I have rifles with barrels from 22" to 32" and if your hunting and your shots are under 100 yards the animal will never know the difference in the barrel length for the most part. Granted a longer barrel gives you a longer sight plane which aids in open sight aiming, but if youscope the rifle I would wager to guess you'd never notice the difference. Also all you read on magnum loads, take with a grain of salt. The longer barrels do better with a larger powder charge, but most people find 100 grains of powder to be more then enough. A 22" barrel will handle 100 grains very nice....