Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Why a threaded barrel?

On a hunting rifle?

I can see it on a so called "tactical" rifle but can someone explain the use of a threaded barrel on a deer rifle, etc.?

If your state allows it there is nothing better than a quieter gun when hunting. You won’t get rid of the sonic crack but it will still reduce the noise and help protect your hearing. It also can make your rifle more accurate and reduce recoil. Try it and you will like it

Deadens report of rifle (big plus for your ears and big minus for your quarry).
Reduce recoil.
Reduced disturbance if you hunt near residential areas.
No deflected blast (compared to a brake).

Suppressors increase accuracy? Change my mind.

Non threaded barrels could be compared to wood stocks in the 90s.

In ten years most all hunting rifles will come threaded from the factory.

Once a hunter uses a suppressor in the field there really is no way to go back.

Being over 60, and losing a lot of my interest in hunting, I doubt I'll ever have a suppressor. Were I younger and starting from scratch, I'd have at least one or two rifles set up with suppressors. I think they're brilliant.

I have two of them and I never use them. They are heavy, long and cumbersome. I do walk a lot so there's that. Just another opinion.

While I don't believe a suppressor will change the inherent accuracy of a given firearm, it may due to changing the barrel harmonics (similar to the BR barrel tuners that are out there), but that is would have to just be coincidental.
Where I do see it helping is with helping to make the shooter better. Reducing the muzzle blast and recoil may help the shooter themselves better at trigger control and follow-through, thereby making them more accurate. If you already have very good shooting fundamentals then it probably won't help with anything but making it much more pleasant to shoot.

Since I've lost a lot of my hearing already and have tinnitus ringing in my ears 24/7 I do anything I can now not to make things worse.

To that end I try to use a suppressor on anything I possibly can and I don't think I ever buy another rifle that is not threaded.

OK, Thanks but I'm not sold.

At the range I use both plugs and phones for ear protection. Blast and recoil never bothered me but my most powerful rifles are in 30-06, 308, etc.

Deer hunting is usually one shot, rarely more. I carry plugs for when I "unload" my flintlock, which obviously is not threaded.

I was hunting very close to a club shooting range. A buck, not quite legal as per antler restrictions, came into the field I was watching and someone at the range started shooting a high power rifle.

At the first shot (which made me start the buck raised his head and paused for a second not even raising his tail. After that, he took no notice at the subsequent shots, and continued to feed in the field oblivious. And the range was less than 100 yards away although up on a hillside. Of course, every deer is different but through the years I have seen other evidence of deer not spooking at gunfire.

I do like to be careful of my ears but don't fire enough shots unprotected to justify more weight and something that is contrary to my minimalist nature.

There is that.
I've had three rifles bobbed to 16". With suppressor, they're the exact length they were before being cut.

For the guy thinking "no way I'm gonna add that to the end of my 24" or 26" barrel" - I'm right there with ya.

I was late to the party on suppressors and angry at myself for being stubborn in my initial position on them.

The only downsides are initial cost and they do take up space on the end of your barrel, but that’s easy enough to fix by getting a shorter barrel. The upsides are multiple.

Not really a downside for a bbl being threaded. Screw on a brake, suppressor, or have a thread protector on it.

Always pay to think of a suppressor on any thing a guy build these days.

6.5 PRC with 20" barrel and 4 inch suppressor is efectively a 23.5 inch.

This might be a 22" barrel/ the 4" but still very manageable.

Keyword, "can", not "will".

Interesting take Brad - I'm over 60 and not as passionate about hunting as I used to be. I'm seriously considering adding a suppressor (though not sure why 🤔).

A few months ago I hunted Cape buffalo and hippo with Omujeve Safari’s in Namibia. I rented rifles. 375 Christenson Arms with a suppressor attached. Either my Grandson or I carried it for a week. The suppressor did reduce the sound as it was supposed to do but talk about unhandy in thick brush. Terrible! The suppressor added 8-10 inches to the length of the rifle and was so barrel heavy it was difficult to carry in a barrel up position. Carried barrel down and it nearly dragged on the ground. After that experience I will never use one for hunting while on foot. Heavy, ungainly and uncomfortable to use while hunting.

Oh, for the love of gawd. So the barrel was an unwieldy 32-34 inches on a rifle you have no familiarity with and you’re writing them off for that reason?

I now hunt only with suppressed rifles and have noticed that a can will not only reduce recoil and noise, it also tends to confuse the animals as to where the shot came from. I tend to be a very deliberate shooter and don't often miss with the first shot, but it happens every so often. Two years ago I took a shot at a buck and shot over him. I assumed he was going to take off immediately, but he just sort of looked around as if he knew he should beat hooves but didn't know which direction to run. He didn't have much time to think it over, as a few seconds later he was dead.

I can't say for sure that the can gave me the opportunity for the kill shot but in all of my time hunting I've never seen an animal just stand there after being shot at.

It only takes one shot to mess up one’s hearing. BTDT

Ignore the threads on the barrel if you’re to dense to try a better mousetrap.