Shortened Rifles

[rc]

I'm a big fan of compact rifles. Here is a 22 Marlin I had cut down from 22 inch barrel to 16.5 inches with an 11 degree target crown. Gun shoots better than before with the old Marlin crown. Now it's easy to get into and out of a truck and the average drop in velocity was less than 100fps. 40 grain HPs are averaging about 1800fps instead of 1900fps and 30s are moving out of the gun at 2200fps instead of nearly 2300.......

 

[natman]

I'm going to guess it's a 22 Magnum....

 

[jmr40]

Within reason I prefer shorter, lighter,handier rifles too. You can always go too far, but that looks good.

 

[tdoyka]

mine is a 20 vartarg with a 16 1/4" MGM barrel
it goes with my 6.5 creedmoor with a 16 1/4" MGM barrel

 

[Hunter Customs]

I like it, it looks like you did a nice job

I don't know if it's a trend but I'm seeing more shorter barrel bolt guns.

I have a 20 inch barrel Savage bolt gun in 223, she's a tack driver and very handy.

 

[9x19]

I've always preferred "carbines" to "rifles"... Ruger American Ranch scratches that itch pretty well too.

5.56

.300 Blackout

 

[SaxonPig]

You give up some velocity with a shorter barrel but a short one is more rigid, so sometimes more accurate.

This 581 was cut down from 24" to 20" along with other custom modifications.

This thing is is crazy short with its 16" barrel.

I had this one built to be compact and fast handling. A 20" almost begs for a Mannlicher style stock.

OK, sometimes I make 'em long...

 

[bamaranger]

generally speaking

As a rule, ALL my new rifle buys are getting shorter and lighter!!!!!


Hmm!!!, Seems like my Dad went that path too. ......now I see why.

 

[rc]

Thanks for the other pictures. The nice thing about the marlin is there was no mag tube to shorten and it's stainless so no refinishing needed.

 

[Duster340]

I also like short handy rifles. Here's my old No4 Mk1 303 Brit. Barrel cut to 17" and shortened the stock try to retain the original milsurp look. It has become my go-to rifle for hunting/bumming around on in our dense cedar wetlands and thick hardwood parcel up in WI.

 

[38superhero]

wow Duster i like that .303...i wonder if you can do the same to a Nagant? hmm

 

[Gunplummer]

I am not a fan of the .303, but do shorten the original wood and keep the handguard too on x-military rifles.

 

[Duster340]

38superhero "wow Duster i like that .303...i wonder if you can do the same to a Nagant? hmm"

Thanks 38superhero. Picked the standard rifle up back in the late 70's-early 80's for $75. Cleaned it, shot it, only to find it key holed at 25 yards! Closer inspection of the barrel showed that the last 5-6 inches of rifling was gone. Threw in in a closet and forgot about it until about 2 years ago. Stumbled upon it while digging through my old junk and figured, heck, might as well try to make a shooter out of it. Cut the barrel back to good rifling, re-crowned it, shortened and contoured the stock and that was it. Not pretty by some
folks standards (cute in an ugly sort of way?), but it shoots great, is handy to carry and packs decent power for deer and coyotes

I also have a Nagant, but it's in really good shape so I'll leave it as is. Now if I were to find a clunker Nagant for cheap......

 

[johnwilliamson062]

I'm surprised you lost that much velocity on a 22lr. I remember seeing a website that cut down barrels by the inch on an Encore or something and velocity change pretty much stopped at about 14" with 22lr. I miht be remembering incorrectly though. I think somewhere it was claimed some of the really old 22lrs with long barrels would lose velocity with most modern faster burning loads.

 

[chicharrones]

Thanks to you RC, I've come out of the shadows to see your Marlin .22 Magnum.

I like it. I like it a lot. It looks like a very handy all weather carbine.

Of course, I like shorter barreled carbines, too.

22" barrel shortened to 16.25" in .22 WMR.

Factory made 16.5" (aka 17.25") in .308.

Even with an air rifle with a 24" barrel shortened to 15.5".