Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 338 win mag with a 26" barrel

My experiences as well. I have not found the 26inch bbl's on several rifles or the 25 inch bbl on my 416 Rigby to be a problem, even in brown bear thickets and thornbrush of Africa.

I like 22" or 23" max. And have had 24" and 26" as well. 23" seems "just right" to me.

I've always prefered 24", but the barrel contour, has as much to do with balance as length

I can't help myself. I never came across brown bear thickets in Africa, you must be tired to let that sentence through.

RandyAKA "smartazz"

...........But that little word,,,,,"and",,,,,,,,which he placed in between thickets/thornbush does make a big difference. LOL!.....

My 358 Norma is 22 1/2" and 15 thou thicker than that. Hope that doesn't mean that we think alike!!

This is pretty much what I did. A little heavier though. When I had my M70 rebarreled, I had the tube finished 23" and 0.65" at the muzzle.

If I was to do it again, I would probably go 22" and 0.62-0.63".

I have a 26" barrel on mine and I like it.

It's not a good brush gun.

But that�s not a problem cause I have good brush guns.

I'm a 5'9 guy and a 26 in. barrel is a pain to handle for me. A .220 Swift or varmint rifle ok, not a .338 for me. I even constantly bang my .257 weatherby into stuff with the 26 incher.

HAHA

I got you all beat. 21" and couldn't be happier.

It is a wonderful rifle to pack though the woods. There is allot of brush in my neck of the woods and you simply cannot beat the packability. The .338 does really good with a shorter barrel, I cannot find my last notepad from when I chonied the speed. Seems like I was within 100fps of the advertised MV on the box.

I really like the shorter barrels on cases that aren't overbored. I do however keep the 26"ers for where they are needed.

I have a Remington 700 in .338 which has a 25.5" barrel. The odd inch and a half is the result of a factory installed muzzle brake. I am quite short but this gun is one of the best balanced of all the guns in my safe.

The type of hunting I do involves stand watches so there is no need for me to try and haul it through the brush. Earlier today I was weighing some of my rifles and was surprised to find this gun weighs quite a bit more than I thought, given the way it handles. Just more proof that the better a rifle fits the less you will notice its weight.

Jim

My Ruger has a 24" barrel and I like it a lot. My Winchester has a 26" barrel with sights and seems... well unweildy. May have to sell the Winchester as much as I like Winchesters but I hate to cut it down and re-do the front sight and hope it's right.