Have you seen one of the rifles, I didn't think they were available yet. The 20 inch barrel won't be a negative at all, the 7mm-08 is an efficient cartridge and does fine out of the shorter barrels. I plan on gettng one of these rifles, I like the fact that it has a slighltly heavier the Model 7 (this format balances better for me and holds steadier based on the right hand youth models) plus of course it is left hand. If they only offered it in stainless and 308 oh well I guess I can't have everything.