Help needed: 26“ bbl .30-06

Hi guys,

I'd like to ask for your opinion on a rifle build.
First some context:
I like the .30-06 cartridge and since reading German A. Salazar's rifleman's journal 15 years ago and a lot of posts of the likes of MontanaMarine etc, I always wanted to build a long barrelled, medium heavy .30-06, shooting heavy bullets.

The barrel I had in mind, is 26" long with the typical Tikka shank diameter, a taper to 0.75" at the muzzle and 9 or 10 inch twist depending on availability. The muzzle will be threaded for a surpressor.
To me that's already a rather heavy build, since I intent to use this rifle mainly for hunting, as well as the occasional visit to Poland's 1000 m ranges every other year.

I've had good results with Hornady bullets especially the 178 gr ELD-X in my original Tikka barrel and other rifles. Thus I wanted to stay with Hornady and shoot the 212 gr ELD-X for Hunting and targets.
Vihtavuoiri has load data for the 215 gr Berger with N560, quickload shows promising results for the 212 gr ELD-X with similar loads, giving velocities between 2400 and 2600 fps. I presume that there should be at least one sweet spot with decent accuracy in the velocity band.

In my mind that sounds like a decent plan. I've seen a few rifles in .30-06 shooting handloads in the 1 moa range or better and thus have no doubt about the cartridge itself. It is no 6 mm PPC, but my needs rather call for 9 out of 10 shots in a square with 1.2" edge length at 100 m.

My gunsmith now tells me, that a barrel like I intend to have, will not be accurate at all. To be accurate with 26" barrel length it needs to be a straight contour. At the intended 0.75" muzzle diameter more than 24" of length are impossible, he says.
Beside that he says the .30-06 is inherently not accurate and that I should have decided on a .300 WinMag if I wanted more than a .308 Win.

Is it possible to build an accurate, long-barrelled .30-06? Is my idea flawed and I'm missing something entirely?
What do you think?

Thanks for your help, in advance.

Cheers
Lars

Beng said:

My gunsmith now tells me, that a barrel like I intend to have, will not be accurate at all. To be accurate with 26" barrel length it needs to be a straight contour.

Click to expand...

@bamban or @mountainman56 can jump in as well but the 06 with 26" brl is whole different animal.

I can tell you my son's 700 ADL 22" brl shoots Hammer 180HH at 2875 with incredible accuracy. The Serengeti chamber is awesome in 06 and I have thought to build one!

Beng said:

Beside that he says the .30-06 is inherently not accurate and that I should have decided on a .300 WinMag if I wanted more than a .308 Win.

Click to expand...

Get a new gunsmith.

It should work just fine, as for your gunsmith... Bovine Anal Seepage! Good luck, Cheers

I have a similar project in mind.
I have a older Rem 700 BDL 30-06
One of these days I am going to change the barrel, it's a Blued barrel, but I am going to put a 26" ss barrel on it.
Back in the day, the 06 was the king.
With today's components the 06 could be used for anything. Reload some lite weight Hammers for varmint, mid weight Accubond for deer and heavy Berger's for Elk...

Maybe time to find a new gunsmith.....
A rifle with a 26" Krieger in 30-06 that is put together right will be a force to be reckoned with.
Build it and it will shoot

I'd build it exactly as you intend and find another gunsmith to do it, he's an idiot.

Some of us have been shooting longer barreled '06's for a long time, and they work just fine.

Find a new smith.

Avoid that gunsmith. He is making excuses already.

I had Cooper arms build me a 26" 30-06 years ago and still works very well. The elk sure don't like it.

You'll have to find another gunsmith.
This one is not suited to build your rifle.

What a fun project!

There is always a resurgence of older, established cartridges, especially when shooters get burned out with all the hoopla portrayed by the new super cartridges.

I probably build 6 or more .30-06 rifles a year for Match shooters. 26" barrels are the common denominator for longer range accuracy. It might depend on which manufacturer you can access for a better built barrel. The idea of tapered barrel being less accurate than a full diameter barrel is fallacious, just plain wrong.

Depending on what you can find in Germany (I just don't know), I have found that the Lapua 185 gr. Scenar performs well into the 600-1,000 yard ranges here in the States. Meters will be slightly different but performance will remain the same.

VVN-160 has worked well for me and it's a cooler burning powder. There is also Hodgdon Hybrid 100V.

Best of luck with your project and enjoy the process!

I'm not sure why your GS would say that. Prior to getting my Remington 700 7mm RM 1-8" twist i considered building a 30-06 26" barrel 1-10" twist. Remington builds one in their Long Range model. The only issue with building one on a Tikka T3 action is magazine length/ COAL. But there are bottom metal solutions for this.

Thanks for all the quick answers, guys!
I didn't expect a response like that and I'm impressed by the unanimous vote.


There is a small twist or rather addendum to the story.
I expected a .30-06 to be a no brainer and ordered the barrel last year, defining the specifications via email and describing the expected outcome and purpose of the rifle in detail. The rifle was in the gunsmiths hands since June 23.
He is quite reputable, usually builds benchrest and other competition rifles and has supplied a lot of them over the last decades for various national championships.
I have never had any work done by him, but shot rifles build by him before.
He uses Krieger and Bartlein barrels, one of the few in Germany keeping a small stock.
And he lives just 50 miles away.
That's why I chose him.

The rifled action was finished in March and I received it 2 weeks ago. He didn't follow my specifications and cut the barrel at 23.6". Maybe I should say he didn't choose to care for my wishes, since he contoured the barrel to the specified 0.75" muzzle diameter at 23.6". The muzzle brake wasn't timed right either, the safety is missing and he apparently sanded of the actions coating on top, as if he wanted to glue on a picatinny rail. Quite a fubar, in my opinion.
After I called him out and asked him to remedy his mistake he started telling me the aforementioned excuses, so far refusing to even acknowledge that he made a mistake.

At the end of the day my insurance will cover any cost, if legal action would become necessary, but I had hoped to have my dream rifle in my hands instead of thinking about lawyers.

ps:
the post was saved a bit too early

@Muddyboots
I thought about the Serengeti Reamer too, but it's not really available in Germany. This I went with a standard chamber with lease adjusted to a loaded bullet at 3.46".

@436
Thanks

@K.E.C.
I really love the cartridge and I decided on a stainless barrel, too.
Availability of Bergers is a bit difficult, thus I went with Hornady for the time being. 600 bullets are ready, if they work well, more are easy to come by.

@Gary in MD
I hope it will be my do all rifle. I can't imagine any game that won't succumb to a .30-06 with the right heavy bullet.
Gunsmithwise I'm screwed, but hopefully he'll come around, if atleast to avoid legal fees.

@redneckbmxer24
The next rifle will be done by a different gs, I'll keep you guys updated how the project proceeds.

@del2les
I've seen so many long barrelled .30-06 here and on the hide, that I didn't expect any problems. Except barrel availability and proof house queues maybe.

@lancetkenyon
If he had just made these comments earlier, I would have taken the rifle and run. You're absolutely right.

@dls guide
A cooper I've been dreaming of at one point too (if we're talking about the same company). Did you take a synthetic or one of their walnut stocks?

@DirectDrive
He absolutely isn't. Good smiths are rare in Germany though, and now I'll have to pay for the education on that subject.

@sable tireur
Thanks for your kind words.
The barrel itself should be fine, since the gs uses Bartlein and Krieger exclusively. He is probably just stuck in the benchrest world so far, that he can't imagine a lighter barrelled rifle to shoot well. Or I'm starting to make excuses for his bs.
Lapua Scenar are available, I'll probably order some, if the ELD-X don't work out.
VVN160 is readily available too, about Hodgon powders I'm not certain.
I hope to get a bit better velocity with VVN560 but only time will tell, if the gs comes around and fixes his mistake.

@xsn10s
I really don't understand his reasoning either. The Tikka I owned before and I have 2 stocks for it, one synthetic stock accepting 3.715" mags and the MDT Chassis in the picture accepting the shorter ones. The longer mags work really well with longer cartridges, with the MDT chassis I have to be a bit more careful. I believe the max coal was something like 3.42". But I'd have to check again.

Beng said:

Thanks for all the quick answers, guys!
I didn't expect a response like that and I'm impressed by the unanimous vote.


There is a small twist or rather addendum to the story.
I expected a .30-06 to be a no brainer and ordered the barrel last year, defining the specifications via email and describing the expected outcome and purpose of the rifle in detail. The rifle was in the gunsmiths hands since June 23.
He is quite reputable, usually builds benchrest and other competition rifles and has supplied a lot of them over the last decades for various national championships.
I have never had any work done by him, but shot rifles build by him before.
He uses Krieger and Bartlein barrels, one of the few in Germany keeping a small stock.
And he lives just 50 miles away.
That's why I chose him.

The rifled action was finished in March and I received it 2 weeks ago. He didn't follow my specifications and cut the barrel at 23.6". Maybe I should say he didn't choose to care for my wishes, since he contoured the barrel to the specified 0.75" muzzle diameter at 23.6". The muzzle brake wasn't timed right either, the safety is missing and he apparently sanded of the actions coating on top, as if he wanted to glue on a picatinny rail. Quite a fubar, in my opinion.
After I called him out and asked him to remedy his mistake he started telling me the aforementioned excuses, so far refusing to even acknowledge that he made a mistake.

At the end of the day my insurance will cover any cost, if legal action would become necessary, but I had hoped to have my dream rifle in my hands instead of thinking about lawyers.


@

Click to expand...

Hmm well I would not use him again. He might have an illustrious past but his current opinions and actions are red flags imo. There are barrel manufactures/ smiths here in the states that make shouldered/ variable prefit barrels for Tikkas.