Thread: Building a shorty 22 (what barrel length)

Interestingly, there's very little velocity loss in the average .22LR barrel from 18" to 12". As is commonly known, longer barrels slow the bullet down but were originally used on many small bore match and hunting rifles to get a better sight picture with aperture or leaf sights. Nowadays, match .22LR rifles generally use a much shorter barrel with an extension tube for the sights, while hunting .22LR rifles have scopes. Shorter barrels are stiffer and the bullet exits sooner, especially with subs which helps with off hand shots.

Some of the more expensive, high quality sporting .22LR rifles such as Anschutz and Walther have choked barrels so you have to be careful about shortening those. The Anschutz factory short barrels designed for suppressors are back bored as well so that there is no rifling in the area of the barrel that is threaded. That's because the likes of Anschutz use button cut barrels where the bore can expand in the area where you reduce the external diameter due to stress relief. As far as the JW15 barrels are concerned I wouldn't think they're choked and are probably hammer forged, which of course, can be extremely accurate too.