It should work fine you would lose 25 fps of any given load over the standard 24" if thats what you want go for it, you may luck out and get a fast barrel and beat some 24" barrels !!
Posts: 7505 | Location: Australia | Registered: 22 May 2002
I prefer this lenght for the .338 Win. and have it on my Dakota 76; I used to have a pair of Hart barreled P-64 70s in the 23" lenght as well. I find that you can do 2700+ fps-mv with 250 NPs and that is all I want or need.
Posts: 1379 | Location: British Columbia | Registered: 02 October 2004
23" should work just fine. I had the barrel on my Model 70 cut from 26" to 24" and I'm very satisfied with the performance. Another inch would be just fine.
Jeff
In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king.
Posts: 784 | Location: Michigan | Registered: 18 December 2000
The 338 Win. Mag. is one of the few belted-magnums that will allow you to get away with a 22" or 23" bbl. and still get nearly full velocity. The current trend with factory rifles, specifically the Model 70, is to go with a 26 " bbl., which is an unnecessary encumbrance. I have a 24 bbl. on my 338 Win. Mag. which is the length I personally prefer, and mostly because it provides less muzzle blast.
My .338 Mag is 26" and I'm seriously considering cutting it to the 22" mark. It's too darn much and totally unnecessary.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Winston Churchill
Posts: 28849 | Location: western Nebraska | Registered: 27 May 2003
I own a 23" custom M-70 in this caliber, with a lothar-walther barrel. I use only light bullets (180-200 gr) in this rifle, and the accuracy is excellent, it's very handy and the loss of speed when I cut the barrel from 25" to 23" was less than 40 ft/s. I load the cartridges with medium to low burning powders (tu-5000 equivalent to IMR 4895 or Tu-7000 equvalent to IMR 4350.
