Welcome to BGH.

I've never worked with one but it is the 30-06 case and that should work well with a 22" barrel. Not going to be able to load a ton of powder in it and don't need barrel length to burn it all. Don't think I'd go much shorter than that and I'd go with a heavy contour barrel. Everyone I've talked to say's it does recoil fairly well. That may be an understatement. The case is about the same capacity as the 350 Rem Mag and in the Rem 660 that thing plain hurts to shoot. The one I shot had a 20" barrel and a laminated stock. The weight of the stock helped but the short light barrel negated it.

There are, of course, better aids to control recoil now than back then. Then too, the Whelan is not a fast cartridge and reducing barrel length will diminnish velocity to some degree in a cartridge that doesn't have a lot to begin with, probably not a lot more in Ackley mode but that might help a bit.

Thanks for the reply also the welcome. I have a stainless shilen no. 4 contour barrel thats going on it . I was hoping someone would tell me 22''. This rifle started life as a rem 700, adl. Its getting fitted with sako style extractor, Gentry 3-position safety, jewell trigger, Holland oversize firing pin, and will all be wrapped in an H.S. Precision stock. Should be a handy little 300- rifle. I'm wanting to get atleast 2600 fps with 250gr a-frames does this sound realistic out of a 22'' bbl?

Sounds like a nice rifle! I've bought two Shilen barrels, chrome moly, and love them both.