Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 26 inch barrel

Guys I have a chance at a Browning a-bolt 2 in 308
It has a 26 inch barrel. does that 26 inch length have any drawbacks?

hits every branch possible when you're walking, gets caught up and makes it more difficult to enter deer stands and shooting houses. depending on how ornery you are about that sort of thing. increases velocity and reduces muzzle blast. I can't stand 'em, but they sure are nice on range guns. in short: purely a matter of personal preference.

I have carried 26 inch barreled rifles for years.. never experienced and problem.. On the plus side they steady down nicely and have increased vel. and as mentioned less muzzle blast.. I have several rifles with 28 inch barrels, and they are little problem hunting. BUT I seldom sit in a shooting house or elevated deer stand.

You forgot: I was driving my pick-up on the ranch, and the damn barrel knocked my rear view mirror off the windshield; the 'yote got away.

Just rebarreled a Mauser 98 from a rusted out bore .270 to a 27 inch '06 heavy bbl.

I don't anticipate any problem with it off the ATV or snow machine, or a short hike there-of across the tundra..

I'll let you know once I have it bedded in...

I would like to see the gun makers offer a western version of their hunting rifles with 26" barrels on their 6mms and larger and 28" on the 300s. For western hunting it would be nice to not have to buy a gun and then spend even more money having it rebarreled. My closet is getting full of takeoffs.

My last three custom build 257WBY's had 27.5 inch barrels, my 340 Tyrannosaur and 7mm Mashburn Super carry 26ers and I would not have them any other way. Even my VERY serious, dig 'em out of the thornbush or Alders or whatever 416 Rigby has a 25 inch barrel, the shortest of any of my big game rifles in a very long time.

I have never felt cramped or hampered by a 25-28 inch tube and I have hunt long and hard in some awful places.

All that said, I do not know what you are going to GAIN with 26 inches in such a sedate boring cartridge. Probably zero as to velocity. Then there is the fact that the rifle is a A Bort... For those reasons I would not give that rifle a second look if it was FREE. Barrel length would not be my deciding factor. Horridly designed and built rifle plus the most boring, unexciting cartridge on the market today.

Not if you lop it off to suit your needs

Well, I still haven't gotten used to my 26" 7mm rem mag. Seems every time I take it out, I'm smacking it on something. IE: door jam, cupboard, powerline......and that's just when I'm taking it out to the garage ...Oh, and I forgot to mention that it is too long to fit in my soft cases, so the butt end hangs out

I've always found it interesting that a 26" barrel on a shotgun is considered short and is handy in woodsy conditions by some but a rifle with the same length barrel is not.....

I dunno, turkey shotguns usually have a 21-24" barrel ... some even shorter.

For me usually its more about balance than length. But there are times when shorter is a little better, like in a box blind. If balance is good the advanatges of a barrel longer than 22" or so is pretty small, with reticles or knobs 30-100 fps has no real effect in the field.

my experience with longer barrels has been in examining english built rifles. they are, without a doubt, the finest handling guns i've ever shouldered. recently, i held a cogswell and harrison 375 in my local cabelas and it balanced so perfectly one would hardly believe it had a 26" barrel. i left saying to myself i'd hunt with that as a general purpose rifle anytime.

to my mind, those are the gun mechanics who learned the how's and why's of building rifles for sporting useage.

My favorite rifle is a Sako 75 300 RUM with a 26 inch barrel. It weighs 9lbs 9ozs with optilocks and 4.5x14x40mm Leupold. I have killed stuff from literally feet to over 500 yards with it. I have killed several running animals with it from less than 20 yards to a antelope at 239 yards to whitetails does at 307 yards. I have packed it to 11,500 feet in Wyoming to box blinds here in Missouri. I never once noticed the weight or the 26 inch barrel. I always felt it was perfect for everything until I started reading the Internet...grin.

My father was hunting a open hillside one morning and decided to take it. He said it was the most awkward rifle he had ever hunted with. He said he was so slow getting the rifle up and going that he could never kill anything with it. Of course Dad is several inches shorter than me and older. Surely that has nothing to do with it?...

Dink

Can't see needing or wanting anything over 25-26". I can't think of a hunting rifle I'd ever want over 24".

I've heard of many reasons to rebarrel but to rebarrel to a longer barrel is a new one.

Play toys sure but we are talking about hunting rifles here.

mmgravy - you make an excellent point.

Got something you will sell for a LA Ru 77?

"Stub" shoots fine out to 400 yards (as long as I know the range- I need a better range-finder), but that 17 inch .30-06 bbl bothers me... It has a mis-shapen chamber, so I only use brass (factory loads) once. Inch and a quarter groups just ain't reasonable...but it's killed every danged thing I've pointed it at, out to 360 yards to date (known ranges- there have been some shoot and pray successful shots also, some clean misses, and an initial pecker shot)

If I swap the bbl out, I can reload for it...

I'm of German heritage.... what's your excuse?

Owned one 26" barreled rifle, didn't like the balance.

I like 24", but prefer a standard 22" if doing a lot of timber type hunting.

it's all about balance, boys. like I said above, find and examine closely an English gun, even one just built for the trades and you'll see; it may not have the embellishments of a Royal grade but it'll have the same general build and handling characteristics. why you you all think they built them that way in the first place given Afrcia was often the end destination?

So far I've yet to find a need for anything over 24".

The older I get the more I prefer lighter recoil and lighter/shorter barrels.

Even better is when I'm hunting with friends or family and they borrow my rifles for the hunt. They get to carry the rifles and when I want to take a shot I "borrow" one back. Doesn't get much lighter than that.