How short 7 MAG barrel

[B2crawler]

   I bought a Remington 700 in 7 mag from a good friend of mine that had belonged to his grandfather.   The serial number is low under 50,000.  Was in pretty ruff shape.  Stock was the first thing to go.  Bought a laminate stock off e-bay that fits nice and is just as light weight as the original.  Also came with a limb saver pad.  Next step to cleaning up this old rifle was to dura coat the whole gun.  Anyways rifle came out looking awesome.  Took it to the range to shoot a few weeks ago and it threw bullets everywhere.  Not even close enough to measure a group or see much of a group.
   Scope and mounts came off a gun I know  shoots well so I was worried.  When I got home I got all my gear to clean the rifle.  While pushing a brush with a patch wrapped around it I could feel something different towards the end of the barrel.  I pushed a clean white patch down the muzzle and stood under kitchen light so I could get a look.  About 2-2.5 inches into the bore there is a ring in the bore.  Can't see or feel anything on the outside of the barrel.  It might be 1/4 inch that goes all the way around the bore.  The rest of the barrel as far as I can tell without bore scope looks ok.
   Here's the question:   Would it be worth it to have the barrel cut down and recrowned behind the ring?  I've never heard of someone shooting a 7 MAG with less than a 24 inch barrel.  I would end up with something like 21.5 inches long.  Is velocity loss in this caliber going to be so much that I just need a new barrel.  If a new barrel is the route I need to go I don't want to spend 500 bucks on a bench rest quality.  Who has a good barrel for an great price?   Can you buy a new factory barrel from Remington directly?  Has anything changed over the last 40 years to the 700 that will affect putting a new barrel on an old action?
   I'll post a pic of the rifle and you'll see why I want this good looker to be a good shooter.

[B2crawler]

Found a light that would actually fit inside the chamber and not so bright as to blind me when I look down the barrel.  It's actually a depression on more or less one side of the barrel.  Maybe part of a patch didn't make it out the barrel??  Anyways it looks if I have about 1.5 inches chopped off and recrowned I'll lose the depression inside the barrel. 
So from 24inch to 22.5 inch..enough velocity lose to worry about?
Anyone??

[tjkanavel]

I wouldnt go any shorter then 24". Those belted mags need that much barrel to burn all that powder efficiently. If I were you I would look into a new barel, either a pull off from another action or a new custom barrel.

My 2 cents-Tim

[burntmuch]

I guess the question is how much velocity are you willing to give up. My opinion is try it. shouldnt cost that much. See how it shoots. How far do you shoot, 300, 400, 500 yards Id rather have at nice tight group at 2800fps than a not so tight group at 3000fps.

[Cheesehead]

I agree on the cut and recrown. Small investment. I have a 7 mag and realize a longer barrel is better, but this is worth a try.

Cheese

[DalesCarpentry]

You can find almost like new barrels on Gunbroker all the time for well less than $100.00. I bet you could have it chopped and recrowned for $40.00 or so. I might would consider just getting another barrel. Dale

[jhm]

Back in the late 70s I bought one of the early 700s that had the blued Stainless barrels on it had the front sight removed and the barrel cut behind the sight screws and re-crowned it ended up being my favorite rifle for many a hunt, I used it on a couple bear hunts in Longlac Ont. / deer and elk hunts into Craig Co. / lotsa deer hunts in the Lewiston, Luzern Mi. / a few Antalope hunts in Wyoming, and then ended up killing several deer in Arkansas after I moved here, so from all that I guess I would be saying to wack it off and give it a try, after all what have you got to loose a bad barrell?   JIM