With luck I'm about 30 days away from my YHM Phantom LT showing up, so it's time to cut and thread the Creedmoor. Aside from velocity and a little weight, is there a big difference between 16" and 18"? The gun is a stock Savage 10 and will primarily be for hunting.

And for the smart arses....I know it's 2".

About 50fps total or 24fps per inch.

Any advantages or disadvantages or just personal preference?

It boils down to how far you plan to send lead, and what you know about how to compensate for it. Short barrels in bolt guns handle the weight of suppressors better due to increase in stiffness. Yet the shorter thr barrel the slower the MV. What contour is it?

I like 18" minimum.

Probably a stupid question, but is there the possibility to thread a barrel without cutting length or harming the crown?

My assumption is a medium contour. As for long range, I doubt I stretch out past 500. The places I hunt just don't have much in longer ranged shots.

With high intensity cartridges the shorter the barrel the more velocity you will loose per inch cutoff. Also the shorter the barrel the higher the exit pressure resulting in more muzzle blast.

Shorter barrel also results in more unburned powder that exits the barrel and or gets caught in the suppressor which I would think would make you need to clean it out more often and possibly quicker wear. You can reduce some of that by using faster powders, like Varget instead of H4350.

Except for a couple 223s barrels on my rifles are at least 18.5 inches

The suppressor will add a little velocity back from the shorter barrel, so when shooting with the suppressor velocity from a 16 inch barrel I would expect to be closer to that from an 18 inch barrel not suppressed, but still some velocity loss I think would be expected.

If it helps, suppressors add anywhere from 20-50 fps.

17 inches...

If you shoot it with a can on, you will gain speed from the can, also. I would not go less than 18" on a 6.5 CM.

Everyone probably already knows my answer , 16.25". As strictly a hunting rifle, it gives me enough maneuverability when the can is on to hunt from a box blind without banging it on every wall trying to get it out the window.

I really like my 18" barreled Savage .308, but I don't run a suppressor, just a brake.