Blu C's;
Good evening to you sir, I hope the weekend was a good one for you and this finds you well.

With the understanding that I've never hunted grizzly bears but do live and hunt in south central BC, where grizzly bears are seen once in awhile. I've chased elk, moose, black bears, California bighorn, mulies and whitetail in the local hills over the last nearly 4 decades here so that's the first part of my answer.

As well, I'm no giant at maybe 5'6" with my arms in the air and about 150lbs, so longer and heavier rifles are somewhat longer and heavier for me than say a chap who'd be a foot taller and double my weight, you know?

For years the rifle I'd modified to hunt Saskatchewan whitetails when I lived there and brought to BC was a 21" barreled '06 in a BBR. I really liked the way it handled and truly when shooting 180gr to 200gr bullets it didn't loose as much projected velocity as with lighter bullets.

In the fullness of time as I started hunting with other rifles, I modified a Liberty Model 77 in .338 originally with it's 24" barrel, but ended up making it into a .308 Norma - again with a 24" barrel. Further down the road as I aged and felt less and less like packing a 10lb rifle, I built a 6.5x55 on a 98 action which is 7lb 4oz loaded.

Aforementioned Swede
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If I know I'm going to chase elk or moose, the Norma goes along with me despite it being a pound and a half more than the Swede and 3" longer.

While I do prefer the handling of the shorter, lighter rifle, especially if I'm in thicker country or on a longer time afield, I don't mind the slightly heavier bullet in the Norma, but it's likely more academic than reality based to be honest.

So then to answer your question, I'd likely not be inclined to shorten a .300 Mag to much less than 22", but would consider a .338 Mag at 20" - but I'd of course go 21" based upon the "mojo" that length of barrel has given me over the years. wink

It would be nice if you could handle a few shorter rifles to see if it makes any difference to you personally, I know my hunting partner is 7" taller than me and doesn't mind longer barrels as much as I do, so that's why I comment on the individual's height as it might be a factor - or not.

Hopefully that was somewhat useful sir. Good luck on your search for a rifle for a northern hunt and for sure good luck on the hunt too. Stay well.

Dwayne

The most important stuff in life isn't "stuff"