06 lenth cartridges do well with about any barrel length and use a cartridge that has sufficient velocity to start with and the bottom line is both work, so take your pick, your sure not going to get a pat answer on one of these blogs, its all opinnion, some based on experience, some on fact, and some on guess and by gosh and I read it somewhere or Jack O'Connor said so.

I would rather have a 24 inch barrel 338-06 rifle than the
Ruger RSI Stainless 7mm-08 I have now,When I got it from Marks
Outdoors in B`ham the dealer told me he got it a estate sale.
The older man had ordered it from Lipseys and had left it unfired.
When he passed his kids sold all of his stuff ,Marks wound up with all his guns.On line the little RSI stainless looked to be the perfect little rifle for Bucks here in Bama but after having it for a little while It just does not appeal to me in any way.
I can`t get fired up about the 7mm-08 caliber and the 18 1/2 in barrel is accurate but loud!!
Keep your Roy as is don`t screw it up by lopping off inches of
the Barrel.
AMRA
ttp://24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/3962159/1/Ruger_RSI_for_BLR

I am thinking I need to buy a barrel for my TC and play with it. Question is still what caliber. It looks like even the non magnums will be loud.

Doesn't someone build a muzzle brake that fits over the barrel and contains the noise and blast? I thought there was a company in UTAH that built something like this. Then you could have you short barrel and magnum calibers.

If we can build silencers then we should be able to build a tube which controls noise and muzzle jump which is legal. I picture a tube which fits over the barrel. I know I seen this advertised somewhere. Any Ideas?

Just bought a Browning BLR in .300 WSM. Why does Browning make it in 22 inch barrel? Even my Marline 336XLR in 30/30 has a 24 inch barrel. I like both guns, the BLR is alot lighter. Does Ballsistics decrease that much with Browing in this caliber with a short barrel?

............Nope!.........If my 16.5" barreled 300 WSM Ruger carbine, as proven by extensive chrony testing, can come to within 4.5% in total overall velocity loss to two 24" barreled 300 WSMs I compared it to (16.4 to 19.5 fps per inch), you can certainly expect with a high degree of certainty less a percentage going from a 24" barrel down to a 22" er!