300 win mag barrel length 24-26

mabrams

FNG
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Sep 14, 2017
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Washington
Looking at having a 300 win mag built with a proof barrel. Most 300 I have seen have a 26" barrel and then you add another 2" for the break. This gets a little long for packing for a hunting gun in my case. I hear I will lose around 50-60FPS with a shorter barrel but this is a hunting gun so I'm not overly concerned about shooting 1000 yards. Would I like to, YES but it will take some time before the guy behind the trigger has the capabilities.
What are your thoughts on the 24"vs26".
 

SteveCNJ

WKR
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Jul 1, 2017
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Looking at having a 300 win mag built with a proof barrel. Most 300 I have seen have a 26" barrel and then you add another 2" for the break. This gets a little long for packing for a hunting gun in my case. I hear I will lose around 50-60FPS with a shorter barrel but this is a hunting gun so I'm not overly concerned about shooting 1000 yards. Would I like to, YES but it will take some time before the guy behind the trigger has the capabilities.
What are your thoughts on the 24"vs26".
I just bought a Weatherby 300 wby mag with a 26 in barrel. I've been looking at ballistics tables for some of the more popular ammo discussed in this caliber and I believe the tables I've seen are predicated on using a 24 in barrel. So you shouldn't be losing any velocity from the published charts.

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mcseal2

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May 8, 2014
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I had my 300 built with a 23.5" barrel. The brake added just over an inch. I didn't want to long a barrel to snag on stuff. I figured I wouldn't notice 24.5"

Factory Nosler E tip ammo is running 2900fps and reloads with 180gr Accubonds over H1000 average 2956fps.
 

mt100gr.

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For comparison, I had a 300 win mag built with a 28inch barrel plus brake. It's a long sumbich' but It's pushing the berger 215 hybrids at 2985 over H1000. Depending on the bearing surface of your chosen bullet and the relative speed of your individual barrel, your results may be somewhere in the middle. For hunting I try not to get hung up on reaching a certain velocity. Rather finding the most consistent load in your rifle will result in better performance and hit count.
 
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Tac Ops did an article on this, they found on the lighter bullets with faster burning powders (<200gr bullets) lost little velocity untill you got down to 22". He personally runs his 300 win mag at 24" in case he wants to run heavy bullets with slow powders.

What I took out of this is if you primarly shoot 180gr bullets they you have little reason to run a barrel longer than 24 inches.
 

elkguide

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Jan 26, 2016
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I have .300 Win Mags wearing 22" - 24" - and 26" barrels and using bullets under 180 grains the 22" barrel is just 44 fps slower than the 26" barreled rifle. Once you get to the 200 grain + bullets it jumps to a 110 fps difference. If I were to build another .300, I would build a rifle that ended up around 7 1/4 pounds, probably with a 24" barrel and I wouldn't have a brake.
 

carter33

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Apr 12, 2017
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Fairbanks
I have a .300 win mag with 24” barrel shooting 210 Nosler ABLRs at an average 2925 and think I could push it higher if I wished. Part of me wishes I would have went 22” even for hunting. If your not trying to do extreme long range shooting I think you’ll be happier with a shorter barrel and you’ll still get great numbers especially hand loading. Also if you’re looking at doing a build I would take a look at rbros.
 
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Oregon
My dad and I both just ordered custom 300wm's. We went back and forth between 26 and 24. Really wanted to go 24 for packing but got talked into 26. Time will tell if we made the right choice. Like others said, alot easier to make it shorter then longer... Really comes down to uses. For us they are going to be used at longer ranges in big country. When we hunt thicker country we will pack a different rifle. Because of that we went 26 to better utilize the heavy bullets and be more steady to shoot.
 
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No expert here but...
You might want to consider your other options in the 300 magnum for a shorter rifle.
Enter the 300 wsm into the conversation, you will see near identical trajectory and performance, but it's a lot shorter.
Take the x-bolt pro for example, which I just added to my collection. The 300wsm is offered 3 3/4" shorter than the 300wm overall. The reason it still performs the same is, the cartridge is fatter and burns all the powder faster. Winchester introduced it as an improvement to their 300 win mag nearly 40 years earlier.
 

carter33

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No expert here but...
You might want to consider your other options in the 300 magnum for a shorter rifle.
Enter the 300 wsm into the conversation, you will see near identical trajectory and performance, but it's a lot shorter.
Take the x-bolt pro for example, which I just added to my collection. The 300wsm is offered 3 3/4" shorter than the 300wm overall. The reason it still performs the same is, the cartridge is fatter and burns all the powder faster. Winchester introduced it as an improvement to their 300 win mag nearly 40 years earlier.

I don’t think it’s quite near identical performance. If you want to shoot a heavier bullet say 210 or 215 the 300 win mag will push them between 2900-3000fps even with a 24in barrel. I haven’t owned a 300wsm but a few buddies do and when they load a heavy bullet such as a 215 they have never broken over 2800fps. Many people smarter than I have argued that 2900-3000 FPS is a sweet spot and like to load heavy for caliber bullets in a platform that can achieve these numbers.
 
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Guess I should have added ...

‘Based on bullets from 150 to 180 grains’.

See attached data from Browning’s website ...
 

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Magnum61

Lil-Rokslider
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Apr 27, 2016
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PNW Native forced to California
I have a 26" w/ no brake on my 300 win mag and it originally had a 24" with a brake on the previous barrel.

I've only had a 300 win mag to hunt with my whole life and have always compared it to other "NEW" versions on the market. This is my opinion below from my experience - take for whatever perspective you get from it. @Broz is who I would refer to in making this decision just based off of his knowledge that I've been exposed to through his videos and posts.

24" is for 300 WSM the 338 Win Mag
26" is for a 300 win mag and 300 WBY
26" with a brake is for 300 ULTRA & bigger
 
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TX
My hunting rifle is a 22" WinMag and I am pushing 180 bergers at 3000 fps.

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