Mountain/Do-it-all rifle build suggestions.

[Hookdown]

I alluded to it in my previous post, but I'll say it bluntly here. Depending on your needs (and that only you can answer) you may consider emphasizing overall rifle length instead of absolute minimum weight. Although I lost a few ounces when I took 4" off my barrel. But I did that solely to shorten the rifle and make it more handy and easy to carry. The weight loss was a side benefit. To me, a short, well-balanced rifle of a reasonable weight was the goal. I didn't want the barrel catching on branches, etc while on my pack. I set a limit of 600yd maximum shot on elk sized vitals as a goal. I could easily achieve that with a short-barreled 300WM. I didn't have to worry about velocity loss. My advice is to be honest and realistic about what you need the rifle to be/ do and fight your urge to stray from that or make concessions that take away from that goal in pursuit of unneeded attributes. It's usually a "give and take." If one caliber, rifle or scope did everything the best, we'd all just save for that combo and own only one rifle. God knows, that's never the case. Lol.

 

[Deleted member 25294]

i agree with you there. The bullet selection for .270 has nothing that gets me excited. Would rather have a 6.5mm or 7mm something

Good call I believe you chose a great caliber.
I have an ultralight 6.5 saum built on a Tikka action, mcgowen makes prefits with barrel nut for Tikkas btw.
I have a factory Tikka contoured barrel with spiral flutes, I can tell you that -8 oz on a #2 isn't likely. You'll be lucky to shave off 4oz.
Just my opinion here but I would recommend buying a left handed Tikka in 7mm or 300 win for a donor, the action weighs 28 oz and won't need trued.
A 7saum would work perfectly and has the same ballistics and effeciency as the 280ai, plus high quality brass is really catching on.
I just got a wildcat Tikka stock and it's really impressive.
Weighs 17oz, and with a microcell recoil pad will finish just under 20 oz.

 

[SavageHunter11]

I alluded to it in my previous post, but I'll say it bluntly here. Depending on your needs (and that only you can answer) you may consider emphasizing overall rifle length instead of absolute minimum weight. Although I lost a few ounces when I took 4" off my barrel. But I did that solely to shorten the rifle and make it more handy and easy to carry. The weight loss was a side benefit. To me, a short, well-balanced rifle of a reasonable weight was the goal. I didn't want the barrel catching on branches, etc while on my pack. I set a limit of 600yd maximum shot on elk sized vitals as a goal. I could easily achieve that with a short-barreled 300WM. I didn't have to worry about velocity loss. My advice is to be honest and realistic about what you need the rifle to be/ do and fight your urge to stray from that or make concessions that take away from that goal in pursuit of unneeded attributes. It's usually a "give and take." If one caliber, rifle or scope did everything the best, we'd all just save for that combo and own only one rifle. God knows, that's never the case. Lol.

That is sage advice sir. Like many on this thread and others have said, most animals are shot at or within 400 yards and at most the average longest kills are around that 600 yard mark. In reality I could get away with a 20 inch barrel in a 280 Ackley and maybe I'll compromise my 24 inch for a 22 inch but like you said I need to figure that out myself.

Question for you with a shorter barrel, assuming you reload. With a shorter barrel, do you then select a powder from the reloading manual with a faster burn rate than you would a with a 4 inch longer barrel? That is probably a splitting hairs kind of question but i figured it's worth asking.

 

[SavageHunter11]

Good call I believe you chose a great caliber.
I have an ultralight 6.5 saum built on a Tikka action, mcgowen makes prefits with barrel nut for Tikkas btw.
I have a factory Tikka contoured barrel with spiral flutes, I can tell you that -8 oz on a #2 isn't likely. You'll be lucky to shave off 4oz.
Just my opinion here but I would recommend buying a left handed Tikka in 7mm or 300 win for a donor, the action weighs 28 oz and won't need trued.
A 7saum would work perfectly and has the same ballistics and effeciency as the 280ai, plus high quality brass is really catching on.
I just got a wildcat Tikka stock and it's really impressive.
Weighs 17oz, and with a microcell recoil pad will finish just under 20 oz.

I looked at using a Tikka action after hearing great things about them but as a left handed shooter there are next to no options for a lightweight stock. I honestly prefer Savage actions and even there I ran into the same issue of no selection on other essential parts. The unfortunate fact is I am stuck with a R700 style action.

 

[Deleted member 25294]

I looked at using a Tikka action after hearing great things about them but as a left handed shooter there are next to no options for a lightweight stock. I honestly prefer Savage actions and even there I ran into the same issue of no selection on other essential parts. The unfortunate fact is I am stuck with a R700 style action.

http://www.oregunsmithingllc.com/Pendleton-Composite-Stocks.html
Here you go brother. Left handed available for all actions
I'm getting my model 700 lightweight stock from them this month.
You send the barreled action for a full custom and bedded fit.
I'll give you a review if you'd like.

 

[Tarheelpwr]

Just from personal frustration, I would avoid going with a Trued factory action. By the time you include some options on a PTG, you're close to $700. You can get into a true custom action for not much more, many with integral or included optics rails (so price difference is actually less).

At the end of the day, you'll have a true custom action rather than a trued factory action. I've built several rifles I would NEVER sell. Things changed and I ended up selling. My up front cost was always similar in the end with a trued factory action. Only difference was the resale value is much less than if I had started custom.

My $0.02 - if you want to start factory, go Tikka. You won't need to true the action and the factory trigger is very good. Other than that, I'd skip to a custom action.

You can get a C&R FFL for $30 / 3 yrs. Several custom action manufacturers will offer you dealer pricing with that. You'll still have to ship to an FFL, but saving 10-20% on the action is worthwhile.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Yeah, but can you still buy new modern guns and have them shipped straight to you with a C&R FFL? I though they had to be over 50 years old...But maybe I missed something? I've never really studied much about the ins & outs of a C&R FFL.

 

[Tarheelpwr]

Yeah, but can you still buy new modern guns and have them shipped straight to you with a C&R FFL? I though they had to be over 50 years old...But maybe I missed something? I've never really studied much about the ins & outs of a C&R FFL.

Correct, you still have to have it shipped to an FFL. But, LOTS of places extend dealer pricing to me for having a C&R (Brownells, some custom actions, Redhawk rifles, etc).

An extreme example : My last custom was built and sold to me at dealer pricing. Yes, I had to ship to my FFL, but saving $600-$700 off the cost was well worth it.

 

[chilli42]

(I can't yet add links to my posts). Somebody mentioned the Swaro Z5. It has great glass and it's absolute weight and weight to magnification capability are second to none. This is why I chose it for the exact same type of project you have under way (I came in at 6.5 lbs). It's not my favorite scope as I have issues with tight eye relief. That said, for the job at hand it's the perfect scope and I don't regret choosing it for a second. Also, unless you are going to go with a titanium action (overkill in my view) then the barrel is the only other way you are going to shed meaningful weight

 

[Hookdown]

That is sage advice sir. Like many on this thread and others have said, most animals are shot at or within 400 yards and at most the average longest kills are around that 600 yard mark. In reality I could get away with a 20 inch barrel in a 280 Ackley and maybe I'll compromise my 24 inch for a 22 inch but like you said I need to figure that out myself.

Question for you with a shorter barrel, assuming you reload. With a shorter barrel, do you then select a powder from the reloading manual with a faster burn rate than you would a with a 4 inch longer barrel? That is probably a splitting hairs kind of question but i figured it's worth asking.

Again, sticking to my goals, for me, with a 300WM and a 600yd limit I'm not trying to wring every FPS out of my ammo. So I'm choosing my powder based on accuracy and temperature stability. That's one reason I chose more caliber than I probably needed. I love my 6.5's and .284's. But I knew I wanted a short barrel, and I didn't want to worry about terminal performance. Having said that, I think those calibers can be excellent choices for your rifle and others. But again, they will have some pro's and con's. Easier to shoot and higher BC's being one possible "pro." But having to extract more performance out of that caliber posssibly being a "con." But I, in no way, want to turn this thread into a discussion on which caliber you should choose. I actually like the idea of your 280AI. I mention my choice of caliber only because it is relevant to your question to me and to illustrate again how choices often have pro's and con's. I feel my caliber works well for the goals I set for this rifle. There are other choices that are equally as good. Diiferent goals would lead me to a different caliber choice. But let's not go there. Lol.

 

[Crockett12]

I haven't read all the posts in this thread so forgive me if someone else has given you this information.
I didn;t see where you mentioned your age and neither did I see you mention you want a light weight rifle. However, the older you get, the lighter you'll want your rifles to be. Therefore you'll probably be happier longer with a lighter rifle than with a heavier rifle! A 9 pound nor a 8 pound rifle is NOT a light weight rifle!
Considering that, you can get the same ballistics with a short action today as with a long action. The short action will save a lot of weight. The short Rem M-700 action will save 3 ounces over the long M-700 Rem and the Rem M-7 action will save even more. I haven't found how much the Rem M-7 action weighs but it's probably somewhere around 1/2 pound lighter than the Rem M-700 long action.
If you go with a Leupold 4.5x14 40mm scope rather than the 50mm, you'll save about 3.5 oz. That's a total of about 3/4 lb! You'll also save weight on a carbon barrel and a lightweight stock as well as light weight scope mounts.
Altogether, if you pay attention to the weight of each component, you can likely save up to 2 pounds of overall weight. Two pounds may not sound like much but the older you get -- the heavier two pounds becomes – especially multiplied by 7 days of hunting over mountains!
Granted you may not want the extra recoil that'll give you at the shot, but considering you should only have to shoot once at a game animal, I'd take the heavier recoil of a 270 WSM or 323 WSM in a Rem- M-7 action or short Rem M-700 action rather than the extra 2 pounds of rifle weight carried over mountains for the week of hunting to find that game animal!

 

[MudRunner2005]

If I was going to go through the process of getting my FFL, I would just go ahead and get a Class II or Class III, that way while I'm waiting on my paperwork and stamps to come back, I can still possess the suppressors, SBR's, and machine-guns that I would purchase, and go shoot them at the range while waiting on my stamps (because as long as the FFL holder is present, it's still legal because it's technically "in their possession" and hasn't traded hands).

The problem with the current FFL laws, is that there is no such thing as a collector or personal FFL. The C&R is, but I don't want to collect only relic/antique firearms. With all the other types of FFL, you have to prove you're a business and therefore you must sell guns and stuff to continue to obtain your FFL... Which is bullcrap. I don't want to sell guns to folks. I just want to buy them for myself for my collection. I get why they do it, but for someone who just wants to collect more, and not sell anything, it's frustrating.

 

[Tarheelpwr]

I agree. I'd love to have a class 3, but proving a storefront and the $10,000 cost is MUCH different that filling out 1 paper and sending a check for $30 (that's it for a C&R).

I don't use it for the FFL portion. I simply send it to vendors that give me dealer pricing. If 5 min and $30 isn't worth the effort, no worries. Don't do it. I just didn't realize how much I could save, so I share the info.

 

[MudRunner2005]

I agree. I'd love to have a class 3, but proving a storefront and the $10,000 cost is MUCH different that filling out 1 paper and sending a check for $30 (that's it for a C&R).

I don't use it for the FFL portion. I simply send it to vendors that give me dealer pricing. If 5 min and $30 isn't worth the effort, no worries. Don't do it. I just didn't realize how much I could save, so I share the info.

It's not $10,000 a year... It's only $200 for an 01 FFL (Dealer).

This is straight off the BATFE's website...