The reasons why J. O'C liked 22" barrels on his .270s were because he was primarily interested in sheep hunting (even though he hunted lots of different species all around the world) and he said that most sheep are shot at close range where the velocity loss made no difference. The second reason was that he said a longer barrel got hung up more on rocky overhangs up in the mountains. The third reason was that he considered that an all up weight of 8 lbs was ideal for a sheep rifle in .270 caliber. To get the weight down to that 8 lbs he would get the stock trimmed down, the barrel profile trimmed down and cut the length down to 22". Now he considered Barbary Sheep to be sheep (when they are actually part way between goat and sheep) and went to Africa to shoot them. I don't know what distance he shot his Barbary Sheep at, but in Western Texas the shots can be quite long like around 350 yds. When comparing the .270 and 7RM, he thought that the 7RM gave no real advantage when used in a 22" barrel over the .270..just more noise and recoil. He thought with a 7RM it was better in a 24" barrel to get an advantage over the .270 in a 22" barrel and that would necessitate a heavier rifle because of both the longer barrel and extra weight needed to tame the recoil.
