Is a 20 inch barrel good enough for a 308 hunting rifle?

Depends on who you believe.

I have a 19" barrel on my primary hunting rifle in 7x57. I haven't noticed any issues with it. YMWV.

yes.

I have a 308 with 18 inch bbl, Old Remington 660 , My AR10 w/20 inch bbl, and a Howa 308 w/24 inch bbl. I would not hesitate to take anyone of them hunting.
The only problem with the 660 in 308. You do need a burn permit from the BLM or state forestry service. She is a flame thrower.

Velocity should not be negatively affected by a 20" barrel length unless you are loading with a very slow burning or progressive powder. Generally speaking, with most conventional smokeless powders achieve full burn and, therefore, essentially peak velocity by the 16" - 18" range.

The other question that may be relevant is the barrel twist rate and intended bullet weight. 1 in 12 is pretty common for .308 so unless you are cutting down a barrel with a lesser rate of twist and/or intent on using very heavy for caliber bullets, anything in the 150 - 180 gr range should adequately stabilize in a 20" barrel. 20" is a good length.

If the extra fps makes the difference you should be looking at another caliber. That said I feel 20" to be perfectly adequate for .308.

Yep, It'll kill just as dead as anthing else.

You'll lose maybe 50 fps going with a 20" compared to a 24"... not something I would be concerned about.

I have AR10s with 20" barrels, shooot a long, long way with em.

I have had several rifle barrels shorten to 20", 30/06, 308, 7-08, and even a 45/70.

What ever lost muzzle velocity was more than made up for in handling.

A well balanced firearm is a fine hunting rifle.

Yes!

My understanding is that the .308 was among the first where a computer was used in the design. The idea was to replicate factory '06 performance with a 150-grain bullet at some 2,800 ft/sec, when using barrels in the range of 18" to 22".

Seems like they accomplished their goal...

308's perform wonderfully out of short barrels, You do loose a little velocity the shorter you get but IMO it doesn't affect the .308 as bad as it does other cartridges based on the same case like the .243 and .260 ect. An 18 inch .308 makes for a nice light weight unit and is still capable of reaching out at a good distance.

20" barrel is fine. My Remington Model Seven .308 is a 20 incher and is great...short, light, and good to go.

Yes

In .308, the only reason to go longer than 20" is for F-Class competition.

therefore, essentially peak velocity by the 16" - 18" range.

Click to expand...

Not true. A 308 or any other cartridge will continue to to increase in velocity well beyond 18". It becomes a question of how much. A 26" barrrel will give you about 250 fps more velocity than a 16" barrel. The difference between 22"-24" barrel and a shorter 20" barrel is not that great. Around 50-75 fps, 100 at most.

But the 308 is more efficient than most and the difference would be much greater with many other rounds. I'm of the opinion that 20" is a good length for the 308. You still get good velocity at that length and would have to go to 28-30" to see a notable improvement. But that is also about as short as I'd want. You do start to see notable decreases in velocity when you drop under 20". But probably the biggest problem is that muzzle blast becomes a major concern.

20" is plenty good.

More on .308 barrel length and velocity...

http://www.tacticaloperations.com/SWATbarrel/

My go to hunting rifle for the last 25 years is a Winchester Mod 70 308 w/20" bbl, 2-7 Leopold scope. It has taken whitetail, mule deer, antelope, caribou, black bear out to 400 yards. I have not found anything better than that rifle.

Yes a 308 was designed to be effecient enough to get close to max performance out of a shorter barrel.

Here is a link to some data, comparing 3 different loads using
16, 20 and 24 inch .308 barrel lengths. Average 20 fps per inch
difference, or less.

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2177339

My Ruger Frontier 308 has a 16.5" barrel. I can't say that the deer have noticed...It is awfully handy in the pickup.

CZ 550 FS .308win, 20.5" barrel