Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Thoughts on short barreled hunting rifles

Shot a deer Monday with this 20" Krieger barrel in 260 with a 3.1" chamber.

I sighted it in, and it shot a 1/2" (3) shot group at 100 yards.

That is the third rifle the barrel has been on. It started out as a #4 taper. I re tapered it to #2b and shortened both ends and cut new threads.

False. You have to shoot a long barrel for accuracy.

LOL

In my experience, short barrels are too loud, have too much muzzle blast, and are usually harder to shoot off-hand because they don't have enough forward balance.

These tradeoffs just aren't worth it. IMO a graphite stocked 24" barreled bolt gun with a sporter weight or slightly thinner barrel might be just the right porridge for me. Maybe 7-7.5 pounds all up with a light 4x32 on it.

There's good reason about seven pounds and 24" is considered 'standard' in a bolt action hunting rifle. I could go a bit lighter if the balance is still a bit forward, but still want the barrel length. Certainly nothing shorter than 22".

Can run around in the woods all day chasing grouse with a 26" barreled 20 gauge 870 pump thinking it's short, quick and handy. But a 24" rifle is too long and too slow in the same bush?

Very sensible response......

I don't have any problems with short barreled rifles. Yesterday morning....17.7" barrel:

Since most use scopes today I don't see the "quicker acquisition of sights"

19" 6.5x55 and it balances pretty perfectly. I don't find the muzzle blast bad at all with just plugs in.

Pugs is right on that count. I fired that rifle where that pic was taken (I had to step back so my mug wouldn't wreck the pic) and it fights way outside its weight class, in terms of handling and muzzle blast (and accuracy too, I presume, as we were only shooting steel swingers).

Simple solution to the conundrum of length vs. performance: switch to a single shot. The lack of action length allows a much longer barrel on a rifle the same length as a bolt gun with a short barrel. Example: a pre-64 Model 70 '06 with 24" barrel is 44 3/4" long overall, my Browning Low Wall .223 with 24" barrel is 39 3/4" overall. I would have to fit a 19" barrel to the M70 to bring its length in line with the Browning. Conversely, I could fit a 29" barrel to the Browning and still be the same OAL as the M70.

Pugs;
Good morning to you sir, I trust all is going according to plan thus far today and all in your world are well.

Thanks so much for posting the photo of one of my favorite rifles ever to appear on our cyber 'Fire. The lines on it to me are "just right" and I'm guessing it'd be as close to the proverbial magic wand for hunting the mountains behind my house as it is in your part of the world.

As we've discussed before too, I'm making a fairly educated guess thinking that, as we've been fooling with carbines in that chambering for close to 40 years here.

This is the 1903 Carl Gustav 96 which I reworked for my late father in the early '80's, which was passed down to our eldest daughter who continues to hunt with it today.



That one has a 20" barrel and since we load it to 96 pressures it's very well behaved to shoot. I was so impressed how it worked on local mulie and whitetail bucks that I unscrewed the .270 barrel from my walking around rifle and had a 21" Swede military barrel grafted onto it, which isn't a frugal, practical or logical thing to do with a 98 action, nonetheless that's what I did.



She's been running 130gr TSX in her carbine and we've yet to catch one. All the bucks she's shot have needed exactly one bullet too. My 6.5x55 has accounted for 3 local mulie bucks since I had it done, that took a pair of 120gr TTSX and one 120gr GMX to accomplish by the way.

Anyways to the OP, we've been playing with short barreled hunting rifles both on the Saskatchewan prairies and in the BC mountains for close to 40 years now. I believe if we thought they were a handicap in the applications we've used them for, we likely would have stopped but as always there's a lot of skidder trails and logging roads headed towards Mecca.

All the best to you Pugs, thanks again and Happy Thanksgiving.

Dwayne

A rifle that has a small cartridge and a large bore makes more sense to me than a rifle with a large case and small bore. For instance, a 358 Win with a short barrel seems more logical to me than a 243 with a short barrel or to a further extreme; a 300 blackout with a short barrel makes more sense to me than a 264 Win with a short barrel. It's all about expansion ratio...

I really liked Remington 600 308's and I had maybe a half dozen of them, others wanted them when they shot them and they didn't want to let them go. I didn't much care for a short bull barrel 22-250 I had - it was very accurate, but the blast was not so nice.

I have 44 magnum Marlin with a fairly short barrel and I like it.

Bugger;
Morning sir, I trust the day's behaving for you and you're all well.

Regarding your short barreled Marlin in .44 mag, I've had a bit of a thing for carbine length lever guns since I was a kid and my buddy's dad had a '92 in .44-40 that we'd handle and drool over.

Up here while we can't be trusted taking our handguns anywhere besides a range, thus far they'll allow short barreled rifles and shotguns as long as they're manually operated.

A buddy just bought one of these in .44 magnum, but I've not shot it.

[Linked Image]

It's a 12" barrel so I'm guessing it'll be more "barky" than my off season truck gun which is a 16" .357.



While they are certainly short barreled and rifled, I don't really consider them for hunting though they surely could to that in a pinch I suppose.

All the best to you all and Happy Thanksgiving.

Dwayne

Man, I bet that thing carries slick. I've got a 16" Henry carbine in 327 Fed, and as nice as it is for brush, I've thought to myself several times I bet it'd be even better carrying if the barrel was about 10-12".

zcm82:
Morning sir, hope you're well and the day is behaving for you.

The buddy in question works in a placer mine in the middle of nowhere Yukon when it's not frozen solid. It's meant to live with him on the machines he runs as they are in grizzly, black bear and wolf territory.

The Yukon by the way, has perhaps 43,000 people in total, with 24,000 of those living in Whitehorse, so it makes Alaska look like downtown and crowded on a good day and if one has wildlife issues one will either deal with them yourself or become a statistic.

There are Conservation Officers for sure, but by the time the sat phone reaches them and they charter a helicopter - if there's no forest fires using them all that morning - well you get the picture sir...

I'm interested to see how barky it'll be for sure, but I suspect that they're usually wearing ear PPE or have it close by on the machines.

From folks I know and trust who work up there, while it doesn't happen often, every once in awhile they have to deal with a problem animal that just won't listen to reason.

One seldom hears about it in the media however, since all mining and most logging and even exploration companies have an extensive assortment of track hoes, back hoes, etc.

All the best and Happy Thanksgiving.

Dwayne

Thanks as always Dwayne for your considerate and thoughtful posts. Gnoahhh (Gary) and I are headed out for the MD Saturday opener to western MD and I'll enjoy carrying it around the woods. With any luck a deer won't show up and get shot and ruin the trip but if it has to it has to.

Fireball- That is one rifle that would work super well over track and trail!

Yeah, pesky deers ruining an otherwise perfect day in the woods!

Dwayne, would that all the denizens of the Campfire were as glad-minded as you are!

I'll be guarding the trees with either a Ruger 1A 6.5x55 or Browning Low Wall .223. I'll make the final decision that morning as I'm lacing up my boots.