Is a 24'' barrel too short for long range shooting?

[Faina338]

Normaly a magnum cartridge prefer long barrel, but this have nothing to do with accuracy, only with velocity. Ok, having more velocity at long range is positive, but more is precision.
I would like to prefer a 300 Win Mag with 24" barrel that shot accurate that a 27" that shot unaccurate. Not every barrel give super precision, you need to be a bit luck.

Faina

 

[Weda]

Luck is always good... However.

Over the years I have had

Rock Creek
Lilja
K&P
Kreiger
Broughton
Hart

They have all shot better than I.

The guy screwing together your parts has alot to do with it. Then the driver has to have the skills to drive.

With all the powders/primer/bullet combinations out there you can get a 24" barrel to do what you want.

 

[Riflemanse]

In the article I referd to (Jaktmarker & Fiskevatten 1/2008) they tested Browning Bar´s with 20" barrels thru a chrono.
The calibers that where tested was .308 Win, 30-06 Springfield, .300WSM and .300WM.
All testing was done with Norma factory loaded ammunition. Two kinds of loads where tested, rounds loaded with 150gr BST and 180gr Norma Oryx.

These are the results regarding the velocity that the chrono measured.

150gr Nosler BST
.308 Win 2657 fps (According from Norma it should be 2821 fps)
30-06 Spr 2755 fps (According from Norma it should be 2936 fps)
.300 WSM 2952 fps (According from Norma it should be 3215 fps)
.300 WM 2919 fps (According from Norma it should be 3251 fps)

180gr Norma Oryx
.308 Win 2559 fps (According from Norma it should be 2522 fps)
30-06 Spr 2477 fps (According from Norma it should be 2700 fps)
.300 WSM 2624 fps (According from Norma it should be 2936 fps)
.300 WM 2591 fps (According from Norma it should be 2919 fps)

As you can see the speed difference between a 308 win and a 300 WM is not that big when using heavy bullets, so why have the added recoil, muzzle blast/flash from a short barreld 300WM when a 308 works perfectly good in a short barrel to start with and the speed will be about the same if you use bullets on the more heavy side?
Im going to choose a longer barrel so I really can use the speed and bullet weight a magnum round can deliver in the barrel lenght it was made for, longer then 25".
Regarding the article, I know the writer personaly and he is conciderd one of the best smiths and gun experts in Sweden.
Just my two cents.

 

[Weda]

OK great info but rather irrelavant to the LR hunter here in the States.
Why you ask? I highly recommend NOT hunting LR with factory ammunition.

 

[Nomad]

Shooting a 200gr smk out of a 24"or less barrel at 2830 with 76.5 RL-25,215M
win cases has worked at 1400 yards...

 

[blank]

Iam shooting a .30-06 that came from the factory with a 22.5" barrel. With VihtaVuori N560 and Berger 210VLD I got 2775fps. Same powder and 220SMK i got 2707fps.
Iam thinking of rebarreling. If I do I will go AI and get a 28" barrel, that should give me an 235fps extra. Clearly in the 24" .300 Win Mag range, with about 15% less powder.
Im with Diezel here, get a long barrel and get all the free speed you can.

Im not saying that a short barrel is bad, its just my opinion that a longer barrel has more advantages then disadvantages. The weight difference between 24" and 28" (in the same contour) is not enough to worry about. When it comes to accuracy, you just need to tune your load to your barrel, short or long.
If I had got a .300 Win Mag with a 24" barrel I would not rebarrel first thing just because 24" is "to short". I would shoot it and be happy, then when it no longer wants to group I would get a longer one.

Just my 2 cents.