Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats A custom '06' w/ a 26 inch barrel ?

No way. Jack O'Connor once wrote that he preferred his custom rifles with 22 inch barrels, but that 24 inch barrels were "not bad." Hunting rifles with 26 inch barrels were "for the birds" according to old Jack. I've owned one 26 inch barreled hunting/target rifle, a Remington 700 SFVS in .308. 10.5 lbs. with a 3.5-10X Leupold Varix III. Too long and too heavy for serious hunting rifle.
It took several years, I finally noticed something. From field positions, I could shoot that rifle better than any other I'd ever shot...... I mean, I once shot a, five shot, 6 inch group at 547 yds. from a sitting position w/ a shooting sling. Hmm.
So, my custom '06' came to need a new barrel. It is suppose to be everything I want in a hunting rifle. All steel parts. Mauser 98, CRF action. 24 inch Pac-Nor barrel w/ .600 dia. muzzle. Leupold 6X42 scope. 7 lbs. , 4 ozs. empty. But the guy that built it messed up the chamber. Tried setting the barrel back, but there was not enough shoulder left on the barrel after he removed as much metal as he could get away with.
So, a new Pac-Nor barrel was installed. The barrel was left at 26 inches. Frankly, if they would have asked if they could do that, I'd have said no way. But I played with it before I realized it was left that long. And I liked it.
The rifle now weighs about 8 lbs. thanks to the MPI Kevlar stock.
I just gave it it's first range "workout." What I do is wrap myself up in the sling as I go into sitting position and see how fast it settles down before I pull the trigger. What a difference ! It's now almost as fast as my M1A Squad Scout. Probably because the M1A is about 16 ozs. heavier with the Leupold 1.5-4X Scout Scope.
This is just what I need from a big game rifle. All of the 4 yr. old bucks I've shot, or shot at, where I hunt now have all been running shots. I really need the rifle to settle down, and get the shot off quickly. It also needs to "follow through." That means make it tough on guys like me who have the bad habit of stopping the gun just as the trigger breaks.
So, you might say this old dog has had his eyes opened by this "for the birds" 26 inch barrel. E

All due respect to Jack, But look what you proved to yourself !!! Barrel contures have a lot of importance , i'm happy your happy Congrats,proper sling use also gives benefits to the shooter , Jack also taught that also, ive got no problem with my 5.5 conture Hart 1/10 tw,27.24 inch bbl. also a 30/06. never ran a Pac-Nor but their a great bbl maker also. enjoy and Great hunting with your o6 custom.

My 700 has a 22 inch barrel.

Oheremicus ,

Congrats on a fun toy. It looks like you discovered ignorant prejudice can interrupt some fun.

My Ruger #1B came with a 26" factory barrel (for all you birds)

Punched it out to .30 Gibbs and it moves bullets right along.

I'm a big O'Connor fan, too, and I chugged the 22"-barrel Kool-Aid by the gallon. But several years ago, I bought a no-name European Mauser sporter in 30-06 with a very slim stock and a 25" barrel. It weighed less than 7 pounds empty and pointed like a bird gun. At the time I was a big fan of the Scout rifle concept and I wrote it off because of the long barrel. I did not appreciate what I had.

Then a couple of years ago, my father gave me his uncle's old Remington 700 in 7 Mag with a 26" barrel. I hunt in very thick brush and didn't have very high hopes for this one, but again, the darned thing points like a bird gun. Then a few months ago, I saw Winchester's new Alaskan rifle with a 25" barrel in a shop. The clerk handed it to me, and I was again astonished at how well it pointed.

I feel like you don't notice the advantages of a long barrel unless you shoot offhand a LOT, and not many people do that these days. O'Connor hunted in the mountains, so maybe he didn't shoot as much offhand shooting as he did from a rest or from field positions.

Funny how we take as Gospel things that we really should try for ourselves.


Okie John

Had a 30-06 with a 26" barrel, a Model of 1917 that had been "sporterized." It shot rather well, I always liked the solid feeling of that rifle.

Eventually I had the barrel cut back to 21" and set the rifle into a lighter fiberglass stock. I found it much handier than the 26" version, but... I do fondly remember the handling attributes you've described about your own 26" barreled 30-06 rifle.

Most of my hunting anymore is done with a 24" 30-06 or 25-06, and I'm happy with that barrel length.

Regards, Guy

i have built many rifles with 26in lighter contour barrels, the weigh they balance in field positions when your out of breath and in a hurry, there is no compromise, i see so many rifles in the classifieds that i would snatch up in a minute if they had some barrel on them,

i think a 20 or 22 in barrel belongs on a 30-30,,,,, i built a 270 on a g33-40 with a light 26in pacnor and gave it to a buddy for his birthday, he would of shunned anyrifle with more than a 22in barrel his whole life, wouldnt dream of shooting or carrying one of my guns,

this rifle has been on a few continents now and harvested a pile of game,

Ill take 22 over 26, and 18 over 22...and sure dont turn my nose away from a 16.

My hunting buddy has an old .270 Sendero that he named E. F., from the E. F. Hutton commercial, “When E. F. speaks, people listen”.

When his E. F. speaks, stuff dies. I asked him why he packed such a heavy rifle. He said he knew what it would do when he got it there.

He’s not a mountain hunter, hunts WT’s. Pronghorns and such.

So, IMO, the right gun is the one that produces for you, the one you can shoot well and have confidence in.

One size doesn’t fit all.

DF

I have several custom sporter rifles with 26” barrels and one with 27” barrel. I prefer them for the velocity gain.

In September while ostensibly bear hunting I spent 3+ hours on an oakbrush infested, steep azz ridge scouting for elk at 8000 ft. The entire time I was very happy to be carrying a sub 7lb rifle with 22" bbl that I was often threading through the brush..........

If I'm toting a 26" tube, the case is going to hold a hell of a lot more powder than the 06' case.

Just bought a stock 700 adl .30-06 22 “ barrel.. An old one.. I like it, but all my serious hunting rifles have 26 “ barrels... Had a 280 mountain rifle for about a month.. One hunt and it came to town and was traded off on something else, I think a 721 .270 with a 24 in barrel..

I tend to agree, but I would be curious as to what sort of velocity gains a guy could see with the OP's setup? IIRC, Mule Deer had an article about a 26" tubed 270 WCF he played with. Seems like he got some good chrono numbers?

My 30-06 with a 28" Pac-Nor is quite impressive.Here is some of the velocities I'm getting.

Good way of looking at it!

I've owned chronos continuously since 1981. One of the first things I learned was that bbl length makes a difference. A 20' bbl'd 300 Wby ain't much faster than a 22' bbl'd 30-06 (but the muzzle blast from a 20' bbl 300Wby is most definitely impressive).

And a long bbl'd 30-06 does indeed gain a fair amount of velocity. It won't come close to a 26' 300Wby, but still........

I have a 25' Douglas bbl on a 270W and it's not all that far behind a 270Wby.

Has anyone ever missed a shot in the field and immediately thought "Gee, I would have made that shot if my barrel was 4 inches longer"

Which is why I prefer a shorter, lighter, 22" bbl..............

And 22' barrels in magnums are not appealing to me. At all.