Originally Posted by gulo
Ha-ha! I have bin thinking about precisely this, lately, having just traded for a '56 Remington 760 pump, considered by many to be THE whitetail gun for the heavy timber. Many opting for the 18" barrel carbine version which by many reports has such a hellacious muzzle-blast that no one wants to be anywhere near a hunting partner firing one. So i'm trying to imagine being in bush SO thick, that i can't swing an already admirably compact rifle with its 22" barrel around without hanging-up. I've never hunted bush so thick. I can imagine if you were in bush that thick, you wouldn't be able to see what you were trying to shoot at anyways. The only arguments i've seen for these uber short barrels that makes any sense to me being 1) you have a tight blind; 2) swinging it around in the cab of your truck. Which isn't an argument around here cos it's illegal to go around blasting away at things from the cab of your truck. For pretty good reason, i'd say.

No, the "I am going to cut the barrel down to two inches wink " thing is just the fashion of the week, the fetish of right now. Barrels that can't be short enough, ugly plastic stocks and the 6.5 Creedmore. That's where gun culture groupthink is at right now. We'll move on to something else soon enough.


Is anyone really bothered by muzzle blast when they're hunting game?

I do hunt in tight cover where shorter is handier. It might not be better, but it is handier. I've bobbed dozens of barrels for people who wanted a shorter rifle. Heck, I made pocket money bobbing Remington 722s from 24" to 20" back in the mid-1980's for people who wanted a carbine length 222 or 300 SAV, but couldn't justify paying the then current prices for Remington 600s and 660s. I've bobbed several 760s in 30-06 for people who wanted shorter and handier than the 22" barrel offered.

My FIL shot a lot of deer from the driver's seat in a series of pickups, as it was his preferred deer blind. As long as the vehicle wasn't running and he had his hunter orange clothing and hat on, he was a legal hunter in Nebraska. He had a great spot to sit and shoot deer from and since there were vehicles and farm equipment parked there for much of the year, the deer weren't bothered in the least. His only deer rifle was a pre-'64 Winchester 70 in 257 Bob with a 24" barrel. Not handy, but quite effective.