Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 24" barreled 300 ultra?

Tom, please refrain from posting in this thread... You cant answer my question, so please dont bother to clog the thread up with your speculating, which I havent asked for, nor wanted.
Thank you.

I think the question was pretty simple,What would the performance be? Not how much do you lose,or how bad is the muzzle blast.No reason to bash the guy.I think you could probably run 180's at 3250 fps with a 24 inch barrel.The 300 win mag won't do that and I don't think the 300 weatherby would either in a 24.So to some degree it would be interesting because you don't need the 26 inch barrel and could have big performance in a handier package..I am not going to put a 24 inch tube on my 300 ultra's but sounds interesting..

The 8mm rem mag was barreled with 24 inch barrels in factory 700's and is able to put out very impressive numbers.The 340 weatherby can blast 225's at 3100 fps in a 24. 24 inch barrels aren't worthless...

Highridge, my thoughts are along the same lines.
I know there is someone out there who has done this.

I may hate myself for wading in here, but here goes...

My Dad aquired a rem 700, 300 win mag with a shot out throat and some ports cut in the end of the, I believe, 24" barrel. To save the rifle, he had the chamber cut to 300rum. After finally getting it to feed and eject (we're a little slow on the learning curve), and shooting it some, it seems fine to me, though no chrony info.

Shooting that rifle convinced me the 375 rum wouldn't be that bad recoil wise...seems close to my 300wm for kick (I toldja we're a little slow on the uptake, didn't I?). It's been a coupla years since I fired it, but I don't recall any fireballs, nor did we set off any car alarms or seismic events. I always shoot with double protection at the range anyway.

A cheap way to try it might be getting a 300wm takeoff and rechamber it (feeding issues aside). Or you could just cut off a factory rifle, and then retube with a quality barrel when yer done testing. Wadda ya got to loose? If you don't like it, yank it and build a 300 rsm...

John

I think SU 35 has a stainless takeoff in the classifieds. Steve

Jcalhoun, Thnaks for the info. Did you happen to chronograph the gun?
A ounce of expiereance trumps lbs of BS and specualtion......

There are a lot of Loads on this page that are 24" barrel

A little research can help too.

Thanks for the link. looks like one guy surpased 3300 using 8700. I wonder what his case life was like? I am also supprised they didnt show anyone using Retumbo.

It sounds like you are planning on using the same load in multiple rifles.That might work out,then again the different rifles may have different preferences in loads that they shoot accurately.And I wouldn't mix the fired brass from the two rifles either as this can cause issues.

I'm sure you know this, but I don't trust any of the data at face value from this or any other site, unless I can cross reference with manuals or my data. Even then, work up loads carefully....yada yada yada.

I don't know why no one has recorded a load with Retumbo yet. It could be that is just a little new for the guys that post loads and they haven't gotten there yet.

I use it my 300 RUM and 180 gn bullets. Works great.

Yea, it wouldn't surprise me if the guy who posted that load actually had a 26" barrel in the first place as I dont think a factory rifle has ever been offered with a 24" tube and I dont think there are many custom barreled guns out there with 24" tubes.

If it means anything, I ran a 24" vs 26" in QL for a comparison. The difference with Retumbo on a 180 gn bullet was about 60 fps. That seems to agree reasonabley with tests run by Dan Lilja where they cutoff a barrel from extremely long down to 18". In the 24" to 26" range was about 20 to 25 fps per inch for a 338-378. So, not much is gained swinging an extra 2" of barrel, which is why you hear comments, "wish I had a 28."

338-378 Barrel Test

A 28" barrel would come in very handy if one needed to use a rifle for pole vaulting. I am not into pole vaulting.....
Thanks for the info AI.

Well, I did have the gun built with a 24" tube and am happy I did. With my hand loads which are conservative I am getting almost 3330fps via a 35P, with retumbo and 180 ab's.
With factory ammo its just about at the advertised velocities.
Noise, fire balls and the like was utter non sense. Behaves like any ultra mag.

Were I doing a 300 RUM I'd absolutely build it around a 24" bbl.

What the hecks wrong with you, Brad? Dont you know that using a 2" shorter barrel will transform an ultra mag into a fire belching, deafening, 30-06...

So I've read

Doing trumps speculating....

Ka-Boom!



I'd shoot it.

Terry