Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 30-06 barrel, 22 inches vs 24 inches

What do you guys think??

Specifically for a rifle built for shooting 180-200 grain bullets, lighter weight barrel, I handload all my centerfire so am not worried about being limited by factory ammo, with a lighter weight barrel I am not worried really about the extra couple inches, just wondering how much performance the extra 2 inches will gain me in the 30-06 pushing those weights.

Probably 40 fps or so.

I've played with the 30-06 in 20, 22, 24, and 26" lengths, seems to lose about 20 fps per inch in my experience, with 208gr AMax, and a full charge of RL22.

I'd go 23"

Dober

Do you hunt in heavy cover or in open country? What will two inches mean to you?
A 30-06 will kill everything in North America with ease except the great bears. And, if you go for those regularly any sane person would recommend a significantly larger bore diameter than .308.
Looking at it from that angle the two inches will mean more in ease of use rather than the trivial velocity loss. I have owned several '06's and barrel lengths have ranged from a 20" Ruger #1 RSI to a Ruger #1B with a 26" tube. Oddly enough the same load has been the most accurate in both those rifles and I haven't noticed any difference in how dead a deer or black bear have been between the two. I have actually had loads in the 20" RSI chrony higher on average than a Remington CDL with a 24" barrel.
Application is key I guess. Long range target shooting, you may want to go longer. If for hunting? Flip a coin.

Start with 24, and cut to balance correctly. The velocity loss/gain is pointless.

I'd buy the one that looked and felt the best to me. I just like 22", but nothing wrong with 24" Velocity is hard to predict when comparing different rifles. I have a 20" 308 that shoots faster than my 22" 308's. It is common to see 40-50 fps difference between guns with equal barrel lengths. I have seen as much as 130 fps difference between two 30-06 rifles with 22" barrels with ammo from the same box.

Will be hunting, and I prefer to move alot, tend to end up up high as well, have no desire to kill a big bear but these rifles could end up in Alaska with me, Wanting a couple of guns to be a step up from the 7mm-08s hence the 180-200 gr bullets,,,,

I like how ya think! The last pacnor I had made was a 21 inch,,, just cause I wanted to.

My favorite barrel contour for a bolt actioned 30-06 is the famous M70 Featherweight. The original M70's seemed heavy and clumsy and when the Featherweight came out I knew that was the one!

What diameter is the featherweight '06 barrel at 22"?

I'm in kind of an odd position on this issue. I really light, short, light rifles.
But I've found that longer 24 inch barrels offer a couple of advantages. One, they put more weight out further and that helps steady the rifle. I'd much rather take barrel weight off at the shank than the end of the barrel. The other is that with a longer barrel, they tend to swing and follow through better. Like the longer barreled shotguns.
You can easily argue that the difference is pretty small. I agree, but, since I need all the help I can get with my field shooting, I have alot more 24 inch barreled rifles than 22 inch ones. E

Mine measures about .620 at muzzle

Thanks Dave... is that one of the new FN's?

IMHO - The only difference I notice is that longer barrels hurt the ears a bit less.

Not much PPosey, but it's hard to say since most of the time you are comparing two different pipes and all goes out the window. Yes, the same pipe will be faster at 24 vs 22, but between various bbls the two are really close.

My last run of 180s in a 24 pushed them along at 2700fps ahead of H4350. That's not all that fast and several 22s will do it as well.

I'm with Dober, split the difference at 23. I'm running one rig at 23 and it's a handy length IMO.

i've owned them with 22 and 24", and never had an issue with either length. the 06' i have and use these days has a 22 and it does just fine, so i'm in the 22" camp these days.

Mines got a 23" broughton on it and runs 200 g accubonds at 2725 with rl17. I've got a 300 wsm in the works right now that I'd planned to go 24" and I'm considering having them cut it at 23" too.

Bb

All of the standard-caliber Featherweights I have measured have been in the .560" range at the muzzle. My .300 WSM Featherweight has the standard-weight barrel, which is about .620" if memory serves.

Nothing game will ever notice.

I asked a similar question a while ago. Here were the responses.