Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Shortest practical barrel length for 30-06

I have almost enough spare parts to assemble a beater 30-06 pre 64 Win 70 hunting rifle.

I have a few 22 inch Featherweights so a 20" carbine is not much shorter. I am thinking of 18-1/2 inches.

I will be mounting a Lyman 48 peep and a scope. I plan to use the same load as my standard 30-06 hunting load if at all possible. The load is 180 grain Nosler Partition over 55 grains of IMR 4350. This is for deer and bear.

Should I trwith 20 inches?y 18-1/2 or stay

ETA: Having troubles with website, can't reply. I am only interested in 30-06. Well aware that 308 Win makes a better shorty.

Stick with 20" is my opinion even then not sure it will burn all the powder up? That is pretty short and handy.

If you want a "carbine" I would suggest the 308 winchester.

You will lose so much velocity with an 18 1/2" barrel that you will end up with a LOUD (and slow) 308 winchester.

I would not go less than 20", but like you said 22" is not much different so why go shorter than 22".

Now if you want to have your barrel bored to .358 or a 9.3 mm you could have a nice, but loud, 35 whelen or 9.3x62 without losing so much velocity because of the expansion ratio.

This is just my thoughts because you asked.

I have owned a couple of Remington 760 carbines and Ruger 77 RSIs with 18.5" barrels, noisy and a spectacular muzzle flash, with some powders, at dawn/dusk.

I think that balance is an important node on the list when putting a rifle together, so whatever barrel length has the best balance, one of those nebulous variables that is different for everyone, for you is the one that I'd recommend.

EDIT: I have a pre-'64 Winchester 70 carbine in 257 Roberts and feel that, for me, it is a little "butt-heavy" and doesn't balance as well as I prefer.

Less than 22 is obnoxious.

I recently found an older Rem 700 ADL in 06. It is in very nice condition but was shortened to 18" I like short barreled carbines and have a few but the 700 06 barrel at 18" is too short for me. I can live with the blast but the balance is not as I prefer … that can be remedied with a new barrel.

When the M700 was first introduced in 1962, standard calibers had a 20" barrel. I bought one in 30/06. Wasn't long before I replaced the barrel with one a bit longer!

My father killed deer for 40 years with a Remington 742 30.06 carbine. The rifle had an 18.5 inch barrel. None of the deer he killed noticed the bullet was going too slow. However, most of his shots were at less than 100 yards.

Perry

I had a 270 with an 18” barrel, I don’t think the deer noticed the bullets were going slow but I am pretty sure their ears were ringing while they died, KABOOM!

20" IMO

You'll loose 100-150 fps vs. your 22" barrels if you cut it down to 18 1/2", if you cut it to 20" you'll loose 70-100 fps.

Yes, it'll be loud, yes it'll effectively be a .308 and yes just like the .308 it'll take game out to any range you'll reasonably use it.

You already have 22" sporters. If you're going to cut something down to make it noticeably shorter and more compact, go with 18 1/2".

I hear this advice a lot,but don't agree. Yes, a 30-06 loses more speed as barrels get cut shorter than a 308. But not that much. Going from a 22" 30-06 down to 18" might cost you 120 fps. Cutting the 308 from 22" down to 18" might cost you 100 fps. But the 30-06 starts out 100-200 fps faster. It'll still be a lot faster from the shorter barrel.

20" would be my minimum but agree with others that a .308W would be better suited for a short barrel.

It's only an example of one but my 17"bbl .30-06 avgs 2509fps @ the muzzle(5 shots)with Federal Power-Shok 180's. Don't have any other .30-06's to try. Factory says 2700fps. Anyone else chronographed this ammo?

Can't comment on the fed 180 -06 fodder, but I've chronoed federal factory 180's from a 20" .308, and they clock 2500 fps.

I just chopped a model 70 classic stainless to 20.5" yesterday. My 180 gr load that does 2730 in a different rifle with a 22" barrel goes 2685 in the chopped rifle. Was also going to see about the 220s but the chrony battery gave out.

So I've got .308. I can live with that. Hope to work up 150gr load before season. I could also live with 2600 to 2700fps.


"I just chopped a model 70 classic stainless to 20.5" yesterday. My 180 gr load that does 2730 in a different rifle with a 22" barrel goes 2685 in the chopped rifle. Was also going to see about the 220s but the chrony battery gave out."

Not bad at all.

I'd imagine one of the 4350's ought to get you 2700 and change with 150's and decent groups.

I've got a new can of IMR4350 and a bit less than a full box of the old 150gr Nosler Solid Base bullets.

I'd say that you are bang on here. My favourite big game rifle ever is my tang safety Ruger 77RLS. It is a very light and compact rifle with an 18.5" barrel. Using Hodgdon's max load of 57.5 grains of H4350 it puts ups 2688 fps. My FN Mauser .30-06 with a 22" barrel gets 2810 with the same load. With my previous lot of powder the stubby little Ruger was getting 2715 fps with the same load.