Rifle Build looking for advice

[WampusCat]

Same boat as several on here. Before I took off in June I dropped off a Krieger 6.5mm 1/8.5" barrel and a 700 short action with my smith. The plan was to have a "lighter" Coues slaying 6.5x47 Lapua waiting when I return. I say lighter but when it was time to buy the barrel I couldnt convince myself to go smaller them a Rem Varmint profile. Old habits die hard I guess.

 

I chose the Lapua for several reasons; better barrel life than 6.5x284, long neck, very accurate cartridge, low powder consumption, quality brass availibility, less wear and tear on the suppressor, and I had great experiences with a creedmore i owned.

 

Pretty solid plan until I discovered the 6.5 4S (Super Secret Squirrel Sh*t) and the 6.5 SS (Sherman Shortmag) recently developed. Everything I wanted plus lots more velocity. Loaded slightly under max potential with 140s between 3000-3100 fps guys are experiencing 4,000+ rounds of barrel life (huge to me) with the lower pressures invloved. If you dont want an oddball chambering or messing with lots of case prep then these are probably not for you. To me its a small trade off for obtaining the perfect match of charcteristics for my goals in a rifle. I am not a speed freak as most of my arsenal lobs long heavy for caliber bullets at relativley tame speads compared to most of the western magnum needing crowd. I cannot however, argue with more fps without punishing the throat of the barrel. One of these is definitely right for me and other like minded folks.

 

Now I cant decided what to do.

 

OP - The 264 WinMag is more than capable of launching some great 6.5mm projectiles at blistering speeds but, all (4) of the 264WMs I have experience with were very tempermental and the barrels didnt last long. My advice would be if you want 6.5mm with ammo available off the shelf I would stick to the .260 Rem or Creedmoor. The natural abilty of these cartridges make up for their slighlty slower speeds than the 264 WM. My .02

[DesertBull]

What are the supposed advantages of the creedmore over the other SA .264's?

[STOMP442]

Just want to throw my 2 cents in on the 260 Ackley. It was mentioned that there is not much gain with this one and I am here to say there is plenty. I can do anything with my 260 Ackley that I can with my 6.5-284. I'm getting 2940 at my sweet spot with a 140 berger and only getting 2960 with the 6.5-284. Both have 26" 8 twist custom barrels. The only difference is I only have to run 42gr of H4350 in the 260 vs 58gr of retumbo in the 6.5-284. The 260AI is much more efficient and easier on barrels and the recoil is virtually the same as a standard 260 as I am not using any more powder than a standard one does.

[WampusCat]

What are the supposed advantages of the creedmore over the other SA .264's?

None in a bolt gun. Only advantage is the case was designed to fit heavy for caliber bullets in an AR type mag. (shooting across the course with Tubb gun/Creedmoor space guns). A large disadvantage is Hornady is the only manufacturer of brass. My Creedmoor shot great but so would the other 6.5s in the same rifle. It could bang steel at 1k easily but lacked the gas tank to hit with authority at distance.

 

Any of the 3 main SA 6.5s or improved versions of them are capable of slinging 140s at +2900 fps with the right barrel. The problem is they are doing it at the cost of very high pressures and barrel life.

[lancetkenyon]

I have looked at the 6.5 SS and 6.5 4S, but with the very limited info and reamers/dies out so far, I will have to wait and see where they go by next year. The 6.5 SS seems like it would fit my bill very nicely, as I AM a speed freak. I would love to get 1K+ rounds out of a barrel. I know PTG has the reamers for the other cartridges I stated. And dies are available too.

 

I would rather have 100 more FPS at the added cost of barrel weight, with installing a 28" barrel on my hunting rigs. The added length has never been detrimental to me so far. I have 2 rifles with 28" barrels.

 

Thanks for the reminders though.

[Big or Bust]

Short action- .260 or 7-08.

 

Long action- 6.5-06 or 280...

 

Ackley them if wanted. Spend rest on time scouting and hunting.

[Upland81]

When I was in college I owned a Remington 700 Classic BDL in .264 win mag and have to say I wasn't very impressed at all with what I got out of it. It's one of those cartridges I would call over bore it takes way too much powder to obtain the FPS. Since it appears that you reload if you're wanting to stick with the 6.5 mm bullet I'd go with the 6.5-.284. Just remember when you get into the light rifles that crank out velocities of more than 3000 fps they become unpleasant and harder to obtain sub M.O.A. groups without a lead sled or a loud muzzle break. I am still a sucker for my 6MM Remington in a 700 action with a bell & carlson stock it's light, shoots .70" group with a 80 grain barnes tipped triple shock and I am yet to have a deer complain. It also has a better throat life than a .243 so even if I shoot a 70gr Ballistic Tip on varmints I don't have to worry as much.

[WampusCat]

I have looked at the 6.5 SS and 6.5 4S, but with the very limited info and reamers/dies out so far, I will have to wait and see where they go by next year. The 6.5 SS seems like it would fit my bill very nicely, as I AM a speed freak. I would love to get 1K+ rounds out of a barrel. I know PTG has the reamers for the other cartridges I stated. And dies are available too.

 

I would rather have 100 more FPS at the added cost of barrel weight, with installing a 28" barrel on my hunting rigs. The added length has never been detrimental to me so far. I have 2 rifles with 28" barrels.

 

Thanks for the reminders though.

PTG has multiple reamers out for both of those chambers (diff necks and freebore). GAP and Sherman are both selling dies as well as Copper Creek. Easy necking down with a bushing die where you are able to neck down in multiple steps by simply swapping out bushings.

 

They have been built and tested for over a year now. Two specific 6.5 4S rifles I can think of have over 4,000 rounds on their first barrels. Again accomplishing this by not maxing out loads to chase the holy grail 3,000 fps mark They both enable the use of slower powder to keep pressures down while doing better than 3,000 fps and the byproduct of longer barrel life achieved. Sounds like some kind of voodoo but to me but they have my attention. Other than obvious initial downsides of expensive brass and case forming I think the juice is worth the squeeze on one of these.

 

One cannot shy away from 6.5x284 because of low barrel life and then load a smaller case maxed out on powder trying to chase the same velocity without suffering from the same effects as the x284 barrels.

 

I will be interested to see what chamber you pick and the OP as well. I also saw DesertBull looking for an action the classifieds so maybe he is about to build as well. Lots of different routes/opinions that are working for guys on here.

 

Another interesting note is the wide range of goals/needs of guys on here when looking to buy/build a rifle. Everyone has different needs/limits for their setup so there will never be "the one" that does it all for everyone. You like longer barrels and I avoid them. Neither are wrong/right, just what works for us. 'Merica

[DesertBull]

My youngest son will be 10 next year so i am looking to either get him set up with a .308. .260 or 7/08

[Whitesheep]

Great topic and a lot of good information. Thank you to all posters.

 

The T/C ProHunter deserves a look, but just buy the frame from T/C and skip the stock barrel. You can do much better at MGM for just a little more money. Also tune your frame up with tools from Mike Bellm http://www.bellmtcs.com/store/index.php?cid=562. A 24" barreled ProHunter is about the same overall length as a full length bolt action with a 21" barrel so you have less weight and better handling. The break open action isn't all that great for magnum's, but for little deer and Javlina rifles, it is fantastic. I have a couple that can shoot sub MOA. You can save a lot of money over a full custom bolt gun and once the frame is tuned up, you can add a match level barrel for a lot less than a whole new bolt action.

 

Have fun

[lancetkenyon]

IF you supply nothing but the action, a full custom rifle build from PCR is amazingly affordable for a rifle guaranteed to shoot sub-half MOA, with most shooting .25 MOA or better, which is almost their guarantee now.

 

Almost ready to pull the trigger on mine. Went down and talked to Keith today and got almost all of the details ironed out. I changed a few items just a bit at his suggestions, but that is what a good smith will do. Give you pros and cons about choices and let you make the final call.

 

Here are my specs:

 

Manners T2A or McMillan A-5 stock w. pillar & skim bedding

Rem 700 SA BDL trued

Recoil lug

Bartlein 5R Rem Varmint contour 1 in 8" @ 26-27"

Badger Thruster brake

PTG bolt w. M16 extractor & tactical bolt knob

Timney Calvin Elite trigger (ordered)

Nightforce Picatinny base (ordered)

Scope and rings are still up in the air. Leaning towards a Vortex Razor Gen II 4.5-27x56 EBR-2C or Steiner T5Xi 5-25x56 MSR

[Whitesheep]

IF you supply nothing but the action, a full custom rifle build from PCR is amazingly affordable

Hi Lance, Not to be combative, but if you exclude the price of the "action" on a T/C Prohunter you can get a barrel for about $400 so is that the price of a "custom rifle?" I don't think so. It really is unfair to exclude the price of the action when building up a rifle.

 

That being said, if you have an old rifle lying around that doesn't shoot so well, but has a decent quality action, this is a very valid option to buying a whole new rifle.

[STOMP442]

Given the fact you can go down to Walmart and pick up a brand new Remington 700 for under $400 makes a build pretty reasonable. Especially if you went with a remage system and kept the smith out of it.