I'm seeing alot of the new WSM rifles in 22-23"barrels. I'm always looking for new rifles but I've stayed away from these because I just do not believe they can reach peak performance without a 24"barrel or 26 even better. I'm I just living in the past and the new teck passing me buy or are my concerns real?

If you want a wsm to give you all its got but do what they were designed for. a 24'' will be perfect you want enough barrel to get speed but too long and ya just got same wight and length as a long action. I love my .270wsm and would get a long action in its place.

BC, the only way to know what a barrel will lose going from, for instance, 24 to 22" is to actually cut an idividual barrel and chrono it before and after. Too many on these forums try to extrapolate barrel loss from some sort of formula... the only scientific/accurate way to do it is cut the barrel. They're all individuals.

OK, got that off my chest

Regarding the WSM's, I can only speak to the 300. I had an early M70 300 WSM back in 2001. I shot it quite a bit at 24". I then cut it to 22". With 180's I lost 80-85 fps. I still got 2,880 to 2,900 with 180's in the short 22" barrel.

Is it worth cutting? A 22" bbl'd 300 WSM is still, on average, 125 - 150 fps faster than a 22" bbl'd 30-06 with 180's. Whether that's a worthwhile gain for the increased recoil is a personal choice. I think the 300 WSM is at its best with a 23 or 24" barrel.

My .02

quote:

I'm I just living in the past and the new teck passing me buy or are my concerns real?

I think any concerns regarding the efficiency of a hunting cartridge (eg case volume vs bbl length) are basically pointless.

#1 choose your bullet diameter and weight

#2 choose the velocity you want said bullet to move at

#3 choose the barrel length you are willing to carry

#4 choose the cartridge which will give you #2, given #1 and #3

You will find an ample selection of cartridge size/design that will fill just about every permutation of #1,#2 and #3

Most every rifle round will loose ~30-40 fps/inch of barrel cut, and lets be honest, ~70 fps loss at the muzzle means squat in the real world.

That said when one looks at the reasons they would want a 300 WSM, the barrel length that will provide that performance is a 24" tube. A light contour 24" tube weighs the same as a stocker 22" tube, and I don't find a 24" tube a hindrance in thick stuff. I do find a heavy rifle carried in your arms all day a hindrance though, and hence will be getting a 300 wsm next year.