What's an ideal length barrel for a 7-08? It will always wear a suppressor and will primarily be used for hunting, but may be used for some mid-1000 yard plinking. Preferably, I'm wanting a shorter barrel, if possible, but not rob it too terribly of performance. I will reload for it, but haven't picked a bullet for it yet.

The 16.5" barreled Rem700 22-250 I picked up from my uncle was going to be used for one of my boys, but since I already have a 22-250, the wife said it needed to go. It doesn't seem to be selling, so I'm contemplating on rebarreling it to a 7-08 to become a light weight hunting rifle. 99% of hunting will be here in Texas and it may end up becoming a back-up rifle for Colorado elk hunts (maybe). My 7wsm is my main elk gun currently.

16"-17".

20” is a good compromise, especially if you plan to run heavier bullets to 1000 yds.

162 gr ELD-M, ELD-X, H-Varget, Nosler or Lapua brass 2640 fps MV.

Probably close to having the barrel shot out with that combo. Next barrel will be a copy of this one. Off we go again.

Good info. Fireman, I knew you were in love with the 7-08 platform and was hoping you would chime in. Don't you have an AI as well? What is it gaining over the non-ai? I'll probably just stick with the 7-08, but you never know.

ELD-M, how's it comparing, hunting wise, to the ELD-X? My 6.5 likes the ELD-X and it's done well on game, although I have yet to retrieve a bullet from one.

Main reason I was asking the initial barrel length question was because I was reading something about chopping a 22-250 down and how it's speeds were affected quite a bit more than other rounds. I may have even read that on here, I can't remember. I just wasn't sure how much a shorter barrel affected the 7-08.

18-20

This was my initial thoughts before I even posted, but wanted to feed my suspicions. haha

7mm-08, 24", 162 gr 2700 fps
7mm-08 A.I., 24", 162 gr 2820 fps

7mm-08 20", 162 gr 2640 fps (suppressed)
7mm-08 A.I., 17", 162 gr 2640 fps (suppressed)

Seeing the ELD-M do fine on animals. The ELD-X has made 1.5" exits for me, longest on a doe was 235 yards, vitals.

I went with 18" on mine....

Even with a dedicated can, I wouldn't go under 18". I cut my .308 to 20" and it wears a Harvester and it's still pretty handy.

I have a 16.25" 6.5cm that wears a Harvester. As much as I love it, it's heavy. It started life as the ADL Tactical that I had the barrel chopped down on it mainly for a truck gun, but it has since become one of my go-tos just for ease of throwing it around. I chopped it for a temporary fix to reduce weight with plans to eventually rebarrel it with something lighter weight.

Now that I have this little 22-250, I'm going to rebarrel it in 7-08 for me, and leave the short 6.5cm alone. The 6.5 doesn't kick at all and my wife surprisingly liked it when she hit some 400 yard steel with it 6 months or so ago.

I'm really leaning on the 18" just to cut that extra 2" down. If 20" will really make as much of a difference, I'm not opposed to it. I just can't leave my can at home anymore. I've gotten so used it being so much quieter, and although I'm not very recoil shy, the reduced recoil doesn't hurt anyone's feelings.

I have been shooting an 18.5 inch barreled 7mm-08 since 1982 and still like it. Never scoped it for long range but have shot it out to 400 yards with the 2-7 scope it normakky wears. Great hunting round IMO

I was about to say, keep the rifle, find new wife!

That’s a sweet little rig there Doc.

Thank you, Sir....APR built it for me.

Check out the links below. I went with a 17” and love it. But I’m changing from eldm’s for hunting. Although, they did the job i didn’t like the fact of no blood trail.

https://texashuntingforum.com/forum...this-weekend-with-new-barrel#Post7545857

All of my stand hunting 7-08's wear 26" heavy stainless bbls. My walking rattling guns all have 24" standard taper bbls. My wife's has a heavy 20" threaded for suppressor. My WC AR has an 18" bbl. All shoot lights out, except the Wilson Combat. Haven't had time to break it in and shoot some groups, yet. But Chad worked me up 1,000 rounds of a really good load and bullet, so the WC will be put through the paces pretty soon.

If I could only have one, 20" bbl.

I think i'll hang on to her. She does an excellent job of keeping me in line, plus she can shoot, and her daddy has land I can hunt on.

Doc, That is a beautiful rifle. You may have helped me to stick with around 18". Not too shabby of a buck either!

I had a Thompson Encore 7-08 barrel cut down to 16.25" and had a 7-08AI reamer ran in it. The reason for the AI was an attempt to gain back some of the speed I was cutting off by shortening the barrel. It is an absolute blast to shoot. Fireforming using 162 ELDX it was 2470fps. Once fireformed I have switched to 140 Ballistic Tips but I have yet to run it over a chrono to know speed.

I love the gun and the barrel length.

Ha I got same gun in 6.5 but about to cut barrel down from 20” to 16’sh also