Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Optimal Barrel Length for Accuracy

I’ve got a nice Remington 700 chambered in 308 Winchester. It has a varmint weight 26” barrel. Stone stock the accuracy was pitiful, mostly due to the 6lb trigger pull. After installing a Walker trigger obtained from a member here the group shrunk tremendously. Currently the stock is off being pillar bedded by Al Nyhus. So now the question. Considering barrel harmonics, would shortening the barrel down to 20 - 22” be of any benefit to overall accuracy?
Below are pictures of the results of the trigger upgrade.

In it's day, the 40X was the most accurate store bought rifle out there...I believe it came with a 20" bbl.

Current setup….

Depends on which version. I have one with a 27 1/4" barrel.

How did the long barrel shoot?

A shorter barrel is stiffer than a longer one given the same thickness. I don't imagine there would be much gain if you're working with a factory barrel and chamber.

The ammo is more important than barrel length. You can tune just about anything, but often shorter barrels are easier to tune, but then you give up velocity that helps keep your bullet where you want it at longer ranges.

I’m thinking I’d lose 90 - 150fps and gain a bit in muzzle blast / noise. Not bad if I can get more accuracy. It’s not bad currently. The bedding will be the best improvement, but shortening a barrel isn’t to cost prohibitive for a plain Jane target gun. Now if it was a match rifle…

a kreiger barrel would help. you have to try one to really experience it.

a kreiger barrel would help. you have to try one to really experience it.

if you go to the 6mmbr web site, there are articles and rifles. the easiest and cheapest way to improve accuracy is to get a barrel ... hart, kreiger...

if you go to the 6mmbr web site, there are articles and rifles. the easiest and cheapest way to improve accuracy is to get a barrel ... hart, kreiger...

A custom barrel would be nice. But Remington barreled can be excellent. This is what a factory barrel can do. Huber trigger and a home brew bedding job. Not mine, but about the same. Four shots @ 100 yards.

What's the website for a stutter cure?

Internet opinion is fun, but not very conclusive. Although old, Harold Vaughn's book, Rifle Accuracy Facts, pretty well covers all that is known (as opposed to 'believed') on the subject. It's a hard read for sure, but until you study the conclusions on frequency vs amplitude and apply those relationships to your goals for your rifle...your wasting your time and money. Also you need to ask the question, "do I want precision, or accuracy"? If I may make a parable without any intent to insult you...you have basically asked the question, "what is the best kind of chainsaw"?

😂 you are absolutely correct!!! I hadn’t thought of it that way.
So, now what’s best? McCulloch Mini Mac 10, or a Stihl???Accuracy, or precision???

What do YOU want? Precision,Teeny groups on paper? Accuracy, Shoot the eye out of a pissant at 500 yards? Do you want to be able to carry your rifle while walking? Is she going to be a sandbag queen on the bench? At the price of barrels and stuff, (the last Kreiger I bought set me back 360 bucks) if I were contemplating building a gun, I'd actually write down my goals and parameters before I started spending money. Once you have done that, the rifle will kinda sorta design itself. One more thing, just my opinion, you can throw money at a custom barrel with no guarantee it will be a shooter. That Rem barrel may shoot too, but, if you are going to shorten it, I would start cutting on the chamber end, set her back a full inch or more, recut the chamber with a good match reamer with a floating pilot that fits the bore, while the machinist has it, go ahead and have him re face the muzzle/crown. Don't need the trendy 11 deg target crown...flat is good. If you do the simple not so pricey things, there is a very good chance, it will shoot better than you do.

At 12lbs+ it’s just for me to punch paper at various ranges.
A trigger is the cheapest and first step to improving. Well actually practice is right up there. I’ll do what is reasonable to the factory rifle before proceeding to other options. I’ll probably do a barrel in the future after the factory barrel is shot out. The problem is sometimes I don’t keep them long enough to shoot out barrels….

It already shoots better than my skills….
Working to improve both. It’s a lifelong process…..

There is a 99% chance you will not gain accuracy from cutting your barrel down unless, by some coincidence, your crown is damaged. If you want a shorter barrel for other reasons, great, but if you cut the barrel, there is a slight chance you might throw the barrel into a different tune re: the loads it likes.

If you were unsure about the bedding, that is likely the cause of your troubles.

The fact that the trigger improved groups so dramatically may or may not hint at a technique issue. But if your technique is solid, the shot distribution of your best group (2 in, one out) hints either at a bedding issue or an issue with your ammo, maybe seating depth.

All of which is to say, after you fix the bedding, cutting the barrel remains at the bottom of list of things to do to get your rifle shooting better.