Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing shortening barrel on Remington 700

I have a Remington 700 ADL 30-06 with factory camo stock and I am curious about a couple of things. IF I shortened the barrel by approximately 4 inches bout how much weight would it pare off rifle ? Using factory Federal 150 Power shok ammo what kind of velocity loss could I expect ,100 fps ?
Next question ,can the factory plastic stock be lightened any ? If so where ? and how much weight could be expected by doing so ? I have even thought that if I shortened barrel I could shorten the forearm as well.
Might have to relocate front sling stud.
Appreciate thoughts and input/..........Craig

You can easily cut of the barrel with a hack saw, touch up the crown with the end of a push rod and valve grinding compound.

If you want to lighten up the plactic stock, the best way is to cut off half the forearm.

For a lighter stock I think I would look for a Ti Takeoff rather than working on the factory plastic.

Is your rifle a 24" or 22" factory tube. I ask because I think I wouldn't really go much shorter than a 20" on a 30.06

Remember you can cut twice, but adding inches back is a bit harder.

I had a 22" 30-06 barrel cut to 20", and the stubs weighs 2.4 ounces, so you'd knock off almost 5 ounces on 4". I never chronographed it after the circumcision as it wasn't a concern. I'd think you'd be under 100 loss.

A factory plastic stock weigh around 2 1/2 pounds. I'd [bleep] the stock before I'd whittle away on it. The forend is hollow already, so you'd just be adding to the flex factor by taking anything off it.

A 4" barrel cutdown will lose you about 25 fps per inch or 100 fps in total velocity. Could be a little more or maybe even a little less. Not certain as to how much of a weight loss there`ll be with a 4" barrel reduction. I`ll guess maybe 6-8 oz.

Keeping the stock the same length after the barrel cutdown, may not look at all that bad, and might not look all that much out of porportion. I`ve sen a few rifles after the barrels were shortened with stocks that were left alone. After the cutdown, look it over. You just may re-consider altering the stock. Imo, taking 3" to 4" off the forearm of a plastic factory stock won`t save all that much in weight.

After you do cut the barrel down, a few free hand short practice sessions will get you use to the shorter tube.

I am going to take the pressure points out anyway and free float the barrel so if I say shortened the stock by the same 4 inches I cut the barrel off I wouldn,t think that would increase the flex. sounds like weight is approx 1.25 ounce per inch ? Did you notice a huge increase in muzzle blast ? Accuracy stay bout the same ?

..........Everyone`s perception as to the degree of muzzle blast is different, even firing the same cartridges. Some will say going from a 24" barrel down to a 20" has little difference, while others will run for the hills so to speak. I did own a 24" barreled 300 Win for 30+ years. Now I use a much handier 16.5" barreled 300 WSM Ruger carbine. Using my hearing protection for field and range use, I can`t tell all that much of a difference with them on. OFF,,,,,,,may be a different story though.

When you shorten a barrel, the resonance, vibration or writhe as some put it, decreases. It would seem to me, that if your stock remains the same length after the cutdown, that it might work a little to your advantage by reducing all that much more the barrel resonance and vibration. In other words, you will have less barrel length between the stock`s fore-end and your muzzle.

After the cutdown but before you free-float the barrel, do an accuracy test with your handloads first. You just might get a very accurate rifle without the need to free-float.

Once you look at the innards of you stock you'll see what I'm talking about. The hollow cavity runs almost to the recoil lug. Sanding out the pressure point vs cutting 4" off is way different, not even taking into consideration the asthetics after the rounded forend is gone.

I had the barrel cut/crowned and bolted in a 1/2" shorter McM Mtn. rifle stock to be my tree stand/truck gun. Accuracy, which was always stellar, never changed, and I didn't notice much extra blast to concern me. Shortly thereafter I tore it apart for the action to be used for another project I didn't need, and peddled the stock. I still have the barrel though.

I have taken a 280 from 24 to 20 inches. Muzzle blast will increase. Your gonna need to protect yourself. Accuracy is the best part. Because the barrel is now shorter it got stiffer. Accuracy will get considerably better. Mine went from a 1.2 rifle to a .7 rifle. I found that my best load was no longer best. Went through the load development again.

Not true- the 25 lbs per inch. It's not a straight line loss/inch, but an ever increasing curve. The first few inches see little loss (more like 10 to 15 lbs/inch) starting from 22 or 24 inches, but below 20 inches the slope gets steeper faster! I have a 17 inch '06 which shoots 1.25 inch groups, and I've killed out to about 370 yards with it. Dunno the mv, but that bullet is dropping off fast out beyond 300! I don't worry about it- I have a rangefinder and know the drop, more or less.

I recently moved to Kotzebue, just above the Arctic Circle, and of several rifles available, that's the one I brought to whack meat with later this fall when the 'bou get here, as I have confidence in it. The .338 seemed a bit much for caribou, the .260 a bit light at range, and the .270 needs a new barrel - I have a 27 inch one for it in '06, but never got around to screwing it on, but if I do, and it shoots, that's what I'll bring up, as ranges on 'bou tend to be in the 300 to 500 yard arena, in my experience (about 50, to date...).

And yes, I bobbed and slimmed the forend on old Stub, as it looked funny with the full length forearm. It's a Ruger 77 OM still in the original (if somewhat modified) wood stock.

Yes, the muzzle blast will be horrendous, ever fired a Rem 760 Carbine?

A very good example Keith.

I wasn't going to say anything but that comment brought back some old memories .

One of the favorite brush rifles in Vermont was the Remington .308 and .30-06 742-760 carbines with the 18 1/2 inch barrels.
You could really tell from the increased muzzle blast when one of these rifles was fired at the range.
Everyone moved away very quickly .....

Try a short barrel in the caliber you shoot before cutting your barrel.

A new lightweight stock and proper balance might be all that you need.

Very loud noises -big flash and reduced performance too short a barrel isn't fun or easy to shoot.

I still cringe when I think of those Remington carbines.
I would rather shoot a .300 Weatherby instead.

Glenn

Measure your barrel diameter:
http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/3880919/

Bruce