Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 20" vs. 22" barrel in .308

I was wondering if there is a significant gain in having a 22" over a 20" barrel on a .308 win.

I grew up with a Remington model 7 .308 win which has a 20" barrel. And even took a caribou at 330 yards and one at around 400 yards. Now I have another rifle in .308 that has a 22" barrel that I was considering having cut down to 20" to make it a little more compact.

Just looking for thoughts on this.

I'd do it in a heart beat, mzl blast will go up a bit but not enough to stop me.

21" is my fav length but I'm kind of odd that way...<g>

Dober

Its personal preference. I ran a 20" 7-08 for awhile but a couple pards complained it was pretty loud while shooting next to them. My current 7-08 has a 22.5" bbl and I like it, good velocity and still very handy.



MtnHtr

I tend to favor longer barrels.

Anything that I have built is gonna be 24", and a few are 26". Don't think I've ever had anything shorter on a rebarrel job.

Anything that is factory at 22", well, I'm just stuck with it. I can't see cutting one down to 20", but that's just me.

Muzzle blast, velocity, balance, all tend to suffer with shorter barrels.

My M7 308 has a 21" tube, sporter contour as I don't like the way the MR barrel balances.

If you had one of the old model 7's, it had an 18.5" barrel and mzl blast could be interesting when you were on the bench but my son used a 18.5" 7-08 to make our longest shot to date on a mulie.
That said, I wouldn't go to the expense of having the barrel trimmed for two inches.

Stillbeeman,

Not sure if its an old model 7 or not, my dad bought it new in 1996 or 1997 but it came with a 20" barrel.

Please excuse my ignorance:

So the barrel design has a big play in it I guess?? So I'm sure its just manufacturer jargon but how would a "match grade barrel" with a sporter contour with a 1:12 twist rate handle being lopped 2". Would any other those things listed raise any red flag to shortening the barrel?

Not sure what your barrel design question means, but on the second part, nope, off with its head.

Sorry Steelhead, was just wondering if the barrel was designed as above if any of the parameters I mentioned would be cause for concern for not "off with its head" Apparently not, thanks.

...........Imo, the perfect OAL for a hunting rifle is around 40 to 41" "or" less. For handling and manuvering, you`ll like the 20" barrel length a little bit better.

The only thing you`ll gain with a 22" barrel vs a 20" er, is just a little added velocity of around 20 to 25 fps per inch or roughly 40 to 50 fps in total. Other than that, there is no accuracy gain or anything else. And, I don`t think your quarry will know any difference regardless of the distance you shoot from.

There will be some increase in noise when shooting, but regardless of your barrel`s length, good hearing protection on the range or when hunting should always be worn anyway. A little excessive blast or noise is not a big priority.

At the range, people really love my two bench clearing rifles. A 20" 375 Ruger Alaskan and 16.5" 300 WSM Ruger Frontier carbine. A few shots and I have all the spreadin out room I need........

BigSqueeze - AMEN to clearing out other shooters. Have a Rem M600 Mohawk in .308 Win w/ 18 inch barrel. Took it out in a fall evening "sight in" session at my local range. Touched off a few, besides the muzzle flash & blast, suddenly had the left side of the line to myself. The short, very stiff barrel was accurate. Not bad for a rifle costing $104 and purchased as a jeep rifle. Regards Homesteader.

It's all about the balance for me......there wouldn't be enough practical difference to justify making a change for any other reason. My M7 .308 with a 22" bbl feels just right to me.

I had an older M7 with the 18.5" and it never felt right to me.

So perhaps a 20" will be the perfect happy medium

.............Ya get the rifles you like to shoot and hunt with the best, rather than worry about others whom you may scatter. I like my rifles shorter,,,,,,,,,,and very powerful.

Besides! It`s not our fault the benches are too close together!!! Right???........LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have several riles in .308. My first one was a Remington 660 with a 20" barrel. I made one of my longest shots on any game animal with that rifle, 427 paces on a 195 pound Mule Deer. never did chrony any of the loads from that gun. My pet .308 is a Ruger M77 RSI with 18.5" barrel. The longest shot on a deer with that one was at 250 yards laser measured. The load used a 165 gr. Speer Hot-Core at 2550 FPS. That same load from a Winchester M70 with 22" barrel gave 2610 FPS, a difference of 60 FPS. Those figured might vary some from rifle to rifle and depending on the charge of powder and bullet but the differences should be close.
Paul B.

Plus 1

I vote for the 20" bbl every time, in the woods or on the bench.

No practical difference in a 20" vs. 22" barrel on a .308 WIN; simply a "look & feel" issue to the individual rifleman. Me, I would opt for a 22".