Suggestions, thoughts on rifle build

[WildRose]

The .300 RUM is overkill for deer.

I use a 6.5 Creedmoor for deer and cow elk (as well a long range competition) and suggest it or:

6.5 PRC pr 6.5 /.284 Norma for even flatter trajectories - but more recoil

Eric B.

Not really, the deer can't tell the difference between being hit with the Rum and the .260. Just don't use a frangible bullet and you still get controlled expansion and if you put it where it belongs a stone dead deer.

 

[WildRose]

Love it someone gives you really solid advice but it is not what you want to hear so it is pitched right away. "I was thinking something in 6.5 or 7mm."......If you want a specific answer that you have already selected as the only answer why bother to ask anyone else? Nothing fired from an AR15 platform is worth using for deer, elk or wild bore not if you are looking for clean kills under less than ideal settings. People get stupid real fast when hunting with a AR15 based platform.

What people are really saying when they do this is " I have already selected the cartridge I want to use now guess what it is and pat me on the back for it!"

6mm Creedmoor or 243
Mag., 6mm Rem., 243 Win. and 6mm Creedmoor. All are viable hunting cartridges, but the Creedmoor is proving the best competition round. Similarly, the 6mm Creedmoor compares to the 243 Winchester. ... Both cartridges throw 100-grain to 108-grain bullets about 2,950-fps to 3,000 fps MV from 24" to 26" barrels.Mar 26, 2017(Google Source).

I can see why someone would like the 7-08 but exactly what is it that you think makes the 6.5 Creedmore so desirable outside of punching paper? For the record nothing against the Hornady Proprietary cartridges other than the propaganda and the constant shortage of brass and loaded ammo and lack of very many offering in bullet weight at any given store that happens to have some in stock! Think about it the 7,62x51, 7mm-08, and 6.5 Creedmore are so close to each other when talking about hunting white tail out to 650m as to be practicably interchangeable. 6 of one and a half dozen of the other! For a hunting round though the 7.62x51 and the 7-08 both have access to much heavier bullets than the 6.5's when looking at it from a hunting stand point. A lot of the uber 6.5 bullets do not hold up well in hunting.

Is your primary goal to kill meat for the freezer as cheaply as possible with components that are never out of stock or be trendy? If you really want to have problems and be the trendiest person at Deer camp go with 6.5x47L you would likely be the only guy in 500 miles of deer camp shooting the 6.5x47. Want to be even trendier put it in a AI-AW rifle or a Model 7. You can not be trendy and have great component selection and huge variety of in stock factory loaded ammo one or the other!

The 7mm-08 is a legend in deer hunting and it can be used just as well on Elk so long as you do not get crazy with the yardage. Mr. Bell killed 1100+ Elephants with brain shots with a 7mm Mauser the cartridge that the 7mm-08 is based on.The 6.5x55 is a legend a few decades back in High Power Shooting and globally as a Moose, Elk, White Tail cartridge.The 260 Remington was designed to replicate the 6.5x55 Swede cartridge. The Creedmore makes marginaly more sense for some competition use but for hunting it does nothing that the far cheaper to load and easier to find factory loaded ammo of the Remington 260. Hard cold facts not hype. More deer have likely been dropped with 30-06, 30-30 and 12ga. slugs than anything else but no one ever comes on this sight wanting any of those! LOL Yes The slug especially even if fired like artillery would not make it to the deer at 650m.LOL My point is you have cartridges that are proven winners and then you have trendy! I can remember when Alf and David Hasselhoff bikini underwear with their faces on them was trendy in Germany for grown men trendy is seldom the best way to go. No one makes or sells those anymore but ugly tighty-whities are still being sold!

People seem to forget that this is a hunting forum and if hunting is not the primary focus of the discussion than it belongs on a another forum on this site not Long Range Hunting.

I can still remember when the 6.5x55 and 7-08 were all the rage! We did not see the shortage of brass though or a lack of match grade bass when they became trendy unlike the Hornady and Nossler proprietary cartridges.

Sadly no one comes on here and says "I want to blow money on a trendy cartridge I do not need and can not routinely get brass for just because I have more money than common sense!" If someone did that then I would have no choice but to recommend the PRC line of cartridges, 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum, 6.5-300WM AI and other crazy stuff not needed to kill a white tail at 650m!

So we either have people asking the wrong questions or we have a lot of group think and ego stroking going on.

I sincerely hope you feel better after letting all of that out.

 

[bowhunter020]

The 270 wsm would be another really good round to look at. Good factory ammo, fast and flat, hits hard. Its a really sweet round and what I have been shooting the last couple years. It offers great performance in a short action with a shorter barrel, which equals lighter weight most the time.

Any idea if this would work with the current. 223 actions I have??

 

[FIGJAM]

Any idea if this would work with the current. 223 actions I have??

It won't work. It reqires a magnum bolt face.

 

[WildRose]

It won't work. It reqires a magnum bolt face.

Swapping bolts isn't a big deal.

 

[FIGJAM]

Swapping bolts isn't a big deal.

It just costs a little $$

 

[Sirrated]

Looks to me that there's only one rifle missing from your armory,,, 7mm Rem mag.Easy pickings when it comes to ammo, excellent for those 500-1000 metre shots and nearly every company makes one. Good luck.

 

[Weatherby Fan]

I would suggest a 6.5-284 or 6.5 PRC,
Would be a good mix from your 223 to your 300

 

[WildRose]

It just costs a little $$

Yep, and not a whole lot of them. You can pick up a new bolt assembly for around 175.00 last I checked anyhow and you can pick up a complete used bolt usually for about half or a third of that.

 

[hesse]

26 Nosler. Or the 270 wsm is a great choice best if u hand load

 

[AD5GB]

I shoot both the .270 Winchester and the 300 Win Mag. Both shoot very "flat" and have put meat in the freezer. Both have custom barrels (Krieger and Brux respectively) so they're incredibly accurate - 1/2 MOA or less with decent hand loads. That said I could walk into any sporting goods store and buy factory ammo for either if needed.

Just my $.02 worth...

 

[bowhunter020]

Is the 26 nosler going to be more of a barrel burning than other short action cartridges?

 

[FIGJAM]

Is the 26 nosler going to be more of a barrel burning than other short action cartridges?

Yes. The 26 Nosler is a barrel burner, more so than a 6.5 prc or creedmoor...But if it is a dedicated hunting rifle, it will still last you a lot of years.

 

[johnlittletree]

If you just want to kill a deer at 650m max you can do that with a 243, 308, 30-06, 25-06,260, 280, 7-08.....Now the flat part is another thing. How much powder do you want to burn to take a deer? In terms of flat shooting how flat is flat? I would feel like an idiot shooting at white tail deer with a 300 Win Mag or the like. Same thing shooting squirrel 30 feet away with a 45-70 Govt. you can do but why? In states were it is legal you could drop deer all day with a 223/5.56 NATO

On a practical note no amount of flat shooting will eliminate basic marksmanship at 650m! Wind correction, applying proper lead and follow through would still be important at 650m even if you were shooting a 300 Weatherby or 7mm STW.

If only one company makes brass for it I do not care if the cartridge flys as flat as a laser I would say no and move on. Nothing about 650m is a ballistic challenge marksmanship challenge sure but not a challenge for a your run of the mill cartridge from 1900 on up. Now if you wanted to kill Elephants from 650m that would be a challenge!

What none of the regulars on this sight that drink the gun industry kool-aid bring up is that the best VLD's in 6mm and 6.5mm are not great performers hunting because they suffer regularly from jacket separation. On top of that most factory built rifles are still using twist rates from 30 years ago. Who builds a 30cal rifle and spec.'s a 1:12 twist in 2019? That is just one example. The best hunting bullets for things larger than varmints are not VLD's in 6mm and 6.5mm. For instance the 100gr. soft points for 243 Win are fantastic on Deer most of the VLD's not so much.

On a piratical note a $50 Mauser picked out of a barrel at the local gas station with iron sights can harvest deer no problem if your eye's are up to it.

My point is because it is deer and only 650m you have a huge number of cartridges to chose from. Accurate ranging and knowing the actual balistics of your cartridge based on weather conditions is far more important. Knowing how the powder in your pet load behaves at different temperatures can be huge if it is an older powder and very temp. sensitive.