how short of a barrel is too short .308 mountain rifle

[Blaw]

Hey all I have a tikka T3X in .308
Love this rifle! looking to lighten it up...mostly because I like to tinker

I was thinking of taking the barrel down from 22" to 20"...my question is if I go shorter at what point is the difference in performance no good. legally I could take it down to 18.5. how short should I go?

Current load is 165gn hornady interlock's going about 2650fps.


Anyone with real world knowledge would be great. furthest shots on game would be 400yrds everything from deer to elk

 

[BRTreedogs]

Is 18.5" a Canadian law?
For the money and effort I doubt 2" is gonna save you much weight. But the say and inch is around 100-150fps so it just depends on how you do your drops,holdover,dials.
For instance on a fast round zeroed high at 100 you can hold dead on an elk size animal without think or adjusting for any drops.
I'd just get on a ballistic calculator and input your round as close as possible then drop the fps down 150fps and compare what the drops are at 400 and decide if the differance is something you can live with/adjust for.

 

[hodgeman]

The .308 and similar cartridges do fairly well from short barrels. I've got .308s and 7-08s in 16", 18", 19" and 22" barrels.

At normal ranges, MV is pretty overrated. Just learn your drop and roll with it. You'll not lose anywhere near 100fps per inch out of a .308.

 

[Blaw]

Is 18.5" a Canadian law?
For the money and effort I doubt 2" is gonna save you much weight. But the say and inch is around 100-150fps so it just depends on how you do your drops,holdover,dials.
For instance on a fast round zeroed high at 100 you can hold dead on an elk size animal without think or adjusting for any drops.
I'd just get on a ballistic calculator and input your round as close as possible then drop the fps down 150fps and compare what the drops are at 400 and decide if the differance is something you can live with/adjust for.

18.5 is Canadian law yes.

I would be cutting and re-crowning it myself, so my cost is nothing

here is a good article on fps loss, with shortened barrel. That is a good suggestion you made

.308 Win Barrel Cut-Down Test: Velocity vs. Barrel Length << Daily Bulletin

 

[Blaw]

well here we go, using info from that article and assuming worst case scenario 25fps loss per inch using hornady's calculator this is what I got for anyone who is wondering

22" barrel
Range Velocity Energy Trajectory
0 2650 2573.0 -1.5 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
100 2449 2196.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
200 2256 1865.0 -4.3 2.1 0.6 0 0 0
300 2072 1573.0 -15.5 4.9 1.4 0 0 0
400 1898 1319.0 -34.8 8.3 2.4 0 0 0
500 1733 1100.0 -63.7 12.2 3.5 0 0 0


18.5 inch barrel

Range Velocity Energy Trajectory
0 2562 2405.0 -1.5 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
100 2364 2048.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
200 2176 1734.0 -4.7 2.3 0.7 0 0 0
300 1996 1459.0 -16.8 5.4 1.6 0 0 0
400 1825 1220.0 -37.7 9.0 2.6 0 0 0
500 1665 1016.0 -69.0 13.2 3.8 0 0 0

 

[N2TRKYS]

Personally, I would look at lightening the stock, scope, and mounts first, if you haven't already, before I cut the barrel down. Obviously, if just want to shorten the barrel, then go for it.

 

[Blaw]

that being said if you want to use the 1500ft lbs of energy for elk (shot placement is more important obviously) then I have a 300-400yrd rifle at 22" and a 300yrd rifle at 18.5"

I know it takes less then 1500 to kill an elk though

 

[EastMT]

I shoot an 18" 308, 180 grain partitions at 2500 fps, that's 2000 fps at 300, self imposed max range with it. Shot a large caribou at 280 this year, 3 steps and tipped over, one shot behind shoulder. I personally love short barrels, especially when you are bush whacking and alder busting, I carried a 26" on Kodiak once, money back guarantee that won't happen again!

 

[Fire_9]

I say cut it down to 18.5". You're not losing that much velocity and it would make for a handy little rifle. You may even squeak a little more accuracy out of it with a fresh crown and a stiffer barrel

 

[statikpunk]

to answer your question 18.4 is in fact too short for your rifle ha all kidding aside, my current 308 was cut to 16, and almost all of my rifles are 21 inches or less. For me the benefits of having a short barrel far outweigh the velocity loss. At 5' 8" I just like having a short handy and light rifle far more than I like squeezing out those extra FPS. If you like to hunt long range then you have to do what you have to do, but if you generally keep your hunting shots pretty close, I say cut that thing off as short as you can make it. sure the performance difference between a 26 and a 20 inch barrel will be significant, but you are not starting with that. the velocity difference between 20 and 22. Im willing to bet in a hunting situation you would be hard pressed to notice the difference.

 

[rodney482]

My buddy uses a 16” 7mm08 encore.
The rifle is tiny. Kills elk, deer,bear

 

[Burnt Reynolds]

I have a 20 inch 308 CA Ridgline shooting factory Hornady eldx cartridges. Bang flopped a bull at 409 yards one week ago today.

It is a splendid dream to carry!

 

[luke moffat]

I like short barreled rifles....for my lightweight hunting rifles the longest one is 21” barrel...the others are 20”, 18”, 18” and a 16”. For the distances I shoot these rifles at (sub 400 yards) the extra velocity of a longer barrel is realized nearly as much as the handiness of a short barrel especially in the brush.

 

[Blaw]

Personally, I would look at lightening the stock, scope, and mounts first, if you haven't already, before I cut the barrel down. Obviously, if just want to shorten the barrel, then go for it.

already have a leupold 2-7x38 at 11.3 oz and talley rings. I actually really dig the new tikka stocks and they dont way a lot more then stocks such as the edge. not to mention the price of those stocks!

I shoot an 18" 308, 180 grain partitions at 2500 fps, that's 2000 fps at 300, self imposed max range with it. Shot a large caribou at 280 this year, 3 steps and tipped over, one shot behind shoulder. I personally love short barrels, especially when you are bush whacking and alder busting, I carried a 26" on Kodiak once, money back guarantee that won't happen again!

couldnt agree more! Ill have to look into that load, never thought of going for a heavier bullet!

 

[False_Cast]

I think, even more so than any weight loss, you'll notice a fine benefit in the handiness department. Worth it, I say.

On the other hand, I think the biggest drawback is not velocity loss (which will likely be minimal and unimportant practically in a 308) but increase in volume. Things start getting sporty in the muzzle blast arena once you start going short with centerfires, in my experience.

All in all, I say go 19" and don't look back. Positives outweigh the negatives in my calculations and experience.

 

[Blaw]

just checked the laws here, I can actually take it down to 18" not 18.5

so I would be saving 4oz of weight (roughly), id lose 80 to 100 fps
so at 400yrds im at 1815fps and 1207ftlbs vs 1898fps and 1319ftlbs = a difference of 83fps and 112ftlbs

kinda makes you wonder why they put on the longer barrels in the first place

 

[EastMT]

kinda makes you wonder why they put on the longer barrels in the first place

My experience is that short barrels amplify your imperfect shooting techniques, a 12 lb rifle with a bad trigger pull will have better results than a 6 lb with the same pull, but it is just as accurate as you are.

On the heavier bullets, I shot 150 gr with my model 7 for many years, accepting 1"+ groups as fine for a small rifle. Someone gave me a box of Federal red box 180 gr partitions, I went to shoot them so I could reload, after a couple 1/2" groups I decided 150 gr were not that great! Heavy bullets a def worth the time to see if your gun likes them

 

[Desk Jockey]

20 inches or less on a .308 is LOUD. Handy, but LOUD.

 

[N2TRKYS]

From my experience, if the brush is thich enough to need to shorten my barrel, then I'm in the wrong place. If it's thick enough to impede barrel movement, then you ain't gonna be seeing anything in there, much less, sneak up on it.

 

[he_lives]

I'd say go for it! I have a 20" barrel and love the length. Also getting right at 2800 fps with a 165 accubond if you're worried about velocity.


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