Bolt design: advantages and disadvantages?

[SansSouci]

Almost everybody I know has a 30 in plus barrel on their hunting guns. Mine is 36 inches and 1.450 Diameter and some of the guns we hunt with are up to 46 inches. My gun is actually fairly light so we can carry it in. It only weighs 45 pounds. Some of my buddies guns weigh 95 or so. We do all our shooting off of chain drive benches. Go see Long range hunting articles on Dan Liljas site. We sit all day and watch whole mountains. In fact if you go to page 30 on this forum and look for the thread pictures of my hunting gun you will see pictures of the bench and stock that I made. Matt

I'm the complete opposite. Barrel length has nothing to do with accuracy. An 18" barreled rifle can be just as accurate as a 36" barreled gun. From memory alone, maximum velocity of a bullet is achieved around 26", but I might be wrong.

The longest barreled rifle I'll use is 24" I prefer 22" barrels. When I'm walking up-and-down Rocky Mountain ridges in thick brush, I want a lightweight, fast-handling rifle.

I have never seen a a hunter anywhere using a barrel longer than 26". The most common, at least as near as I can remember, is 22", then 24".

Last month my guide & I chased a huge bull elk for a solid 90 minutes up-and-down Rocky Mountain Ridges. I was carrying my 10lb 7MM Rem Mag. After a few ridges, that rifle weighed a ton. I killed him at 130 yards. My 22" barreled .270 Win that is a lot lighter would have killed him just as dead.

 

[dkhunt14]

I'm the complete opposite. Barrel length has nothing to do with accuracy. An 18" barreled rifle can be just as accurate as a 36" barreled gun. From memory alone, maximum velocity of a bullet is achieved around 26", but I might be wrong.

The longest barreled rifle I'll use is 24" I prefer 22" barrels. When I'm walking up-and-down Rocky Mountain ridges in thick brush, I want a lightweight, fast-handling rifle.

I have never seen a a hunter anywhere using a barrel longer than 26". The most common, at least as near as I can remember, is 22", then 24".

Last month my guide & I chased a huge bull elk for a solid 90 minutes up-and-down Rocky Mountain Ridges. I was carrying my 10lb 7MM Rem Mag. After a few ridges, that rifle weighed a ton. I killed him at 130 yards. My 22" barreled .270 Win that is a lot lighter would have killed him just as dead.

We use the length for speed so you can reach out there with more speed and energy at distance. You need the energy to kill out to 2000 yards.You can get the speed without killing your brass. It has nothing to do with accuracy. We sit and watch a whole mountain or two. We sit all day long and wait it out. We find our game by glassing with two spotting scopes together to make binoculars. Then we range and shoot. In benchrest at 600 or 1000 the shortest barrel you will see is 26 and most are longer. In F-class you see 32 inchers. There is a reason for this. I am talking shooting 10 shots In 4 inches or under at 1000 Yards. You don't hardly see any Remington actions on the competition line and there is good reason for that. This is LONG RANGE HUNTING. Matt

 

[FromSA]

Thanks guys. As always, the collective experience and wisdom on this forum is a fantastic resource to tap.

The action my dad is building is for one of his benchrest rifles (6mm PPC) but I said to him (only half jokingly) that if he is successful with this one I'm going ask him to do another 6mm one for me (for 6mm BR) that I want to use for long range varminting.

Just a last question about design. What varieties of materials have you seen/used in actions? Recently I've seen a smith build a 7mm on a titanium action of his own design and my dad is experimenting with aluminium (and a steel insert) on his. Any comments about the pros and cons of different materials?

 

[mitch260]

I built an aluminum action with a steel insert for the lugs to lock into, it is of the "fat bolt" design. It is 1.5" square and 9" long. It works very well, I chambered a Shilen barrel in .308 win for it and bedded it in a Richards Microfit Prone stock. It now has over 2,500 rounds through it and still shoots 1/4 moa with 185 berger hunting VLD's at 2,740 FPS.

 

[FromSA]

Thanks Mitch260. Would you mind posting some pics? Of both the action and the rifle. If possible.

 

[mitch260]

I will when I get the chance, I'll have to try and find a picture of the action.