Thread: Barrel length

I'm waiting for a ruger american to arrive in .243
I currently have a .243 with a 20" barrel suppressed I'm toying with the idea to chop this one to 18" suppressed aswell. Would I lose to much performance?

yes and no......the 243 is good fast,and ok not so fast.....if you going to keep both,by all means make one shorter..but if going that far,why not go shorter??? one for pure bush work and one for tops.... but yeah cutting .243 short sort of kneecaps a great cartridge to begin with...once you start hunting with it,make decision then,its a minor cost to recrown it and make a tad shorter LATER... but a major expence to try and make it longer again.

My Forbes in 243 has 18.5" barrel and shoots the 85gr Barnes @3200 using superformance

No shorter than 18 or youl have a loud banger even with a suppresser on.

You're likely going to lose between 50 and 80 fps.

18 inch suppressed T3 - 90g ELDX at 3000fps with 2209 (under book max).

Nah negligible, do it

And gain what, exactly? No don't do it.

All I want to gain is snagging a few less trees and still being able to have enough to shoot to 350mtrs or so with out loosing to much knock down power

Originally Posted by Shooter6

All I want to gain is snagging a few less trees and still being able to have enough to shoot to 350mtrs or so with out loosing to much knock down power

In that case I would recommend a 16" 308win.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vimqlc5SUtY MarkAndSam After Work

Timely, given this was only released less than a week ago... On this subject...

thats quite good @Nasty Factory Trigger

Originally Posted by Shooter6

All I want to gain is snagging a few less trees and still being able to have enough to shoot to 350mtrs or so with out loosing to much knock down power

@Shooter6 'Snagging trees' when rifle is in hand or when rifle is on shoulder ?

Shouldered. Through the thick shit when 2 hands are needed to stay upright.

Originally Posted by Shooter6

Shouldered. Through the thick shit when 2 hands are needed to stay upright.

@Shooter6 Righto, know your pain. I chopped a Shilen select match back for the same reason and rue that to this day. Why? because there is a simple fix!
Buy a German made Niggeloh sling, remove the sling stud from the fore-end of the rifle stock, fit the sling so that the end that would normally be around the the swivel forms a firm but sliding loop around the barrel, fit the bottom end in the normal way and adjust for length / position.
I have four centrefires set up like that and will never go back