Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Lightweight short barrel hunting rifle?

I bought an older model 7 with the 18.5 inch barrel and thought I would not like it, but it turned out to be an amazingly fun gun to hunt with - very light and nimble. I didn't notice the muzzleblast at all when I took three deer with it.

I agree JPro - as to blast when hunting, I wear plugs, but I like to shoot alot at the range too, so muff + plugs help, but you can only counter so much blast.

For strictly a hunting rifle, alot of folks have discovered that handy carbines can be deadly. 19-20 is about my limit though figured many times a 17" or so in 6.5BR would be the cats azz for modest recoil and blast, though deer poison to most ranges.

Many using Grendel's in that role - I just don't want to chase brass from an AR......

I bought a Ruger Hawkeye SS Ultralight in 30-06 a few years back. It has a 20" barrel and balances well. I've considered loading 180's in it and taking it elk hunting. They aren't made any longer but a bit of searching would likely turn one up. I know they made them in 308. I tried finding a 308 for a awhile and came across the 30-06. I'm glad I picked the 30-06. I get 24" barrel 308 vels and not much more recoil. The gun is surprisingly shootable.

Here is a pic of blued model on sale at cdnn right now.

I've got a 700 TI 7mm-08 I'm going to get the barrel cut and crowned to 20".

Short and light has it's place...



Show me a better ladder blind gun in a dense thicket.


DMc

That's BS. Tho I will stipulate YMMV. Be it noted that I ain't much for target shooting....and under field conditions, I just don't notice anything much other but bang/flop. Or short run and flop. Especially in open country. And in short-range situations, any damned thing will work, properly placed.

Quite some years ago I acquired ($80) a standard Ruger 77 '06 with a muzzle bulge and so chopped it to 17 inches. Was s'posed to be a knock around "boat gun" but it grouped so well after the chop that I took it sheep hunting and killed a ram at @ 330yds. 4 days later a moose at 70 yds. Damned short hunting season! Since killed various game with it out to a caribou at 356 (paced) yards. True- it's got some drop-off at range...

After that first season, I docked the butt and fore-end and trimmed stock down some to esthetic "carbine" proportions ("for the wife" ) .. Pre-dating the Ruger edition by a few years....Mostly I use it, with a slip on 1" pad over the Decelerator pad for my LOP... A favorite...

I put it right up front for shots to 400 yards with my 22" .260 Rem 725, and 27 " Mauser heavy bbl '06.

Assuming good groups, all ya really gotta know is the range (lasered) and bullet drop (preferably from field trial, but book values will work) of caliber/bullet weight. It ain't rocket science - just a bit of detail, and bbl length has very little significance if you do your homework.

Of course, most hunting shots for most NA hunters are within 200 yards, so all this other chit just doesn't matter all that much.

Currently where I live most of my shots are 300 to 450 yards.. And I could, and have used the 17 inch bbled '06. Currently tho, I only have the .260 and Mauser up here..

All my (including several not mentioned) rifles kill at reasonable range, tho I could push the Mauser and the .338 RU 77 to 500 if need be.

Actually, the rifles are way better than me....

I should mention the Rem 725 .260 has a lightweight stainless 700TI take-off bbl purchased from David Walther thru Campfire ads. Screwed right on, exactly upside down, with perfect head space....


That's one I made out on......

I have been using a Model 70 Classic Short Action Custom Compact in .308 for many years. Winchester has started making them again. Check them out. I think you will like them. I use 180 Nosler Partition bullets with it for deer and most shot are DRT (dead right there).

When Ruger came out with the 77RL I got one. In 308, 20" barrel, carries like a 22, has killed elk out to 300 yards with Nosler 180 SBs and scoped with a compact leupy 3x9.
Don't remember ever needing a second shot on anything.
jmho
Tim

Carbines I've had:

Ruger 77 RLS 30-06 (18.5")
Ruger 77 RS 358 Win (19")
Ruger 77 RL 257 Rob (20")
Ruger 77 RSI 308 Win (18.5")
Ruger 77 RSI 7x57 (18.5")
Ruger 77 RSI 250-3000 (18.5")
Winchester 70 SS FWT 308 (19" w/ open sights)
Winchester 70 SS FWT 30-06 (21" w/ open sights)
Remington M7 SS 308 Win (20")

All that to say I'm not exactly a stranger to the concept... depending how they balance, I really like them, apart from the M7. Still, I'd not go shorter than 20" anymore, depending. Short barrels are LOUD. And I always thought the Ruger RSI should have been made with a 20" barrel.

Still, I'd not cut a Kimber 84M MT below 21", maybe 20". I'd bet the balance would be lost in that light rifle below that length.

I'm in with the group that is concerned about the muzzle blast in shorter barrels.

My first centerfire rifle was a 270 W. with a 20" barrel and my best friend's rifle was a Model 600 Remington with a 18.5" barrel. We shot them quite a bit with no hearing protection and thought we were just fine.

Years later the sins of youthful exuberance have come back to haunt me with a heavy dose of tinnitus that is constant and suddenly got much worse about 2 years ago.

I have worn hearing protection while target shooting for decades, but in spite of that have constant ringing.

Currently I have a 20.5" 9.3X62, a 20.5" 30-06, a 20" 223 and a 20.5" .22 LR. To shoot them I use plugs and muffs. I also wear plugs while hunting because even a 22" barreled 257 Roberts made my ears ring a few years ago after shooting an antelope.

I like short, handy rifles; (especially full stocked ones) but unless you are careful to protect your hearing in my experience there is a price to pay later.

Jim Carmichael wrote an article several years ago outlining his experience with hearing damage that is well worth reading.

..........Well I`d have to agree with a previous poster, who on this thread wrote BS.

18" barrel too short for anything but a pistol cartridge uh? Oh really now.

Well maybe when a pistol cartridge can move a 30 cal 180 grainer from 2700 to 2800 fps with factory ammo and just over 2900 fps with RL17 only, a 168 grainer at 3038 fps w/RL17 only and the 150-155s to just over 3200 fps w/RL17 only,,,then I might tend agree with you.

www.gunblast.com/Ruger_FrontierRifle.htm

That`s my little "mighty mouse" which is identical to Quinn`s test rifle. My Frontier has been bedded and floated however.

Yeah it is loud. But hearing protection should be worn anyway whether on the range or in the field with "ANY" short or longer barreled centerfire rifle.

And this business of muzzle blast from short barrels? Way over-rated (exaggerated) imo.

While some don`t have the tolerance level to handle the shorter tubes; many do.

Not the guy to ask, JB might chime in, but there are differences among various powders/burn rates, re: flash.

Now alot of folks I have read say run fast burning powders for short bbls, perhaps that helps flash, but for max speed, I understand that the same powders that work best in standard length bbls, also do best in shortened bbls - with same bullet weights........

Never noticed flash much while looking thru a rifle scope, blast yes.

Now if you want to see FLASH and BLAST, take a M29 4" and run a cylinder of Keith 240 loads thru it at dusk, you'd think a grenade went off in your hand!

Blast is subjective...but changes do occur as you go shorter, likely more so in large capacity cases like the magnums....

When I was young and single I had a local gunsmith rebarrel a commercial Mauser 98 with a 19" 7x57 barrel.

I found it to be pleasant to shoot and not terribly loud. On a farm I used to hunt on, the lady of the house said the could never tell when I shot a deer. When I was previously using a 22" 243 Win...she said it was very loud and knew it was me.

Dan

Lots of the " long range handgun " shooters use bolt actioned " pistols " with 16-18" barrels AND they use cases up to 338 Lapua Improved. They seem to survive.

Featherweight 22" or featherweight compact 20"

Model 70 Compact lgwt PF in some ugly plastic stock(?), 308, 20" picked it out of the local 'shopper' classifieds. I paid what the fella asked and ran before he changed his mind. I put it into a nice looking wood laminate handle as a "winter project" to give me something to do between snow storms and plowing. Perfect little shooter in a box blind, tree stand or creeping through the swamp or the cottonwoods. I think he shot it a "lot" maybe 2 or even 3 boxes ever. I am sooo ashamed of myself. Well, not really.

Jeff Cooper arrived at 19in as the ideal length for a 308 in the Scout Rifle. He said that was long enough and saw no benefit in a shorter barrel.

Good thread and info.

Hearing protection is mandatory in any shooting situation if one wants to live tinitus-free.....

If you think that statement through, you'd realize mostly those "pistols" are shot prone with a bipod or improvised rest with the barrel a bit further away from the shooters ears than the average 22" barrel is shot shoulder mounted.

Also, not being shoulder mounted further reduces the possibility of hearing damage... hearing damage also results from the sound and vibration traveling THROUGH the stock, to the cheek, into the Cochlea/Inner Ear, in spite of wearing the best hearing protection. Fiberglass stocks are worse than wood in this regard.

And of course "surviving" is a relative thing... I prefer to prosper rather than just survive, and keeping my hearing as intact as possible is part of thriving to me.

Hearing damage is a terrible thing...