30-06 22” barrel

I picked up a 700 LSS in 30-06 some years ago as a replacement culling gun. Since the Cooper it was replacing was a perfectly fine rifle with one surprise fatal flaw that wrecked it for my use I wanted to think this one through a bit. As 700s go this one checked all the boxes: cartridge I needed, stock I liked the fit of, and the rest didn’t matter because a 700 is a 700 right? Sale price was 560, things have sure changed since then. Only fly in the ointment was the 22” barrel, and I could talk myself into that because on paper
it wouldn’t make any real difference.

Rifle showed up, all BNIBy, but when I pulled it out of the box I couldn’t help noticing that it looked stupid. Sawed off stupid. Out of proportion with the forend stupid. I wonder if people are laughing at me stupid. I wonder if my kids are going to get picked on at school over this stupid. Then it really hit me; what if other women told my wife that I was between 2 and 4 inches short of spec and everyone knew it? That would have destroyed her, I couldn’t risk it. Had it rebarreled to 26”.
 
I shoot a Tikka 22 “ and a Rem 24 “ not much difference in FPS between them !
I definitely LIKE the Tikka SS T3X SL rifle Better than the REM .
You can make a 30-06 really Shoot Well and Fast with Great Handloads !
Most factory ammo i have tested is WEAK !

Shooting both 175 LRX and 180 TTSX at over 2900 from Both rifles- 165-168 TTSX grers into easy 3000 fps PLUS .
150 s easy into 3100 plus - Just loading 130 TTSX ers now for ??? FPS
 
remington jim said:
I shoot a Tikka 22 “ and a Rem 24 “ not much difference in FPS between them !
I definitely LIKE the Tikka SS T3X SL rifle Better than the REM .
You can make a 30-06 really Shoot Well and Fast with Great Handloads !
Most factory ammo i have tested is WEAK !

Shooting both 175 LRX and 180 TTSX at over 2900 from Both rifles- 165-168 TTSX grers into easy 3000 fps PLUS .
150 s easy into 3100 plus - Just loading 130 TTSX ers now for ??? FPS
Click to expand...

The RJ 30-06 Plus Peak loads haha. Unlocking true potential of that voluminous case and the right powders. And they care not for barrel length
 
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Barrel length - do you measure from closed bolt face to muzzle, or front of receiver to muzzle? Or just the rifled bore distance - lands to muzzle - not sure I have tooling to measure/know where rifling starts, to then measure to muzzle - but I could probably make something on the lathe, if I needed it. 22" or 24" barrel length for 30-06 will not make an iota of difference on game - either your shot killed them or it did not - 2" of barrel length not going to make difference - if getting much shorter, you might want to anticipate that there will be increased muzzle blast, as well as perhaps lower velocity.
 
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I agree that the velocity lost between a 22 or 24” barrel will not make any meaningful difference on game in a 30-06 hunting rifle. The shorter barrel is obviously handier.

However, points to ponder.

  • Extra barrel length gives you extra “free velocity”. For some, this is a big deal and is probably more applicable to long range target or competitive shooting.
  • Longer barrels are more efficient for larger cartridges with slower burning powders. Large, slow burning powder charges don’t burn as completely in a short barrel. At some point of diminishing barrel length, the 30-06 will approach .308Win velocities with everything else being equal. So if you want to shoot a short barrel rifle, pick a cartridge that complements this fact (like a 308W verses a 30-06). I’ve never understood seeing the 7PRC combined with an 18” barrel.
  • For some reason, heavier bullets seem to hold their own better than light bullets in short barrels, using the same 30-06 verse 308W scenario. It might be that heavier bullets are longer and a long bullets travels slightly slower through the barrel…which gives more time for the slower powders to burn. Or maybe it’s some other reason entirely.
 
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RJ is right, most people today don't realize that a lot of things have changed with the new powders, and what seems to be new acceptable pressure limits.

I always ponder the the sense behind the handloader getting all fussy faced over loading older cartridges to higher pressures than it was originally designed to shoot, but not batting an eyelash at 25% or more pressures being generated in the same action, with one of the newer wonder cartridges.

If a rifle is safe to shoot 65K to 70K in any given action with a wonder cartridge, it's safe to shoot those pressures in the 30-06 or 7x57, or, or, or.

The thing is, most of us don't have anything to measure the pressures with, other than velocimeters, base expansion ratios, and primer condition, which are ambiguous at best, depending on the manufacuring specs at the time of production.

New powders and longer duration peak pressure, at slightly lower pressure, are the biggest factors.

Old school powders are fine for most things, until it comes to hot rodding, then you need premium fuel, most of which is no longer available.
 
Splitting hairs over barrels between 20" - 24" is largely moot... if you go under 20", you are doing it for compact handling, if you go over 24" you are doing it to maximize velocity... either extreme (not that either is extreme), is largely unnecessary.
 
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