I am either sane or insane,Befuddled by folks inner urgings to grab a hacksaw and amputate ! Go ahead but it will probably cost you later. It's your rifle Clem off with that extra pipe !

Personally, I agree with you. But many of these fine gentlemen are either 1) hunting in brush so thick a 6" barreled handgun gets hung up, 2) aren't manly men who can tote a 26" barrel around all day and then do 100 pushups, or 3) needing to cut a barrel off short and thread it for a 6"+ suppressor.

I think you're bitching about short barrels, but I am not entirely sure what that nonsensical rant was.


I've no use for a rifle over 22", and prefer them shorter. It has nothing to do with brush, or even weight, but the suppressor issue is a huge factor. The loss in performance is minimal in relation to the gains realized, and in the end it's none of your business.

I’m a little surprised at the rants lately for no reason at all? Especially the second post saying someone who prefers a shorter barrel isn’t manly enough to carry a gun with a extra 4”. What’s the deal did someone with a 20-22” rifle make fun of you or something? I want my rifle to balance to my liking for one and two I have no need for a rifle with a barrel over 24”. Most will be between 20” and 23”.

But hey I’m sure y’all are the same guys making fun of the scopes the non hunters like to use now too. If it’s not a 30-06 with a 4x weaver shooting whatever ammo the gas station had at the time you’re not a true hunter just a shooter. Carry on....

Your rifle should suit your preferences. I like longer but it doesn’t mean shorter is wrong.

I had the same thought....that thread was sheer entertainment.

I know it. The thing that gets me is I don’t recall anyone making fun of they equipment they prefer?

That's the rub, isn't it? Seems that those of us who prefer modern equipment have zero issue with those who don't....hell, I have as many leverguns and revolvers as anything in my safe. The reverse, however, is not true. There was a similar theme within a thread about the Ruger Acquisition of Marlin.

They cannot seem to comprehend or accept that the market drives the manufacturer's offerings, no matter how disgusted they may be. No one is buying 1" tube, duplex scopes just like no one is buying 28" tubed walnut stocked .270s.

Do whatever makes your socks go up and down - everyone else be damned.

That's it in a nutshell. The average age on here is about 80 and not getting any younger. The octogenarians are clinging to their '70s rifles/cartridges/scopes and won't accept these newfangled scopes that only take two shots to sight in rather than a box to kinda get zeroed for that day.

They're all good!

This little 19" barreled rig is about perfect. Chopped the 30-06 to 18" and dang thing still works fine it seems.


The 23" barreled 6.5-284 is currently on borrowed time before it gets bobbed off lol. But folks are welcome to tote whatever they want.

That’s a good point MT! It still cracks some of my friends up when we put new scopes on their rifles and I have them zeroed in 2-4 shots. They usually laugh and say it has always took a box and still not set that close. I totally understand because I used to be the same way. I’m not a good shot at all I just was will to try some of this new silly looking heavy stuff.

I assume this qualifies as a hunter? Nice bull!

To each his own

It's your rifle, do what you want to it. Why would you care what other people think?

I have a Winchester 100 in 308 that someone bobbed to 17". The short package makes for a great still-hunting rifle in tight cover. It looks rather odd, but it does what it is intended to do as well as any and probably better than most.

And, they don't want to understand that the reason I bought a 5 lb rifle was so when I add a 20 oz scope and 12 oz can it's still lighter than my 788 with a 11 oz scope and no can!

You kids get off the grass!

308.. chop to 16" add a 5" titanium suppressor... still point and shoot to 300yards.

Is this what happens when you cinch your belt around your nipples?

Use what the fork you want to.

I'm with Brad, "get off my lawn you little bastards"!

Hahaha...and that sums it up.

Yep

“You little whippersnappers get off my lawn and turn down that razzamataz!”

Too funny, “you’ll pay!”

This.

I prefer longer barrels, I usually don't hunt in brush, I can't do 100 push-ups (and don't want to try), I don't have a suppressor, but am not opposed to getting one.

Am I on the lawn??

Some guys have been playing with a short barrel all their lives. Cut it all the way back to Fed rules and I still won’t GAS. Happy Trails

Ha-ha! I have bin thinking about precisely this, lately, having just traded for a '56 Remington 760 pump, considered by many to be THE whitetail gun for the heavy timber. Many opting for the 18" barrel carbine version which by many reports has such a hellacious muzzle-blast that no one wants to be anywhere near a hunting partner firing one. So i'm trying to imagine being in bush SO thick, that i can't swing an already admirably compact rifle with its 22" barrel around without hanging-up. I've never hunted bush so thick. I can imagine if you were in bush that thick, you wouldn't be able to see what you were trying to shoot at anyways. The only arguments i've seen for these uber short barrels that makes any sense to me being 1) you have a tight blind; 2) swinging it around in the cab of your truck. Which isn't an argument around here cos it's illegal to go around blasting away at things from the cab of your truck. For pretty good reason, i'd say.

No, the "I am going to cut the barrel down to two inches " thing is just the fashion of the week, the fetish of right now. Barrels that can't be short enough, ugly plastic stocks and the 6.5 Creedmore. That's where gun culture groupthink is at right now. We'll move on to something else soon enough.

I'm with you.

Probably an age thing, as the marketing gurus claim that people are forever imprinted with a perspective from their teenage experiences unless they subsequently had a major event in their lives.

I don't play golf with one club, so why would I hunt with just one rifle? Shorter barrels for use in tight quarters and longer barrels for situations where a greater length isn't an impediment. You don't putt with a driver and you don't drive with a putter.

I don't own a suppressor, never felt the need or the desire, but don't care what other people do and would like to see suppressors be an OTC item, not subject to NFA rules and regulations, for those who do want to own them.

Hitting the spiked eggnog this morning?

Is anyone really bothered by muzzle blast when they're hunting game?

I do hunt in tight cover where shorter is handier. It might not be better, but it is handier. I've bobbed dozens of barrels for people who wanted a shorter rifle. Heck, I made pocket money bobbing Remington 722s from 24" to 20" back in the mid-1980's for people who wanted a carbine length 222 or 300 SAV, but couldn't justify paying the then current prices for Remington 600s and 660s. I've bobbed several 760s in 30-06 for people who wanted shorter and handier than the 22" barrel offered.

My FIL shot a lot of deer from the driver's seat in a series of pickups, as it was his preferred deer blind. As long as the vehicle wasn't running and he had his hunter orange clothing and hat on, he was a legal hunter in Nebraska. He had a great spot to sit and shoot deer from and since there were vehicles and farm equipment parked there for much of the year, the deer weren't bothered in the least. His only deer rifle was a pre-'64 Winchester 70 in 257 Bob with a 24" barrel. Not handy, but quite effective.

I'm going to have my CVA Hunter 44mag chopped down to 16.5" and threaded.

I'm sorry I like things you don't.

i much prefer a sub-20" barrel on all rifles. i also prefer a max 26" on shotguns. my shortest rifles have 16.5" barrels. 2 ruger 77 frontiers and a marlin 336 sdt. i think 18" is just about right for my tastes. the longer ones i have haven't been out of the safe in years and years. those short barrels are very accurate as well. my 338 fed 77 frontier is unreal how good it shoots.

i also prefer sub 6" on revolvers. 4" being about perfect.

Don't really care. I sure wouldn't waste my time and money on golf when I could be buying and shooting a rifle or handgun. Just my preference. Be Well, RZ.

I am a big believer in caliber.

I think the bigger the hole is in the end of the barrel, the shorter barrel you can get away with and still avoid terrible muzzle blast. a 22" .22-250 is gonna ring your ears, but I think a 17" .338 Fed is about perfect. but I've got a 24" barreled 35 whelen that is gonna probably end up somewhere around 19" before it is all said and done.

probably gonna take my 375 H&H from 24" to 20" and add one of those slick NECG banded front sights.

but then again, I've killed alot more animals inside of 30 yards than I have over 100 yards so someone else's needs/ experiences have plenty of latitude to be different from mine.

to the OP:

Different tools for different jobs. Carry a 26” through alder choked hillsides and get back to us.

I find personal preferences way too limiting.

I want stuff I don't like too.

i think the science proves that bolt action rifles are best with a 20” barrel, DA revolvers are best with a 4” barrel, SA revolvers are best with 4 3/4” barrels, flintlocks with a 36” barrel, and percussion ML’s with a 24” barrel. its science.

Couldn’t care less how long your barrel is, but never knew that the short barrel types could be so sensitive. And, I don’t care how old or new your scope is, if it takes you a box of ammo to get sighted in you need a mentor.

Suppressors are cool and all, but too damn ugly to be toting around on a good looking rifle, and simply not worth the added expense and trouble in my opinion for hunting where one shot is the norm.

I am no longer befuddled ! Now I know why it takes me a box of shells to hit a pie plate ! My rifle has a 22 " barrel . Sorry for all the fuss as I said to begin with "I am either sane or insane " you be the judge ! Tally Ho

Who cares what it looks like? It's a tool, not a purse.

A day of hunting that entails but one shot is quite often a pretty boring day.

A suppressor is the the single best thing I have ever bought for hunting and shooting.

Whenever I see a 1981 Country Squire wagon (pea green with wood accents) rolling down the road, I remind myself that some poor dumb bastard walked into a dealership and actually said “I want that one”!

Never underestimate the poor taste of the general public.

And never forget, YOU are the general public. 😆

Here's an idea: why don't we complement other shooters on their choice of weapon, and shoot what pleases us?

Rolling.........

Lots a stupid fuuckers (with lotsa $$$) that think its cool, or they're (defying) the masses taking a hacksaw to a snout.... They're simply too lazy \stupid to send it to someone that can do a proper\good job.... But boy, it sure impresses the dummy story slickers that vicariously through said stupid\lazy\cheap fuucks... Congratulations.... Bless your heart, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery blah blah fuucking blah......

Its almost a travesty the stupidity that runs rampant here...

Jeez, wish I had the time to sit around and bellyache about the rifle preferences of someone I've never met.

So, it's stupid if I want a 16.5" gun and I cut it myself, but it's awesome if I send to somewhere to have it done. Got it.

Only barrel i chopped down was on my CZ .375 H&H. 25" barrel on that thing and i am carrying in the bush. It even looked too long just sitting there. Although i honestly never found the barrel a liability at that length practically speaking. Except the time i got smart and took the front hood off for better light and promptly lost the front sight to a branch. So there was that. (Carved a new on out of elk antler and put the hood back on.) Anyways, i got 2" cut off it. It does feel better, and is still a tack-driver. And it certainly looks more balanced. Weighs maybe 1/3 pound less. Although functionally i think it may all be in my head, as i think it may mostly be in other people's heads, too. The latest fad, short barrels. Did O'Connor et al go on about how their barrels needed shortening? (I dunno, maybe some of them did.) What is 2" or 6" really in the woods? But that's okay, what's in our heads is the bottom line. When there's nothing in your head, they call that "a coma."

Which is why i care what a gun looks like, as have the majority of gunmakers through time, i'd argue. An ugly gun is just "a tool." Agreed. A great looking gun is just as good a tool - and many other positive things besides. I spent a fair amount of time with spokeshave, contour plane, file, sandpaper, stain and oil taking that .375 to another level aesthetically. Cos i didn't have the cash to buy a Rigby or a Westley Richard's gun made by artisans who understand how important aesthetics are in the human experience. I've known all sorts of guys who've told me they have no interest in aesthetics. Looking at all the ugly, cheap looking plastic guns they own I could begin to believe them until i see them out in a crowd of folks and see which women their eyes linger over. Then you know they're full of it.

I know i'm not the only one who feels like this. I recently read a review of the Browning BLR levergun that mentioned how the designers of that rifle had achieved "new levels of disharmony" in its lines.

MH,
How did the bipod work out for ya?

I actually almost used it on a long shot at a bear who disappeared over the hill-top he was playing around on. Too long for me to have made that shot offhand. Luckily, Mr. Moose appeared a few days later.

Yep pretty much