Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Shortened barrels what do you like

No 308’s in my house but 20” sounds just right.
375 H&H = 21”
416 Rem = 21”

For a .308 based round and especially for maneuvering in and around tight areas, I prefer 20" barrels and no more than 22", assuming the contour allows the rifle to balance well.

From a powder efficiency standpoint, no more than 20", though as mentioned earlier noise and blast can be a factor especially in a blind. For burning 40-50 grains of powder, longer barrels don't have any advantage, IMO. Even more so for .378" rounds.

That said, two of my three main hunting rifles have 25.5" and 26" barrels. I need to have them chopped at some point.

^^^Yep, what the gay homo says !^^^

Hey, if I was a real homo, I'd like the longer barrels because......uh......uh.......never mind.

My kids shoot a 7-08 Frontier with the 16.5" barrel. I have not noticed muzzle blast to be excessive and we hunt without ear protection on big game hunts. Never fired it inside a blind though. I just picked up a 700 CDL in 7-08 with the 24" barrel. Methinks if I keep it it will become a 20 or 22" gun.

2 corrections regarding my last post to Moosemike....I typed that the Alliant MV for 66 gr RL 17 for the 300 WSM using 180 grainers was about 3180 fps. Correct # is 3082.....I also typed that my hand loads 66.3 gr of RL17 was used to get 2917 fps with a 180 gr Hornady......Actually was 66 gr of RL17..The 66.3 was used for a 168 VLD.......

Out of curiosity, have you chronoed it?

I love the shorter firearms too. I normally shoot from out of my vehicle and need the short length to swing the rifle from the passenger seat and out the window without fouling with the gearshift, mirror etc. My side mirror makes a handy rest. (My hunting tactics are to roam the paddocks or drive up quickly to the dams to catch the pigs unaware. I've got an arthritic toe so walking around isn't much fun. I'll have to get into the long range stuff too I guess.)

What do you reckon your load would do in a 24" barrel, all other things being equal?

I have three 308's with 20" barrels and they are my favorites to hunt with. 400 yards would be a really long shot at one place I hunt but I wouldn't think twice about it.

I don't like going above 22" unless it is on one of my Encores or target guns.. For them, I will go up to 24". I have a .308 Encore barrel that is 18". Even with a suppressor on it, it handles like a carbine.

As for blast on shorter barrels, I run suppressors on just about everything I shoot now days, so I don't worry about it all that much.

.....................Yes! Has been chrony'd many many times using many different handloads.......

.............................Well!..... Alliant shows 3082 fps from a 24" barrel using 66 gr RL17 behind a Speer 180 gr. Other 300 WSM bores may vary either way or come very close. I am running 2917 using that same load behind a 180 gr Hornady IB. About a 5.2% loss vs Alliant..Do not know what a Speer would do as a comparison. Don't use them.

Oops I missed your earlier posts on chrono data. Those are pretty healthy velocities. I'll bet you get singed eyebrows though.

Too hot...

When RL17 first hit the shelves I ran some of Alliant's max 180 loads in my 300 WSM and darn near locked up the bolt. Nothing I loaded above 65.0 RL17/180 made me comfortable, and I finally settled on 64.5 gr's RL17 with a 180 for 3,035+ fps. Breathes easy, no ejection hitches, and generally produces fine accuracy. At last count I've used the 64.5 load in four 24" 300 WSM's over the years. It works well and consistently give 3,035+ fps in all rifles.

A 300 Mag is about a 180 at 3,000 fps. give or take. Pushing one of the smallest of them to 300 WBY velocities is not solid thinking...

........LOL.......Not in the least. No singed eyebrows......Muzzle blast not as bad as many think.....Many from the get go under estimate the MVs that can be had from the shorter barrels. Todays modern powders close the gap.

..................Interestingly, using 66.0 gr of 17 does not lock up my bolt. No ejection problems and no primer issues either. For my Frontier though, no need to go past 66 grains....In fact, my more accurate loadings are less than 66 gr....

16,18, 20 max.

Do you have access to Federal Power-Shok 180gr ammo (blue box stuff)? If so I'm getting a 5 shot average of 2509fps at the muzzle from my 17 1/2"bbl for you to compare to.

18" to 20" is great.