cutting the barrel down - What length?

[frontier gander]

Ok guys, going to do something scary but i wont learn it i dont do it....

Got the old CVA Blazer from 1987 and i just did a trigger job along with restoring the stock.. The bad part, The 28" barrel, the first 5 or so inches of barrel looks like it came out of the civil war, the rest is in really clean condition and very smooth. I am going to leave this as a round ball shooting inline and maybe some light weight powerbelts.

How long should i leave the barrel? I was thinking about cutting it down to either 20 or 22" 1:48 twist

This isnt a rifle that has any value to it so if i fudged up the barrel, GM makes barrel blanks.

 

[derfhunter]

I cut a savage down to 21" to make it lighter and handle better. It shot very comparable to what it did with 24" barrel at 50 and 100 yards.When I went to 200 now that was a different story. It went from 3-1/2 groups to 5- 6" groups. It has a 1in24 twist and shooting smokeless with saboted bullets in the 250 and 300 gr. range. I beleive I would make it as long as possible and still clean up the bore since you will be shooting a slow burning powder.

 

[cayuga]

Before you cut, check your state regulations and see if they have a minimum barrel length on hunting rifles.