338 Win Mag BBL Length

[zeeman]

I think I asked this before but....I have a Mod 70 338WM SS 26" bbl original that I would like to shorten to 22 " and add a muzzle brake. To shoot the 225 or 250's out to 300 yards for elk out West or Alaska. How much performance am I losing with this change and is it worth it to change the original set up?

 

[FEENIX]

I think I asked this before but....I have a Mod 70 338WM SS 26" bbl original that I would like to shorten to 22 " and add a muzzle brake. To shoot the 225 or 250's out to 300 yards for elk out West or Alaska. How much performance am I losing with this change and is it worth it to change the original set up?

Mine is 24" and settled with 225 NAB, and plenty of OOMPH for your intended purpose. As far as if it is worth your effort, it is up to you if you can live with the loss of velocity at 300Y.

 

[memtb]

I think I asked this before but....I have a Mod 70 338WM SS 26" bbl original that I would like to shorten to 22 " and add a muzzle brake. To shoot the 225 or 250's out to 300 yards for elk out West or Alaska. How much performance am I losing with this change and is it worth it to change the original set up?

I've never cut a barrel, but have always read that in a rifle it's generally around 20 to 30 fps per inch.

For what it's worth, my wife's .338 WM (no brake) is a 24" barrel. We're running Barnes TTSX's at 2950 mv…..but, I'm not timid about loading it warm!

If you're looking @ about 300 maximum yards…..you'll be just fine! memtb

 

[Mike Matteson]

Well I run my 338WM @ 3230fps with a 200gr Nosler BT. It's hot. Used in Africa and here in the states. I won't use it for deer. I don't need that big of a caliber for deer. I would put a brake on it. You'll like if much better.

 

[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

I've never cut a barrel, but have always read that in a rifle it's generally around 20 to 30 fps per inch.

For what it's worth, my wife's .338 WM (no brake) is a 24" barrel. We're running Barnes TTSX's at 2950 mv…..but, I'm not timid about loading it warm!

If you're looking @ about 300 maximum yards…..you'll be just fine! memtb

This is somewhat off the subject but whenever we have someone that asks us to re- barrel or cut their rifle barrel we ask why. If they say for putting on a suppressor and don't want a long barrel, we say that's fine and you won't lose much FPS. If they say that the barrel is losing accuracy, we always tell them first we can take an inch off and re-crown or just re-crown. After re-crowning a barrel, they usually get better accuracy then they had when the rifle was new.

 

[Hoss50]

Cut it and send it if your goal is 300 yards. It will be fine. I have a 24" with brake and it will send 230gr ELDX around 2900fps.

Even if you get around 2700-2750fps, it will still crush elk at 300 yards.

When I figured my energy of mine at 500 yards it was more energy than my son's 6.5 PRC at the muzzle.

 

[memtb]

After re-crowning a barrel, they usually get better accuracy then they had when the rifle was new.

The barrel crown is more important than many think! A little more to it than just taking a "hack saw" to it! memtb

 

[MagnumManiac]

The only barrels I have that are that short are 17's, 20's and 22's all based on variants of the 222/223 case.
A 338WM running that short will just about match my 24" 338-06.
If that's what you want to run, expect very slow velocities, especially with 250's.

Cheers.

 

[bridgerbear]

Hello Zeeman, I ran a 338 WinMag Savage Kodiak (the early Bear Hunter model) stainless with a 20" barrel & muzzle brake from the factory, used it from 2008 through 2017. It is a very handy length and easy to carry. However, it had quite a bit of uumph to your shoulder, until the muzzle brake was replaced with a baffled brake, much nicer to shoot. The first load, it liked, was a 225 gr SST with IMR 4350 (middle of Hodgdon recommend charge) right around 2700 fps. Years later, moving to a mono bullet, went with a 210 gr TTSX and RL17 (a couple tenths under Alliant's recommended) for about 2840 fps. Eventually, quit using the RL17, it performed very poorly in the negative temperatures. Both loads grouped around 3/4 of an inch to less (depending on me) at a 100 yds. It accounted for quite a few elk and a lot of deer. The Kodiak was used up 500 yards on elk and just over 600 yards on deer. The short barreled 338 WinMag, definitely, is a heavy hitter at those ranges. I think you will like it.

 

[RUFFIAN R - NY]

Am running a Ruger 77 action in 338 with douglas 26 in tube with Nosler 210 gr partitions and no problems with that combo for sure,

 

[jjmp]

OP the answer is 25 ftlbs per inch , so cutting off four inch's equals 100 ft of velocity loss . Remington printed this year's back in their free brown ballistic phablets.Cheers

 

[Olfisher9]

With a 26" barrel cut to 22", you're losing somewhere between 75-125 fps depending on the powder and bullet weight.

 

[RUFFIAN R - NY]

Cutting the bbl is one thing -what you doing about the CROWN ????

 

[Hoss50]

Cutting the bbl is one thing -what you doing about the CROWN ????

If he is going to have it cut and threaded, I would sure hope the GS would crown the barrel when he cuts and threads it.