Thread: Difference for velocity and range - 20.4" vs 22.4" barrel - 7mm 08

The truth is some rifles in the same chambering, even in the same model, are faster than others, tighter bores, looser chambers, deeper rifling, less or more freebore, so it depends. The short barrel might even go faster by a few feet than the 22 inch barrel! You wont know till you test them with a Chronograph.
But all thing being equal, you will lose about about 50 or 60 fps for two inches shorter. (But again, your 20' barrelled rifle may be much slower than general, you might be shooting 150 fps less in the 20 inch barrel than the 22 inch.) Rifles are individuals.

In my 7mm08, I have a 19 inch barrel, and Winchester 140g factory goes 2650 fps. I am sure it will kill deer I suppose, but I dont like things that don't perform as well as they can, so I have loaded it with 139 grain bullets with 2209 powder and I have it now at 2765 fps, which is about what the old 7x57 used to do for the last hundred years or more. Probably will work. (At normal ranges for deer hunting, I am sure the difference between these will be unmeasurable, but it makes me feel better. If we didn't care at all about velocity we would all be shooting cast lead out of an ancient .44-40. (Umm, which I do, as well..))

As for range, with a standard 3-9 power scope and a 140 grain bullet going 2700 fps, you are good out to 300 metres if you are happy you can shoot that well and understand where your rifle is sighted in where its hitting at that range.

If you would like to shoot further than that you will have to get a better scope and learn what MOA means and get a rangefnder and a kestrel and learn about the corealis effect and study the touch of wind on the shape of bullets. This is, of course, magic masquerading as ballistics. Worse than that, you will have to learn to shoot prone, the most uncomfortable and unproductive position for hunting ever proposed and one to be avoided at all costs. You are lost the day you purchase a bipod. Good luck shooting through tussock grass.

Personally, I find it a lot easier to just sneak up on them on the edge of a clearing and whack one shooting offhand at 80 metres. They are much easier to find afterwards.

To summarise: a 140 grain 7mm bullet at around 2700 fps will do anything you might wish of a 7mm08.