.243 Win out of a 22-inch barrel?

[BurnOut]

All- I have a bone stock R700 varmint barreled action in .243 Win, and will soon be getting it threaded to use with an SDN-6. I am considering getting it cut down at the same time, from 26 inches to 22-ish inches. What does the Hide think? I have done some searching around, and found opinions in favor of, and against, running a short(er) barrel on a .243. FWIW, I plan on running one of the AAC muzzle brakes to act as the initial blast baffle within the can.

I understand that I'm going to be giving up some velocity, and I can live with that. The 9.125 twist of the factory Rem barrel won't allow me to shoot the long VLDs anyhow, so that kind of precludes the possibility of using this as an effective 1000 yard gun (not to mention that my skills currently preclude me from being able to use ANYTHING as a 1000 yard gun, but that's another issue altogether). I am thinking along the lines of some of the slipperier 90-ish grain pills.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Bueller? Bueller??

 

[Rattler56]

I shoot 95 VLD's with great success out of a 700 with 9.25 twist.

 

[proneshooter]

22" barrels have been used in hunting rifles for ages (see Winchester Model 70 Featherweight) and the 243 Win has been an available caliber on them for ages too. Draw from that what conclusions you will.

 

[tt66]

I had a 700 VLS .243 with the 26" heavy barrel. I cut it to 16.5" and I love it. It shoots 105gr AMaxs very well. I mainly shoot out to 250 yds and the longest range available to me is 350 yds. The muzzle blast is more pronounced, but it is not a big deal. The handiness more than makes up for the muzzle blast. I must admit that I am a short barreled fan. I cut my .308 to 18" and just had a .223 built with a 16.5".

 

[canuckr]

I ran a savage 22" barrel and pushed 87 vmax's at around 3150 or so. I re barrelled it to a 22" 243AI and I can push the 105's at around 3100-3150. They both worked well for me.

 

[nashlaw]

I run my .243 out of a 22-incher. Haven't chrono'd anything, but accuracy is very good. Nice stiff M24 contour. Nice wt and balance.

 

[NFW]

Just bedded my hunting rem 700 .243 22" sporting barrel I'm hoping it's gonna be a screamer.