3006swift;

What bullet and what velocity from a 24 inch barrel?

As someone who gets an adrenaline rush every time I get within arm's reach of a hacksaw, I say "Chop Away"!

I am a little familiar with some of your hunting conditions there i norge {from pictures}, and if elg, hjort and rådyr is on the list and shots over 100 meters highly unlikely, you may find a very short barrel to be VERY useful. In fact, for elgjakt there, I think a very short barrel could be very useful indeed. Here in north Idaho, I hunt in much dense timber and have chopped the barrel on a Ruger M77MKII in 6.5x55 and also last year had a CZ550 in 9.3x62 chopped to 19 inches. Very handy, useful rifles!

IIRC, sectional density of 10,75x68 bullets is not particularly high, and the "loss" of velocity might just translate into a gain in penetration with those slower bullets.

The fact that older rifles have long barrels is of course interesting and valuable if you want to match them for tradition sake, but I put no stock in that if you LIKE stubby tubes and the handling of rifles that sport them.

Just my 2 kroner...