Thread: Ideal .308 barrel length.

Some one must know this? For every inch you cut of a tikka 308 barrel how many grams do you save?

Never mind the weight saving, getting hooked up in regenerating manuka and beech thickets is an absolute prick of a time with a standard length barrel. 18" is the sweet spot for me, longest I can tolerate for getting snagged on everything and shortest I'm willing to go before it gets offensively loud.

Originally Posted by bigbear

Some one must know this? For every inch you cut of a tikka 308 barrel how many grams do you save?

For a .30 cal T3 lite starting off at 22", you'll lose around 30g / inch increasing slightly to about 35g / inch by the time you reach 16". (For a .22 cal it will be around 40g / inch)

Chopping the barrel from 20" to 16" will lose about 135g.

Originally Posted by takbok

For a .30 cal T3 lite starting off at 22", you'll lose around 30g / inch increasing slightly to about 35g / inch by the time you reach 16". (For a .22 cal it will be around 40g / inch)

Chopping the barrel from 20" to 16" will lose about 135g.

And turn it into a 3030 from a 308.

Ok fair enough about the comments that it's for handiness. It is hard to argue that the shorter the gun is, the easier it is to carry. How ever how often do we see threads about 'I cut my xyz down to 16 inches now what powder to I use to get the speed back'?
I have carted around an old Parker hale 22 inch 308 many times in the past and while it wasn't light I never found it hard to thread though tighter scrub. Carry it in your hand not on the sling over your shoulder in those situations.

One of my main hunting rifles (and by far my favourite due to length and weight) is a 13 inch 7-08 currently shooting 139gr BTSP at speeds i could damn near run faster than. If your mainly shooting sub 300 odd yards, dont get too hung up on the speed. It makes much less difference than most will lead you to believe. Cut it as short as you want, the deer will die just the same, as long as you understand the limits of your system. Using the appropriate projectile for the job and putting it in the correct place is far more important than that extra couple hundred fps of speed.

The shorter it is the more recoil it will have & the more you are leaning on the supressor to make it tolerable but once again its really not that bad, My 55kg wife has claimed plenty of animals with said rifle and does just fine, most people that bring up the argument of how much worse short rifles are to shoot are on "team long barrel" and dont really have much actual hands on experience, just like to talk about how much better their long barrels and extra speed are.