It's that muzzle blast that would turn me off! My thinking is that if a guy wants a shorter, more compact rifle, then it's MOST LIKELY because he's hunting in quite a bit of brush. If it was just a little bit of brush, every now and then, he'd probably not bother bobbing the barrel of his rifle. That said, I DO think there's a better answer here to just putting up with the blast OR buying another (shorter) rifle. Cut the barrel down to 20" and reload down to .223 velocities. Why??? Because brushy areas by definition mean CLOSER shots and a .223 is great for those. Plus, a .223 will take care of 'yotes well out to 300 yards. Any further than that, you'd be better off with the original 24" barrel on a .22-250. Anyways, that's what I'd do if I was going to cut the barrel down. I'd just load it down to 24" .223 velocities!