20" Barrel Performance

[ianpadron]

Looking at picking up the Savage Lightweight Hunter and wanted some advice on which cartridge to pick as the rifle is only offered in a 20" barrel configuration.

I initially wanted the .270, but figured it would be less than optimal out of the 20" pipe.

This will be primarily my mountain deer gun with some use for elk as well. Would like it to be effective out to 400yds or so.

Other chamberings in the running are 7mm08, .308, 6.5 Creed.

Thanks in advance!

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[COlineman78]

Several manufacturers guarantee sub-moa out of the box with a 20" barrel, my personal favorite being Weatherby, but a Tikka is another (I can't find it on Savage's website if they do). If 400 yards is your comfort zone than IMO any caliber or barrel on a quality rifle will be sufficient assuming that you are doing your job. .270 Win is sufficient for Elk at that distance, but I wouldn't go much further than 500 yards. My only advice is that practice will do far more than any rifle or caliber will do on it's own, so buy a caliber that you can afford to shoot. All the rounds you mentioned run $0.9-1.2/rd for practice rounds whereas you can get milsurp .308 for as low as $0.40-0.50/rd in bulk (500rd).

 

[mlawrence125]

I would go with one of the short action calibers myself, there just isn't enough barrel for an efficient powder burn out of the .270. As boring as a .308 is it does tend to perform fairly well in shorter barrel lengths, but the higher BCs of the 7mm and 6.5mm bullets may allow them to perform better than or at least equal to the .308. I do not have experience with the 7/6.5 but have been interested in getting either one of those calibers to fill the role of a light weight walking rifle. Interested in what you choose and how it works out!

 

[N2TRKYS]

There's no way that I would get a 270 Win in a 20" barrel. Personally, I would get the 308 and be done with it.

 

[hodgeman]

I've got several 18-20" barreled 7-08s and .308s.... works just fine.

 

[ianpadron]

Thanks for the responses guys. I should mention I already have a Tikka T3 lite chambered in 30.06 That gun is an absolute tack driver. Kicked like a mule before it got it's brake though.

That being said, a smaller rifle...both in size and chambering, interests me due to the type of terrain I find myself in during the early season out here in Washington state.

A short, quick pointing, easily packable big game rifle that my gf will also be able to handle is what I'm looking for.

I'll be getting a Kimber Montana in 300WSM next year, so what cartridge would round out that collection?

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[ams]

3006, 300 wsm, and 308 would be well rounded for the simple fact that if you reload or get into it you would have a variety of options. Also factory hornady sst 150 grain has almost identical velocity in a 20" barrel and 24" barrel in 308.

 

[mcseal2]

I had a 20" 270, it did pretty well out of the shorter barrel. My gunsmith's son still shoots it. He gets 2900fps with 150gr Ballistic tips with a max load of RL22. I was surprised it did so well, but I saw the chronograph. I shot lighter bullets when I had it.

6.5 Creedmoor would be my choice of short action rounds since you have the two 30 cal guns already. It isn't a speed demon but has some bullets with a great BC available and low recoil in a light handy gun.

 

[luke moffat]

I personally have seen over 2 dozen caribou, over 10 moose, 2 dall sheep, 3 mountain goats, 1 brown bears, 3 grizzly bears, 2 black bears, and a half dozen or so deer all shot with 20" barrel 308s.

Here is my wife waiting for her 9.5' Kodiak brown bear to stand up with her 20" barrel (had it cut back from 22" to 20") .308 at the ready:


And one single shot from that her .308 win later:


Of course have used stronger calibers as well but I prefer rifles with 21" barrels or less personally for ease of handling. Though I am not sure you are gaining much between a 22" barrel 30-06 and a 20" barrel .308. The size and weight savings are not going to be THAT much honestly.

Have killed caribou and deer out to 400 yards. Haven't needed to shoot further than that yet. I wouldn't have any issue using a .308 win out to 400 yards with a .308 win loaded with a quality bullet.

 

[Ryan Avery]

20" Barrel Performance

I personally have seen over 2 dozen caribou, over 10 moose, 2 dall sheep, 3 mountain goats, 1 brown bears, 3 grizzly bears, 2 black bears, and a half dozen or so deer all shot with 20" barrel 308s.

Here is my wife waiting for her 9.5' Kodiak brown bear to stand up with her 20" barrel (had it cut back from 22" to 20") .308 at the ready:


And one single shot from that her .308 win later:


Of course have used stronger calibers as well but I prefer rifles with 21" barrels or less personally for ease of handling. Though I am not sure you are gaining much between a 22" barrel 30-06 and a 20" barrel .308. The size and weight savings are not going to be THAT much honestly.

Have killed caribou and deer out to 400 yards. Haven't needed to shoot further than that yet. I wouldn't have any issue using a .308 win out to 400 yards with a .308 win loaded with a quality bullet.

So what you are saying is, you've been lucky 51 times? Haha

 

[Elkfitness]

I picked up a stainless savage lightweight Hunter this spring in 308 and range wise it's been very accurate. I've only shot it to 200 yds but it's sub moa out to there.

 

[luke moffat]

So what you are saying is, you've been lucky 51 times? Haha

Something like that....the caribou number is +/- 3 or 4 and moose is 1 or 2. Hard to keep track over the years exactly what was shot with what so I was trying to be conservative.

 

[philos]

My M7 in 7mm-08 sports an 18.50 inch barrel. It is my go to deer rifle in my home state. I would say the recoil is much lighter in 7mm-08 than 308 and the 7mm is pretty popular so ammo is not super expensive. I believe the 7mm would suit what you are looking for quite well

 

[ianpadron]

I'll keep you guys posted on what I end up going with. Seems like I've got at least one recommendation for each haha...you were supposed to help, maybe I'll tell the gf that the forum has spoken...I need all 4.

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[luke moffat]

My M7 in 7mm-08 sports an 18.50 inch barrel. It is my go to deer rifle in my home state. I would say the recoil is much lighter in 7mm-08 than 308 and the 7mm is pretty popular so ammo is not super expensive. I believe the 7mm would suit what you are looking for quite well

Having shot both in the exact same rifle configuration and with 140 bullets in the 7-08 and 150s in the 308 I can say I couldn't tell a lick of difference in recoil between the two, but YMMV.

 

[robtattoo]

I'm gonna throw in another .308 vote.
I've been playing around with loads for my LWH for 6 months (thanks to all here for the advice!) & I'm more than happy with how it shoots everything from 125s through to big, round nosed 220s

I'm learning, through my .280, that 7mms seem a lot more sensitive to bullet weight. 140s always seem to do well, but lighter or heavier can be hit-or-miss.
With the 6.5 (I also shoot a Swede....) your best bullets are also 140s. The only advantages I can see with the 6½ & 7 is better BCs which can pretty much be ignored inside of 400 yds.

I'm discovering that there's really very little you can't do with a .308, especially with some 'experimental' reloading (165 Partition at 2800fps....20" barrel )

 

[joemulkey]

I will agree with Luke in the fact that I can't tell a difference in recoil but the fact that you said you want your gf to shoot it. My wife had been shooting a 7-08 for the last couple years with no issue I just bought her a 308 in a kimber hunter and she is having trouble. Looking at going with a brake and better recoil pad hopefully will fix it. But like I said I can't tell a difference


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[CLICKBANGBANG]

I know this is an old thread, but I thought I'd leave a comment and a link for thought.

The more overbore the caliber is, the more velocity you'll drop when going with a shorter barrel. Calibers like the 7mm RM/ RUM, .264 Win Mag, .300 Norma Mag, and .270 WSM will slow down a bit (and will have more muzzle blast) with a shorter barrel. Slower/ Lower pressure larger bore calibers suffer much less (see link). The .308 drops only 20 fps per inch of barrel that is cut off. So going from a 24" to a 20" drops 80 fps... You're really not loosing much. But the 6.5 Creedmoor and .243 will loose more fps per inch of barrel that is cut.

Here is a great article on barrel length performance on the .308.

308 Winchester / 7.62x51mm NATO: Barrel Length versus Velocity (28″ to 16.5″) | Rifleshooter.com

 

[Mr Drysdale]

I know this is an old thread, but I thought I'd leave a comment and a link for thought.

The more overbore the caliber is, the more velocity you'll drop when going with a shorter barrel. Calibers like the 7mm RM/ RUM, .264 Win Mag, .300 Norma Mag, and .270 WSM will slow down a bit (and will have more muzzle blast) with a shorter barrel. Slower/ Lower pressure larger bore calibers suffer much less (see link). The .308 drops only 20 fps per inch of barrel that is cut off. So going from a 24" to a 20" drops 80 fps... You're really not loosing much. But the 6.5 Creedmoor and .243 will loose more fps per inch of barrel that is cut.

Here is a great article on barrel length performance on the .308.

308 Winchester / 7.62x51mm NATO: Barrel Length versus Velocity (28″ to 16.5″) | Rifleshooter.com

That's a great read. Good information.
Thanks for posting.

 

[CLICKBANGBANG]

That's a great read. Good information.
Thanks for posting.

I agree. Great info in the article. Here is the same test with a 300 Win Mag. Only one load was tested, but the differences between the loads in the 308 test seemed marginally small. So I wouldn't expect for there to be an extreme change from one load to the next in the 300 Win Mag.

Note the comments about muzzle blast and velocity change. On average per inch of barrel loss, you drop almost 40 fps (compaired to the .308s 20 fps). So in a 300 Win Mag going from a 24" to a 20" barrel is a 160 fps loss. That is starting to add up. This is why those guys that like to shoot extremely long range (1,000 yards plus) with magnum calibers, like to use 28, 29, and 30+ inch barrels. They are squeezing every last fps they can. Where most hunters will not shoot half those distances, a shorter field weight barrel is fine.

300 Winchester Magnum: How Does Barrel Length Change Velocity- A 16″ 300 Win Mag? | Rifleshooter.com