I will start you off with the bad news. Generally speaking magnums loose more velocity when you shorten the barrel vs. non-magnums. Now the good news. The velocity loss will not be as bad as one would think. going from 26 to 24 inches you would loose about 48 fps. Soilarch is correct you will actually increase the stiffness of the barrel. You may experience an increase in accuracy. There is alsoa smallchance that you may experience a velocity increase. I doubt that shortening the barrel 2 incheswill hurt your ballistics at 500 yards to the point that you will notice.I would leavethe barrel lengthalone, if the rifle you are looking at has the BOSS. 26 inches is becoming the standard barrel length for magnum calibers.


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