Customer has an old Remington 760, with no collector value. He wants to have barrel shortened as much as possible and legal while retaining accuracy out to 200 yards. Appreciate input on how short I can go and meet his requirement.

16 inches; I always make them 16.25 to make sure it is legal. The legal measurement is from the muzzle to the face of the closed bolt. Note; a 16 inch 30-06 will be quite impressive to fire. Accuracy is not dependent on barrel length and for a 200 yard shot, any length will do. He will lose 30-50 FPS per inch. Maybe. Why don't you start at 20 and see how he likes it; then 18, then shorter if he wants.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike in Michigan:
Customer has an old Remington 760, with no collector value. He wants to have barrel shortened as much as possible and legal while retaining accuracy out to 200 yards. Appreciate input on how short I can go and meet his requirement.

The factory 760 Carbine barrel is 18" and they can be found here and there. If the barrel extension is still attached it's an easy DYI swap and he can keep his original barrel. I have a 760 Carbine in 270 and can vouch for what dpcd says about firing one. Velocity of factory ammo was far less than the rule of thumb 30-50 per inch but that could be the caliber and/or a naturally slow barrel.

I have pop's Win 670 30/06 carbine - 18" barrel (economy M70). Shot varmints with it using 130hp.
Worked just fine, but it did set the grass on fire (just kidding).

According to my chronograph the 30-06 does well down to 20 inches, then velocity takes a hit below that, and you end up with a slow .308 or a pretty fast 300 Savage..but at 200 yards it won't make much difference, beyond that it will IMO.

I like my carbines 20 inches, but in reality, barrels below 22 or 24 don't show me any kind of advantage, none what so ever. It's only in the mind of the beholder and fabricated excuses..2 to 4 extra inches of barrel is less than the size of my pocket knife, go figure.

I laugh when folks tell me its needed in the thick stuff, stop and think about that, do you really think you know where the intervening limb might be to bounce your barrel, that can happen with a snub nose 38 if your in the wrong spot..I've never been able to tell any difference in the thick stuff with a carbine or rifle, same horseback, a 22 inch barrel packs just fine, and a 24 is doable.

If I must have a carbine and shots absolutly won't be longer than 200 yards, I would probably opt for my Win. mod. 94 30-30 SRC or 25-35 SRC with iron sights.

However 99.9% of short range brush country often offers a long shot now and then even on a stand. Its thick as hell where I hunt elk but on occasion I might have to take a 300 or even a 400 yard shot across the canyon.

Just a different point of view, no argument.

I have a 18.5 inch 06 a 17 inch 7x57 a 16.5 in 7mm-08 shot a 16 inch 308.

They are all plenty accurate enough that a 300 yard shot wouldn't be hard.

But they are all very loud and all have a lot of muzzle blast and flash.

I went through the short barreled phase and now prefer longer barrels.

My favorite Northern deep woods deer rifle is a savage 99 24 inch 300 savage.

It hangs and points great and has accounted for lots of running deer from 10 yards to over 200.

That said I am going to use my 06 scout set up with 220gr round nose bullets to fill my bear tag with hounds this year.

Unless I use my 45-70 No.3 with 460gr hard cast.