Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Shortening barrel to accomidate silencer for a walkabout gun

This would be a first for me, so I suppose I am looking for a little guidance in terms of desired barrel length for a walkabout gun from those who have been down this road.

Firearm at the top of the list for circumcision may be a CZ 17 rem that has been re-chambered to 17 Fireball.

Loads I expect to be using in this combo are a 30-grain Berger and or a 25 grain Hornady 1710 HP @ 3600ish FPS & 3800ish fps respectivly in a 24 inch barrel. Now if this barrle were to be reduced to 18inches I suppose I may be looking at 3500ish & 3700ish velocity as I am expecting a loss of roughly 120 fps due to the loss of barrel length.

Am I on the right track here? Should I have her cut down to 16 1/2" or would 18 inches be sufficient? The silencer that has my eye is the Mac brothers 2.0 or 3.0 in the 308 version for max versatility. And if I understand things correctly the 308 version has 2 additional baffles for greater sound reduction over the 223 version. This silencer comes in at around 9 1/4" length and approximately 20 ozs.

Other calibers I may wish to have threaded for the silencer in the future include though may not be limited to may be the 17 Hornet, 204 Ruger, 223 Remington, 22-250, 6mm Remington, 6.5 Grendel, 270 winchester, 7mm Remington Mag & 30-06.

Ok proceed to school me, confuse me or open my eyes to aspects that I Have not considered. Thanks for all input based on real life experience in the field ahead of time.

Just curious, but do you have to pay a Class III tax in order to purchase a silencer?

I've only built one specialty "coyote" rifle and went with a 20" barrel and I think it's short enough to not be too cumbersome. BUT my suppressor is only 7" long so YMMV.
My go to coyote rifle is the .17/204. No regrets about 20".

My understanding is there is a $200.00 tax stamp, Suppose this is the Class III tax you are talking about. The Tax stamp follows the Silencer. You will need a separate stamp for each silencer as laws presently stand. Laws are changing though this Tax stamp is Rapidly becoming big business with growing silencer sales. Good bit of revenue that I for one would like to know where these dollars are being allocated.

At Gunsmith You will likly experience a charge for Threading the barrel $55.00 ish Need for a thread protector when not using the suppressor $30.00 ish and of course the silencer that can vary widely in price. And if you choose to shorten your barrel like myself you may also have a charge for cutting and re crowning the barrel at $30.00 ish. Not inexpensive by any means.

I cut my 204 done to 20" also and on three test loads that I had loaded I lost 100 fps so not a real lose in velocity. Man I wish I could find a smith to thread a barrel for $55, I paid $150

Im looking at a 223 with a 16" barrel but I like my 204 so well as my walk about rifle I can't see cutting one of them down.

I like short barrels but I would not go to 16 1/2" on the .17. I'd keep it around 20".

The convenience of the 16" barrels is undeniable when using a can, but I couldn't bring myself to sacrifice that much speed on a dedicated calling rifle.


Travis

Yes. Each suppressor = $200.00 tax.



Travis