Barrel Length for 300 RUM

[Buckskin]

Hey guys,
 
Was wondering your opinion on barrel length on a 300 RUM.  Having a 700 blueprinted and rebarreled with a Rock Creek #4 contour barrel that is starting out at 27".  Should I keep it at 27 or cut it down some?

[sr sawyer]

For the large amount of slow burning you will using the 27" barrel would be a good choice.  If you decided to shorten I would not go shorter than 26".  I have a 300 Weatherby and the 300 RUM uses 10-12% more powder than the Weatherby.
 
My 300 Weatherby is 26" and a friend has the 24" version.  His 24" barrel produces more muzzle blast and slower velocities than my 26" barrel.
 
Ken

[gunnut69]

In general these type cartridges are designed to hit as hard as possible at long ranges. This will require a fairly heavy bullet at high velocity. To keep pressures safe a slow powder will likely be neccessary and a lot of it. Longer barrels will give better efficiency of this burn.

[keith44]

When we built my father-in-laws .300 RUM we were able to find a 28" Douglas barrel, after chambering and crowning it came out at 27 1/2 inches.  500 yard shots on doe and coyotes are fairly easy with Berger 210 gr VLD's backed by Reloader 22 


my vote is the longer the better, unless you are wanting a walk around rifle for tracking wounded game.  Even then anything under 25 inches seems better served by a different cartridge.

[Buckskin]

Yeah, I knew the answer before asking but did anyway.  I told him to keep it as long as possible.