How short is too short?

I'm currently thinking about converting a savage striker into a short barrel suppressed 300 blackout. I was thinking somewhere around 5" threaded, cut off end of stock for suppressor clearance. Put some pillars in what's left of the forearm for a bottom short pic rail or arcade rail to allow for resting for shots or a bi-pod.

The question I have is how short is too short for the barrel? Has anyone have experience with a short barrel ( most likely the AR pistol crowd)

End goal is to have a super compact blind/stand gun able to take deer size game at 50 yards or less. I currently shoot 190gr. Cutting edge bullets out of a Remington aac-sd 16.5" rifle and ballistics put me at about 100 yards.

Will I loose to much going that short?

Green mountain barrels makes a 12" blank 1-7 twist is what I'm thinking about using.

Thanks for any input

When it comes to subsonic in bolt guns. I don't think there is "too short" ... you don't have to worry about gas pressure, dwell time, cycling etc.

Your optimal speed is around 1050fps, so if you need more speed, just put more powder in.

I run an 8.5" in an AR pistol, but you gotta have a gas tube with some dwell time to make it cycle.

Yeah didn't want to deal with cycle issues so chose a bolt gun donor that's already a pistol

As long as you are getting complete burn on your powder, you should be fine-- might have to choose powder wisely to make sure you get complete burn

Got any recommendations?

I have to ask….Instead of cutting up a striker, why wouldn't you just use a revolver for a short range compact deer gun?

…….or 8-10" contender???

Because I have one.... and it's a repeater.... and I like weird projects

And I want the shhhhhh I get with a suppressor and subs

We all like different things. Lets see some pics when you get it done.

Lrreloader said:

Got any recommendations?

Click to expand...

I use cfe blk for subs-- iirc I wasn't getting complete burn with 5744, I use h110 with supers . I'd have to check. But I think i tried 4 powders with subs before i settled on the cfk blk. I'm at 13 grains with a subsonic expanding mono (195gr) so if you go with a 5" barrel you might need a bit more for optimal mv

Bolt guns with suppressed subs are whisper quiet.

How long would the barrel be if it cleared the end of the stock by an inch?

cohunt said:

When it comes to subsonic in bolt guns. I don't think there is "too short" ... you don't have to worry about gas pressure, dwell time, cycling etc.

Your optimal speed is around 1050fps, so if you need more speed, just put more powder in.

I run an 8.5" in an AR pistol, but you gotta have a gas tube with some dwell time to make it cycle.

Click to expand...

With a short barrel sometimes putting more powder in only results in more powder being burned beyond the end of the barrel causing a huge muzzle flash. In other words doesn't do anything to help, but ends up costing you more to reload for little or nothing.

In my opinion 5" is too short. I've had a 16" 300BO for a couple of years. I shoot a Thunderbeast 338 Ultra on it. 190gr bullets over 5.7gr Hodgdon Longshot. It's the quietest thing I've heard outside of a long barreled suppressed .22LR. I recently picked up a 9" 300BO barrel because I would like it to be shorter and more compact. It's noticably louder. Funny thing is the same load produces similar velocity in both barrels.

People that say it doesn't matter how short the barrel is bc it's a bolt gun are right in a sense. But in the same way I would disagree. In an AR you're only ever going to get so quiet bc of the ejection port noise. That's when the extra sound from a shorter barrel doesn't matter. The port noise will overpower the "at muzzle " noise and you'll never be able to hear the difference. In a bolt gun you can.

I haven't dialed in the best length yet between 9" and 16". Perhaps 12" gets you 90% of the sound reduction with only 30% more barrel, IDK yet. But I am having a 338 Spectre barrel chambered at 12" on the same action so we'll see how that sounds.

Check out the Maker bullets REX subsonics if you do want to shoot animals. The 190gr subX are garbage.