I have been studying on which muzzleloader to buy for awhile now. I notice that barrel lenghts vary from 24" up 29". Does it really matter for the average hunter like myself? A couple of the guns I like ar only 24" or maybe 26". I live in north Florida and do not anticipate long range shooting.

tjcnole

I am not a good source of information on this subject - but I can tell how I feel, I have both24 & 26" inlines and a whole slew of 28" sidehammers. I can not find a good reason in the typical hunting arena that i would need one over the other. In a typical timbered tight area i kind of like the shorter 24" barrel, I would think in a tree stand they might be preferred also. I probably do hunt more with the 26" inline than I do with the 24". In my mind I have said I need the 26" for and the 24" for deer. During the ML season I do use the longer 28" sidehammers, but often I prefer the 27" Renegade.

Typically- the longer barrel will provide more velocity than the shorter barrel especially if you are shooting real BP, but with the variety of sub powders available and the different buring rates you can easily overcome the loss of a couple inches of barrel length. It will take some experimenting with different powders and different projectiles, but I am not sure the networth or net gain is the significant.

Get a gun that feels good to you and your typical hunting situation...

Just my 2 bits...

I HAVE ML WITH BARREL LENGTHS, FROM 24" TO
28" AND LIKE SABOTLOADER I DO THINK YOU GET
MORE VELOCITY FROM THE LONGER BARRELS,THAT
IS WITH THE MAGNUM 150GR. POWDER CHARGE.
I HAVE HEARD THAT IN THEORY, THE LONGER LENGTH
WILL ALLOW THE POWDER CHARGE, TO EXPELL
ALL ITS ENERGY, BEFORE EXITING THE BARREL.
I ALSO HUNT MOSTLY HEAVY OAK WOODS & FENCE
ROWS FROM LADDER STAND. BUT THE LONGER
BARREL DOESN'T SEEM TO MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE
TO ME. JUST MY 2-CENTS.

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....