519 | Short Barrel Speeds & Effective Range for Big Game Hunting Rifles

The Hunt Backcountry Podcast

by Exo Mtn Gear

Sports, Sports:wilderness, Health & Fitness, Wilderness

4.4 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How short is too short when it comes to choosing a barrel length for hunting? Whether you are interested in a shorter barrel for your next hunting rifle because you plan to add a suppressor, because you want to save weight, or simply because you want an easy-handling, easy-packing rifle — the fact is that short barrels are viable with today’s highly efficient bullets, laser rangefinders, and scopes that precisely and reliably dial to accommodate for drop at distance. In this podcast you will learn how to estimate velocity and effective range when considering which barrel length to choose for your next hunting rifle. The short barrel "formula" and additional information: https://exomtngear.com/short-barrel The Hunt Backcountry Podcast is brought to you by Exo Mtn Gear: https://exomtngear.com/ Email Sign-up: https://exomtngear.com/newsletter Contact Us: [email protected] Leave A Message: https://speakpipe.com/huntbackcountry Podcast Episode Archive: https://exomtngear.com/podcast

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Huntback Country podcast. This is episode number 519, and it's going to be a bit of a bonus episode.
0:09.0	For the past couple weeks, I've been adding in some episodes on Fridays. They've been thus far related to firearms.
0:15.7	I talked about the pre-fit rifle barrel last week that I put together, and we spoke with Jaden from West Elk Precision,
0:24.6	all about pre-fit rifle barrels and what they are. And today I had a question that I've gotten
0:31.2	quite a bit via email, and I just thought it would be worth addressing publicly to talk through some things on barrel length.
0:41.8	Now, in the last five to seven years, I've had rifle barrels from 24 inches, 22 inches, 20 inches, 20 inches, 18 inches.
0:52.6	And that latest 6 mil creed more that it put together is 16 and a half inches.
0:58.1	So what have I learned about barrel length?
1:01.7	What have I noticed in terms of pros and cons and going shorter?
1:06.3	But more importantly, what do you need to know about deciding on barrel length? The straw that broke
1:12.6	the camel's back was from James, and it was again one of many emails that I've gotten, but I'm just
1:17.8	going to use James's email as an example. He says, I'm building a six millimeter creed more,
1:23.6	primarily for hunting mule deer in Idaho, although I do hunt elk as well.
1:29.1	He said I don't plan to shoot past 500 yards at any game, and I don't reload yet,
1:35.2	so I plan to use Hornadies Precision Hunter Ammunition with the ELDX bullet for now.
1:42.1	I will be using a suppressor and want to minimize barrel length without sacrificing
1:47.0	terminal performance. Would you suggest that I go with a 20 inch, 18 inch, or 16 inch barrel for this
1:54.8	rifle? So James's email is great because it gives us pretty much everything we need to know to make
2:02.9	an informed decision, not based on preference or what I think James should do, but just to crunch
2:10.9	some numbers and look at some scenarios.
2:14.1	So that's what I want to do in this podcast is just kind of talk through how you make these
2:18.7	decisions, how to estimate the differences and what those barrel lengths might do for James.
	...

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