Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 26" barrel on a .270 Win ???(why / why not)

TC Encore Pro Hunter comes stock with 28-inch barrel in a variety of calibers, including .270 Winchester. One in 7mm-08 that I handled w/o scope felt like a nice shotgun - not long or awkward. Custom barrel maker MGM will supply up to 31 inches for TC rifles, although they up-charge past 28 inches.

Wonder how fast those 28-inch barrels toss .270 bullets.

A long barrel might be unhandy to carry while keeping very low to the ground, such as crawling. Have to keep the muzzle out of dirt or snow. Climbing with both hands free with the rifle 'slung' across the back, a long barrel could snag or drag on overhanging things.

I also prefer the longer barrels. I'd probably use my .270 more if I had a 26" on it than I do with the 22" on it now. However, that 22 incher dioesn't really handicap me in the real world; I herat-shot a deeer at 346 yards with it, and I don't think an extra 4" woulda killed him any deader.

If you're concerned about a few fps or just like the feel/balance of a longer barrel, go for it. If you like a short, handy little gun, short is fine, too. If 'twere me, I'd go with 26" on a .270, probably even a #4 contour. Unless I have to carry it in rough country a whole lot...

When the 270 was introduced in the M54 Winchester, it had a 24" barrel and an advertised velocity with the 130 gr bullet of 3160.When the M70 was introduced in 1937 it was chambered in the 270 and also had a 24" tube.Even JOC's early, custom 270's had 24" barrels.

Eventually he (and others)got around to building shorter, lighter 270's for rough country use...."mountain rifles".....at the same time powders like IMR4350 and WW II H4831,slower powders,were brought into play and allowed over 3100 fps from 22" barrels.

This led to the introduction of things like the pre 64 M70 FW with a 22" barrel,which followed the trend of shorter and lighter rifles.O'Connors customs set the pace for this activity and even today many common 270's are still built with 22" inch barrels.

This sort of "works" as such rifles produce 98-99% of the velocities attainable with longer tubes,yet are a bit handier in tight quarters (depending how you feel about those things).

Personally I never felt the extra velocity was worth the barrel length,and have used 22" 270's on game out to a bit past 400 yards,and on whitetail and mule deer hustling past at woods distances.I have never noticed any degree of handicap in any sort of country.

I know lots of stuff works, but if I am going to lug 24" of barrel I'll take a magnum chambering myself

If you hunt NE MN or N. Wisconsin, it IS the situation...

hunted both for many years...and deer drives produced more kills than just sitting up in a tree stand...

I have literally tripped over whitetails in a swamp... they just hunker down and don't budget at times.. unless they are being driven by multiple hunters...

ever deer I ever took back there was on the move, and quite briskly.. and they were always running snap shots....

from 80 to 300 yds.... and that 300 yd one, even I was surprised when that one dropped...was shooting a 300 Win Mag on that one..

the others were taken with either the 444 Marlin, or an 06 with a 180 or 220 grain RN...