why so just no feeding issues... I have never owned a tikka
thanks
buck
Trying to catch all of the various things said and address them. We build a lot of 300 WSMs with 18" and 20" barrels. Even in a stock 700 box mag with a 2.885". Bergers are long and I know a lot of people will swear by them but in Short Action, length can be the enemy. We also do not like their performance on game. We like tougher bullets that expand, penetrate straight, and want a through and through. Using a long action, I have seen some built but would like to see them feed. Not a fan of the concept.
Sherman's we compare the performance of all of our WSM's to theirs. Honestly we didn't know much about them until after we opened. They make a lot of cool stuff. They have some FPS (50-100 FPS) on us from their data. Our concepts are short and comfortable. 26" barrels enormous magazines, ammo that is inbetween short and long action. Short action by most book should be 2.85 max. We have a few just over that so we are kind of hypocrits but do make ammo to be true short action for our TXH-F10. All calibers must go in a semi cause sure, you can load beyond short action in some bolt action setups.
This whole feeding issue topic may occur in off the shelf guns, but with a good follower, new spring, and smoothing out the bolt a little, usually gets rid of these problems. When building new we sometimes do Wyatts but we have to do extra inleting work. AccurateMag DB systems allow us to load to 2.930 comfortably. Cycles so great. We rarely have feeding issues, if we do, its because a semi auto gas system needs tuned. Delta L problem.... psshhh
Barrelnut is on the right track with his setup.
ABLRs, not a fan of them. Wouldn't trust it on anything bigger than white tail. Super soft and inconsistent on straight line penetration. Accubonds and even ELDX are great choices. We stay away from Partitions at long distance. BCs arn't high enough.
Sure there are some cool bullets out there. Hammers and Barnes are long. We've shot those. My simple recomendation is go with Accubonds or the ELDX. 20" Barrel, 1-9" twist would be great. We have twists in other calibers below 1-6". Having a little extra twist has always improved accuracy in our book. Here are couple loads we give clients.
20" Barrel, 61gr RL17, 200gr Accubond, 2740FPS. At 600 yards its 1850ish FPS. Accubonds have a minimum of 1800. Even at 1800 they expand fine. If you go to the 180, it has the same down range performance for expansion even though it is 125 FPS faster. Why, the BC is lower.
20" Barrel, 60.7gr RL17, 200gr ELDX, 2705 FPS. At 800 yards it is 1650ish FPS. There minimum expansion is 1600 FPS so you get extra yardage out of them and they hold together very well. They also have a nice mushroom instead of an ABLR which is like throw wet toilet paper against a wall. SPLAT.
We are building 3 "Elk rifles" for clients to take on 2020 hunts. Now they are 338 WSM but 18" barrels, Our factory 230gr ELDX loads are lethal out to 800 yards. When we say lethal, above minimum expansion specs. So the setup I mentioned above is similar, just slightly smaller increments.
Longer barrels extend range some but will take super compact, lighter, well functioning over shooting 100-200 yards further.
V/r,
Richie
"Send It, Quietly"