Do you find yourself buying shorter and shorter barrels for .22LR? What's your favourite barrel length?

CanuckShooter

CanuckShooter

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Years ago when I bought a lot of my .22 rifles, shorter barrels were fairly uncommon. The 10/22 basically had the shortest barrel of any widely available rimfire rifle at 18.5". Most 22 rifles were around the 22" mark or longer, so I ended up with several rifles with fairly long barrels that I don't really shoot anymore.

I'm a very practical person, and these days I see no justification for buying anything longer than 18.5", with 16.5" being my favourite. Everything I've seen points to 16" as having peak velocity due to complete powder burn, with no perceivable change in accuracy. I'm also not a serious bench rest shooter.

Now that I look at my collection, I find myself tempted to sell those longer barrel rifles. They're really nice rifles, and sure, in theory it's nice to have the longer sight radius, and using subsonic ammo through a long barrel is neat as the report is so quiet, but beyond that they just stand out as looking cartoonish, dated (not in a good way), and impractical/inefficient.

What's your ideal barrel length for a .22 rifle? Do you find yourself losing interest in your 22 rifles with longer barrels? Am I maybe overlooking an aspect to these rifles that might justify hanging on to them?
 
I have two .22s with 16" barrels. Definitely prefer the shorter length for ease of transport, storage and swinging around in the woods.
I've not noticed a loss in accuracy (actually an improvement on my 10/22), and the report seems about the same as the 18.5".
I've also had a 12.5" barrel on my 10/22 but the report was definitely louder and the balance felt off.

Half of me currently has my eye on the CZ457 with the 16" barrel and wood stock. The other half of me is trying to pretend I never saw it.
 
Barrel length plays little In My choice of fire arms. I have a couple 16” barrels and a few 20” barrels at least one 18” and had a bunch of 22” barrels. Don’t mind any of them.

My favourite rifle to shoot though happens to have a threaded 20” barrel for what it’s worth
 
It's as you describe: longer sight radius for iron sights, slightly quieter in report.

I suspect the ones from the old days were also long because they were perceived to make it more accurate, and also they seem to have wanted their 22s to feel like "real" rifles for training. No doubt some still feel that way.
 
I have a fair few 22’s.
I have a couple with 16” barrels and one thing i have noticed is they are faster than any of my 20’s by close to 100fps.

Enough so that a few if my preferred match ammos are supersonic which leads to the rabbit hole discussion on long range accuracy and transonic destabilization.

Not sure but I covet a 20” for my CZ and as soon as they are available again, i’m snatching one for my ling range 22 rig.

For hunting i have a 16” cz457 scout that rocks. But i might like a 24” lux just for the snazzy look.
 
I rebarreled a Ruger Mark I pistol with a very heavy 8 inch barrel and mounted a small Bushnell long eye relief scope. I shot a lot of gophers with it out to 100 yards. I had a soft sandbag I would put on the hood of the vehicle or on the windowsill. I even shot an inch and a half group at 100 yards. I always used high speed hollow point LR. This was in the late 60's, early 70's. Then about 1980 I cut the barrel to 5 and 1/2 inches,, turned it down a bit, mounted sights on it and sold it.
I shot a 22 rifle with a 16 inch barrel for many years as well.
 
I've run everything from 8" to 20" on my .22lr rifles. Currently I have a 20" but I really enjoy the 12" and 16" lengths. I have a 20" heavy barrel on my CZ457 right now because it's setup for PRS.
Ruger 10/22 with a 8 or 12 dlask heavy barrel and linear comp on the end is pretty great as well.
 
Just got a Deuce with a 26” barrel. Laying claim tomorrow to a CZ with a 24” barrel. Have another with a 20”. Have a few 10/22s with 18” barrels. Plan to mess with all of them.

16 barrel I seem to have no interest in. But Anschutz makes a 14” bench rest rifle I’ve been eyeing up. Should be accurate….

I have the mindset that you can’t have too many guns.
 
To me 20" is definitely in the realm of reasonable length. I have a couple 20.5" barrels which I like. I'm moreso referring to barrel lengths like 22.5", 24", 25.5", 28.5".
 
I prefer 12-13”. Consistent velocity, stiff barrel lends itself to good accuracy, very handy, and it’s not short enough to really notice the muzzle blast. Just talking about hunting and casual target shooting. I have no experience with precision and competitive shooting. Wish they were more available on more models.
 
Just a few observations on barrel lengths and ‘shootabilty’. I’m from an era when we measured velocity by how many pages of a phone book our pellet guns and .22 rifles would penetrate. My latest most techy crono was a vintage Oehler 33. I suppose if I wasn’t so athletically challenged and wanted to get into PRS then velocity would be a consideration, but not at the expense of diminished accuracy. Accuracy is Trump.

I’ve noticed that rimfire barrels that are 24-26 inches long seem to do a better job of utilizing non match ammo, not as fussy, a little more forgiving and more pleasant on the ears if you’re not stuffing and wearing at least toilet paper for noise attenuation.

Got 16” barrels, very ###y and they are handy and they work. 18” barrels are a bit better. My 20” barrels for 90% of the work and 24” barrels if you have great expectations. I have a few rimfire rifles starting at $12.00 for my first and some in the $5,000 range in recent years with dozens in between. Best way to find out what’s best for you & us is to buy a couple of guns every other week and then at the end of 10 years report back with your findings. Hopefully I’ll still be here to read it.
I’m sure in addition to myself there may be a few other old farts that will be waiting on the sidelines to clear up their own ideas with someone’s Eureka moment. Cheers!!
 
I had everything from 8inch to 33"

Most of my 22's are 20" and above. Only my 10/22 and Savage MK2 are under 20" with a 16.5"

I often shot my 7" Ruger Single Six with a pistol scope, at 100 yards.
 
Depends what you're doing with them. Length and contour play a part in tuning, so benchrest rifles all tend to have similar barrels that work well with common tuners. Making them shorter would take them out of that zone. But then, benchrest precision requirements are different than what you feel you might need for grouse hunting. The idea that length doesn't matter for precision other than sight radius with irons is incorrect. It can be less important when you consider some use cases. But when you're trying to win matches and break records, suddenly every aspect is more considerable.
 
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