whitehorn... on the other end of the scale a barrel to long can also cause a loss of performanceon the fps scale. once the charge has been used up there now comes a drag effect inside of abarrel that isto long for the charge. for a .22 long rifle i know that the perfect barrel lenght is 19 inches. anything shorter can cause a lossof fps just as a longer barrel will cause a loss in speed. but the bullet will be more stable with the longer barrel. by keeping this in mind you cannot always say thatthere is always aloss of speed from a shorter barrel. every load is differant.