Barrel shortening

[Boela]

Good day all
I am considering to have my 375 Mod 70 barrel shortened. It has a 23" bull barrel with a 1 in 12" twist rate. The reason for this - landowners where I hunt prefer rifles silenced. I would like to have a silencer fitted and that would make the rifle very long whilst hunting.
My question is this: Would you rather say that I am not to this?
Or, if I do have the barrel shortened to 20", how would this influence the MOA accuracy of my rifle? I accept that I will lose velocity.
I am really not to sure what to do. The rifle is a working rifle with no sentimental value.

Any advice will be appreciated.

 

[bluey]

don't know anything about silencers, can you even silence a calibre that big?
but if you shorten your barrel , be sure to get it re-crowned .....

 

[lcq]

crude estimate is 25fps per inch loss, no big deal. There is no telling if you will lose accuracy, you may actually gain accuracy. The Canadian military 338 PGW sniper rifle was actually 0.25 moa more accurate with the can than without. Side benefits are less noise and recoil and muzzle flash are drastically reduced. If you reload you can always work up another load for accuracy.

 

[Pheroze]

For whatever its worth, my rifle barrels are 20", 22" and 24". All shoot better than I can. The only difference I note is that the shorter barrels (even that 2") are more enjoyable to carry and shoot.

 

[lcq]

For whatever its worth, my rifle barrels are 20", 22" and 24". All shoot better than I can. The only difference I note is that the shorter barrels (even that 2") are more enjoyable to carry and shoot.

as an old sage once told me, you carry a gun more than you shoot it

 

[TokkieM]

I honestly would not bother to silence a 375H&H it's ment to speak the way it did 100 years ago.
I would rather get a good old 308Win chop the barrel to 20" and fit the smallest suppressor I could.

 

[Boela]

Gents, I appreciate your views on this. I too think that it is daft to silence / suppress a 375. I unfortunately need to comply to the wishes of the landowner.
Bluey, thank you sir, I shall ensure that it gets re-crowned.
Hunthardsafaris, thank you, I absolutely love shooting the 375 and am much more comfortable taking a Bwb with it.
Pheroze, I am with you on that one!!
Lcq, thank you for your input. I do reload and enjoy working out loads. I feel much better now with the idea of shortening the barrel.

 

[JimP]

The way that I look at it is that by the time you place a 12"-18" suppressor onto the rifle why start worrying about about a couple of inches on the actual barrel?

Now if you wanted to shorten the barrel a couple of inches for handling and to lighten it up a little then that would be a different outcome.

 

[lcq]

Gents, I appreciate your views on this. I too think that it is daft to silence / suppress a 375. I unfortunately need to comply to the wishes of the landowner.
Bluey, thank you sir, I shall ensure that it gets re-crowned.
Hunthardsafaris, thank you, I absolutely love shooting the 375 and am much more comfortable taking a Bwb with it.
Pheroze, I am with you on that one!!
Lcq, thank you for your input. I do reload and enjoy working out loads. I feel much better now with the idea of shortening the barrel.

you got to love this place everyone likes to help out. I'd love to be able to use a supressor but 8 years in the big house for even having one

 

[sestoppelman]

They are now legal in my state of Washington. I could not care less, wouldn't have one up my arse sideways!

 

[Sika98k]

Suppressors,moderators, call them what you will are extensively used on this side of the pond. I do a lot of night shooting of foxes and use one,a Hausken,on my Ruger No1V in 22/250.
The most common type is a reflex,only adding maybe 3-4 inches to overall length. If you chop 2 inches of the barrel the extra weight is negligible. It just looks fugly !

 

[nztimb]

Yes the suppressor is very often used as a hunting aid here as well. Generally shortening a barrel will do nothing disadvantageous to the accuracy and may often enhance it. It is the noise attenuation that is the big advantage though and while there are a couple of types with and end of barrel can that has all of the suppressor added to the length of the barrel they are usually only 6 to 8 inches long with the more common and preferred type being the over barrel design that has up to 4 inches ahead of the muzzle and 6 to 8 inches back over the barrel. Weight is generally in the 270 - 310 grams so in the region of a pound plus a little
I have one on my small game rifle but liked the easy carry of the larger rifle without it and a the noise is not going to make any difference to the game if you kill them with the first shot or in my case where I can take a few animals the shooting is fast enough that the sound rarely makes any difference to the outcome so I sold the larger one on and hunt with the rifle bare

 

[siutis]

Do it, none of my rifles have barrels longer than 20 inches. Must easier to use in the field. You will not regret the reduction in barrel length.

 

[Adrian]

If you need a moderator then I too would look to a smaller calibre and fit one to that.
In the UK a moderator is usually added to your firearms licence as standard because it is assumed you will fit one.
I never hunt with a moderated rifle because I refuse to get my barrel cut down and absolutely detest the horrible looking clunky can on the end of my barrel.
I tried it before and found the hateful thing getting caught up on branches, made the rifle unwieldy and just ruined the look of it.
I realise I'm probably in the minority but each to their own etc.
As Icq said above, you carry it more than shoot it and not having a moderator makes it easier to carry.

 

[ve7poi]

I shortened a 375 H&H model 70 to 20” chronagraphed before and after with a difference of 75fps with factory ammo. Also mag na ported it (mistake) for sure noise level horrendous
As with all things each rifle will give a slightly different variation in velocity between longer barrel and shortened one

 

[Newboomer]

Even if you cut your barrel to 20 inches that can is going to add well over a foot to the length of the barrel and it will affect the balance. It will be muzzle heavy and won't handle very well. Next question: Can you find one for a 375?

 

[Von S.]

My 378 has 32" barrel on it and a 16" silencer.

The big can does kill a whole lot of recoil and knocks a lot of noise off the full power ,300 grain loads.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

My 378 has 32" barrel on it and a 16" silencer.

The big can does kill a whole lot of recoil and knocks a lot of noise off the full power ,300 grain loads.

Heck, with that long of rifle you can just hit them over the head.........

 

[Newboomer]

Sounds like a modern Kentucky Long Rifle.

 

[Von S.]

True, and it is really not very practical, but you'd have to be blind with a bad case of the shakes not to hit with it.

I have a guy wanting to buy it as I don't get much use out of it much since i went blind and got the shakes.