Short Chamber vs Long Chamber

[Uncle Grinch]

I'm considering having my 1908 Mauser rebarreled and found some 308 barrels on the Sporter Express website. They offer military stepped short chambered and long chambered barrels.

Assuming someone else is doing the work, is there any benefit of one type over the other? I understand the difference physically and the difference each requires to install. Other than that isn't it a moot point?

[HeavyMetal]

The only advantage to a short chambered barrel, be it rifle or pistol, is it allows the smith to "Fine Tune" the chambering for specific brass, dies, or other requests of the paying customer.

If your just looking to re barrel a Military shooter and not get "match" accuracy out of it then it really doesn't matter what you buy as long as your smith is happy with the purchase.

[Lead Fred]

Long chamber, long case, long case, bigger boom

[Mk42gunner]

With a short chambered barrel, whoever intalls it will need a finish chamber reamer and headspace guages; the work can be done without a lathe.

With a long chambered barrel, the barrel shoulder and end of the barrel that contacts the torque shoulder needs to be cut back, still need the headspace guages, and pretty much requires a lathe.

Robert

[swheeler]

MK42 has it right, but I will add this, if you are having a gunsmith fit the barrel, get the long chambered. One finish reamer was used to cut the chamber on a deep chambered barrel, and two reamers to finish a short chambered one, tolerances you know.