Remington 700 - 7mm.08

Question
I recently purchased another Remington 700 in 7mm.08.  It has a 24" barrel and I am thinking of having it cut/crowned to 22" or even possibly 20".  From what I've read, at 22" there should be no ballistics change at all.  Not sure about at 20".  The gun will be for my son and we primarily are whitetail hunters in the midwest.  I would like your opinion on the two changes I mentioned.

Answer
Jeff,

For absolutely accurate stats, you'd have to consult ballistics tables, but I'll give you my subjective opinion.

While it is certainly true that a longer barrel will generally produce more velocity, and therefore greater range, the real reason for guns like the "Kentucky Long Rifle" of a century and a half ago was that longer sight radius absolutely makes a difference when you are using iron sights.

Since glass is almost a universal on a turn-bolt gun these days, sight radius is no longer an issue. For punching paper, except that POI would be different, I don't think there would be any difference between a 20" and a 24" tube.  Hunting, of course, is a different story, as the bullet must do more than just be accurate.

You need to ask, "At what distances will I take whitetail?" I have owned a 700 in .308 with at 20" heavy barrel (great for accuracy, a pain to hump around). I would feel comfortable taking a shot at deer with that gun at 500 yards. The 7mm is generally thought to have an effective range out to 300 yards. I don't think 2" would make much of a difference either way, but if you were going to go much beyond 300 yards, you'd probably want whatever advantage the extra length could afford.

Precision is not really the issue here, just kinetic energy. Unless you are going for shots that will push the envelope of the caliber's effective range, I would think that a 20" tube would be fine.