Help with Lightweight 6.5 build

[Toolhand]

Lone peak arms Rzr TI If budget allows if not the defiance Tenacity is a great action for the money.

 

[DeadmansPoint]

Although I agree with folks on here that the Tikka is a good factory option, I would also recommend looking into an action where you can easily change the bolt and spin on your own barrel- like the Impact 737. It would annoy me to have a rifle in a wildcat with no quick option to go to a more widely available caliber.

 

[ndthwacker]

I have built over Dozen Tikka Customs and love all of them. If you want to be under 8# you will need to limit the proof carbon barrel to 24"-26" and the tikka stock is adequate and very accurate and light and free (comes with donor rifle) and will save you $ on your build. Most of my builds come in around 1K and all shoot around 1/2 moa with the ugly Tikka Stock....Your donor rifle had a life time moa warranty from Sako. Just saying...

I cant argue the performance of them. I have a tika 22-250 with the varmit barrel and that gun just flat out shoots 55gr silvertips. I wont even try to reload for it cuz i cant make it shoot any better. And i never clean the gun and abuse it very hard. So even though im not a fan of the look of there stocks i believe u are right. I would be just wasting money on looks to put a manners on it.

 

[25WSM]

I believe tikka makes the most accurate factory rifle out of the box. If you need a 6.5 Get there 6.5x55 and use as is or punch it to an improved. That round does incredibly well at 1k matches. If you don't have to have a 6.5 Get one in 270 short mag. Leave the factory barrel one. Get it fluted. Put a McMillan edge fill stock on it. Don't go crazy big with the scope and you will have a very nice lightweight semi custom hunting rifle. 1400 dollars without scope. It will shoot fantastic too. Shep

 

[parshal]

I talked to a few gunsmiths at my cities gun show yesterday and the going rate to machine and fit a proof barrel blank is about $400 on top of the $800 you buy the barrel for.

Why are they charging more to fit a carbon barrel? I'm curious if everyone is doing that.

I've threaded and chambered plenty of them. Other than the fear of messing up an expensive barrel there is no difference in them vs steel.

 

[Alibiiv]

So i finally decided what caliber im going to build around. I was going to build a 28nosler but just cant do the barrel life. So i decided to have a 6.5ss built. Im gunna start ordering parts in the next few days. I know i want it on a manners Eh1 stock with a 22 or 24in proof sendero. Timmney F/E trigger. My real question is what action to build it off of.
I have tossed around the ideas of buying a blueprint from ptg, but at the price why not get one of the big name custom actions. Or should i just find an old savage, sako, winchester, rem as i am trying to keep everything between 2500-3000 but still be fairly lightweight around 8lbs.
Also what about just buying a tika t3 in 300wsm and building off that.
Im open to any ideas on what direction to go with the action and bottom metal. The age old question what would you do?
Also if looking for a cheap used rifle what are the best to convert into a 6.5ss.
One last thing, for the proof sendero barrel large shank or small shank?
Thanks for your input

What's your budget looking like?

 

[parshal]

How do you like the SS's vs your WSM?....How is the recoil of the 6.5ss without the brakes on? ....Do you like the kelby or defiance the most?

SS gives same velocity (or better) with less powder and shorter COAL.

It has some thump without the brake if you're pushing it fast which is the whole reason to be shooting it. Lol

I like the Kelbly better than any action I have. I've got a Bighorn TL3, Defiance, Lone Peak titanium, Remington and Pierce titanium.

 

[ndthwacker]

What's your budget looking like?

Well i have 2 other guys that want to build the same rifle and one guy didnt want to go over 3000. We may just end up telling the 3rd guy to build his own as 2 of us dont have a budget. The idea was that because we all 3 hunt together alot, that if we all had the same rifles built by the same smith with the same reamer it would cut back on load development. And hopefully our ammo would be somewhat interchangable in the case one of us ever did get into a bind. We could gather alot of info In 1 day of shooting.

 

[smithj99]

The Tikka action is a stellar choice to build off of. This is a rebarreled 270 to 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser, Lilja barrel, custom wood stock.
View attachment 121677 View attachment 121678 View attachment 121679

What kind of wood is that stock made of? It's a great looking piece!!!

 

[25WSM]

I've built plenty of borden action hunting rifles with McMillan stocks and match barrels for under 3g. Before you spend a fortune figure out the cost of all your parts and how much a smith charges to do each part of the build. Even using the best parts you won't be much over 3k. A lot of places have a price for a custom. Big money. But do the math and ask your smith if he can do it for that price. Example. Borden action. 1400. McMillan stock. 550 match barrel 325 bottom metal 150 jewel trigger 225. Total 2650 in parts. Now 200 for chamber. 200 for pillar bed. 200 for finish on metal. 3250 for a complete custom rifle. Some places charge 5k for this. What was all the extra money for. Profit. Only 600 bucks of work there. Add 175 for a complete brake job. Sub any parts you want. Shep

 

[jd5521]

Well i have 2 other guys that want to build the same rifle and one guy didnt want to go over 3000. We may just end up telling the 3rd guy to build his own as 2 of us dont have a budget. The idea was that because we all 3 hunt together alot, that if we all had the same rifles built by the same smith with the same reamer it would cut back on load development. And hopefully our ammo would be somewhat interchangable in the case one of us ever did get into a bind. We could gather alot of info In 1 day of shooting.

I have had three rifles chambered with the same reamer for the same caliber using the same barrels. ALL three rifles performed better on different loads with different bullets. Point being, you never can tell what the barrel is going to like. Attempting to save time on load development is a noble idea, however you may find it to work differently than you expect.

 

[Canhunter35]

While the tikka is a great action for most hunting cartridges, if you're going with an ss that's designed to actually fit in a SA, id choose an entry level custom short action myself

 

[25WSM]

With your budget just get the best. Borden. His short mag actions are super smooth. Shep

 

[dirtytough]

I definitely agree to go full custom if you aren't on a budget.