Anyone think of any negatives of a 26" barrel on a 338WM as opposed to a 25" or 24".

Mine is going to be ready soon and I'm kinda washin on the length. No known deep woods issues to tangle up the barrel on.

can't think of any. bet it'll give some respectable velocities.

Only problem is the handling of the rifle. Is it what you want when you're climbing the mountain?

Mine is a 24" and has never had any difficulty getting the job done. Does abt 2" at 300 yards.

I have a 27" barrel 338 Win Mag and I can't say I wish it was any shorter. In fact, I'm getting an honest 3,000 fps with 225 grain Barnes TTSX. I don't think you'll regret the 26".

I don't carry these in the brush much (I have a .338 Rum on a Win70 action), so the longer the better. Mine is 28".

Interesting responses. My first .338 Win Mag was a Ruger Number One with a 26 inch barrel. With the falling block action and all it was reasonable to pack around. It shot pretty good
(never could do anything with that darned trigger), and gave good velocities.

When Remington came out with the .338 Win Mag in the 700 Classic I just had to have one. I bought the first one I saw and have been very pleased with that rifle. I was a little concerned about the velocity loss with the Remington's 24 inch barrel.

When put on the chronograph there simply was little to no difference in velocities between the two rifles. I mean none.

Whether the Ruger's long throat accounted for some of this or whether the .338 Win Mag just cannot utilize the longer barrel, I do not know.

I do know that some cartridges just do not benefit that much from a longer barrel. It has to do with case capacity and expansion ratio. I own two Remington's chambered in 300 WSM. One has a 24 inch barrel, the other a 26 inch barrel. With any number of loads, the 26 inch barrel can barely produce 40 fps over the 24 inch version.

I think its only a matter of how you like you rifles to handle. Like R Flowers said, there won't be a great deal of ballistic gain with 26" in a 338 bore but some people (like me) like the feel of a longish barrel.

It seems to help with muzzle blast in some calibers, too.

quote:

Originally posted by BISCUT:
Anyone think of any negatives of a 26" barrel on a 338WM as opposed to a 25" or 24".

Mine is going to be ready soon and I'm kinda washin on the length. No known deep woods issues to tangle up the barrel on.

That's easy. Go with 26".....if you don't like it, cut it off. Pretty hard to add 2" to a 24.

Regards,
hm

If I'm not mistaken don't most .338 Win Mags wear 26" barrels ? , my 3 do . My Lapua .338 wears 26.75" Lilja , as that's what I asked for and got after all was said and done . Some folks prefer Short brush rigs 18.5 - 22" an others long range behemoths with 36" barrels .
I'm partial as to what works best for the Rifles intended purpose . That 36" rod may look impressive but It's a bitch in practicality ,for anything other than a bench rig !.

http://www.riflebarrels.com/ar..._barrel_velocity.htm

quote:

Originally posted by BISCUT:
Anyone think of any negatives of a 26" barrel on a 338WM as opposed to a 25" or 24".

Mine is going to be ready soon and I'm kinda washin on the length. No known deep woods issues to tangle up the barrel on.

Shorter=stiffer=more accurate w/ typical sporter weight barrel.

I've had 338 WM's with 22, 24 and 26" barrels... I prefer 22 or 23".

what is an appropriate all up weight for a 338 then?