Hi,

I've got a standard Remmy 700 in .300 Win Mag with a sporter barrel on it. Originally it was supposed to be 24" but after recrowning and threading for my moderator it's more like 23". This length doesn't do the caliber any favours so I'm considering putting a new barrel on the gun.

It serves as an all-round rig used for highland stalking, plains game and (hopefully at some point) mountain hunting. It will also be fitted with a ASE Utra Jet-Z moderator (maybe the shorter SL5 model in the future). The mod is only used in the UK.

I'm thinking about a 25" barrel. I want more velocity, but don't want too long a barrel as my moderator adds about 5".

Call me shallow, but I like the looks of a slightly thicker barrel, although I probably don't need it. I'm considering a fluted light varmint profile. That would give me the added thickness that I so fancy, while keeping the weight down. I don't mind a gun, which is a little on the heavy side, but I'm not intending to build a cannon. I've got to carry it after all.

Enough of my ramblings, what do you think about my choices?

Your comments and thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Christian

You don't lose enough velocity with a 23 " or even a 22" barrel to rebarrel. Through reloading you can get most of it back if you feel it is necessary. What you usually gain with a shorter barrel is accuracy. And as we all know, bullet placement is the most important single item in hunting. I would be more prone to take another inch off than adding any. You will probably notice that most of the guys on AR like shorter barrels where practical, which is most of the time. The difference between 2700 and 3000 FPS doesn't mean much until you get out past 400 or 500 yards. You usually only lose or gain about 50 FPS per inch of barrel in the 20" to 26" range.

Just my thoughts..........Tom

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your reply.

I agree with you on the importance of accuracy.

I've always been told that one might as well go for a 30-06 if the .300 win mag barrel is shorter than 24". A loss/gain of only around 50 fps per inch puts things into a different perspective however.

I have never shot an animal beyond 300 meters, and dont foresee many situations where i will do it, as I don't have the skills to accurately judge the wind. So, it sounds like I don't really need to chase the extra velocity for the shooting I'll be doing.

Your input is very much appreciated.


Regards,

Christian

Well, all four of my .300 Win. mags have 26" barrels (# ae Ruger #1s so maybe that's cheating a bit. ) but my Winchester M70 does have a 26" barrel as well. That's the way it was set up when I bought it and it shoots so well that there's no way I'd ever want to shorten the barrel.
Personally, if you rifle with the 23" barrel shoots good, that is is accurate as is, I'd forget about going to a longer barrel. Frankly, velocity may not be all that it's cranked up to be.
Now this rifle I use is a Ruger M77 RSI, 18.5" barrel, Mannlicher style stock chambered to the .308 Win. Beautiful rifle that the original owner sold it to me at a give away price. Why? Because it was so inacuraate his shotgun gave better groups with bird shot and that wasn't all that much of an exaggeration. It took me two years to find a load that was usable in that rifle. Finally, I got a load using W760 and the 165 gr. Speer Hot-core doing a whole ripsnorting 2550 FPS, a good 200 FPS less than most 308s. I also found that it was more than capable of taking big Mule Deer at 250 yards although most deer taken were shot as shorter ranges.
My point being, it you lose all of 50 FPS because your barrel is now 23" instead of 24", so what? Your gam will never know the difference and fankly, neither will you.
Murphy's second law says, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Paul B.

First, Welcome to A.R.

You have stated that you're not expecting to do much shooting beyond 300 meters or so. Given this, you will not see any real benefit to chasing velocity.

I have a .338 Win Mag that I foolishly had ported while I was waiting for it when stationed in California. (10 day waiting period) While it sounded like a good idea to have a EPDM ported brake it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. When all is said and done, I had it cut off, and crowned the barrel. It is now just a hair under 22" but it will print overlapping holes in paper at 100 yards. It is handy in the timber over a 26" barrel, and although I've lost some velocity the animals can't tell a difference.

For magnums, I like a 26" #4 contour.