Howdy,

Why is the thread length so short in the reciever of most modern rifles? I was admiring and examining my Ruger No 1 and CZ 550 in 416 Rigby tonight and thought that they must have one heck of a cantilever system. With a number 7 barrel contour at 24 in length on my Ruger No 1, it is fastened into the reciever with only about 1 in or so of threads. It must have a good moment arm since there is not much support forward of the receiver. I wonder why not make the thread length longer to provide a better support. Any comments? Thanks.

Mingo,
To make is simple, you are looking for problems where there are none. It works fine the way it is and that is why they don't need to make it longer.

The barrel is not actually supported by the threads but by the contact surface between the shoulder of the barrel and the face of the receiver. As long as there is sufficient thread to establish solid contact everything is fine. In most cases 5/8" of thread is more than adequate. A Remington 40x fitted with no recoil lug has a thread length of .700". This is sufficient to make a 1/8moa rifle so it must be OK. Long action threads are vastly over rated. Regards, Bill.

Thanks for the info and comments.