Hey all,

I have a kimber Montana with 24” barrel chambered in 280AI. It shoots easily sub moa groups, usually hovering in the .5-.7” size with a thunderbeast ultra 7. With a 7” can on the end of a 24” barrel it’s a very long and kind of unwieldy rifle. I was thinking of shortening the barrel to 20” and getting it re threaded for the can. My main concern is velocity loss. Currently I shoot 150gr ttsx that are running 2950fps. Figuring in 150fps loss with a 4” reduction, I can still go down a bullet weight in the ttsx line and have elk killing power. What are your thoughts? Cut it down and run lower velocity or leave it be as a really long rifle?

Ear plugs, take off the can. No loss of velocity, no risking losing accuracy.
Total cost, $.37



I have a .375 Hawk/Scovill that is stupid accurate, but I've long wished I'd made it a little shorter. I could have it chopped, but I always feared it would no longer do what it used to do. (even though the accuracy level is unrealistic in terms of what I need and what the rifle's used for)

That, or get another rifle. Personally, I wouldn’t want to potentially compromise such an accurate rifle.

I feel your pain. I use an Encore 30-06 with a 28” barrel and a Harvester suppressor which is about 8 inches long. Felt like an old Marlin Goose gun.
Since I’m not out west, and really, 400 yards is a long way in the hills around me, I had the barrel chopped to 18” and threaded.
I don’t have a chronograph, but I know I lost speed, but my accuracy didn’t change. Now it wasn’t as good as yours, ever, but it still shoots 1” groups at 100 yards and I haven’t missed a deer with it yet. Much more pleasant to practice with and hunt with.
Your rifle, you decide. Elk are pretty big animals and you can kill them with a slow bullet if you hit them in the right place.

It would break my heart to alter a rifle that accurate.