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Or, it could be that they were just rounding to the nearest inch of length.

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That's it! The Steyr people measured barrel length in centimeters, not inches. So for American catalogs the original measurements 45 cm = 17.716", 50 cm = 19.685" and 60 cm = 23.622" were listed as convenient 18, 20 and 24 inches. Post-WW2, a silly US law prescribed a minimum rifle barrel length of 18". So Steyr, in the interest of Stoeger, made the 6.5x54 barrels a wee bit longer to make them importable to the USA.

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