I recently grabbed a beautiful Tikka Laminate stainless T3x chambered in .270 WSM. It was an Internet buy, and so I didn't put my hands on it before purchasing. 270 WSM brass is hard to come by and expensive where you happen to find it. I got the rifle, and it's beautiful. And LIGHT! I'm not really recoil shy, but the older I get, the more fragile my shoulder seems to be. I have a 7mm Rem Mag in Sauer 100 wearing German Tupperware that I won't go back in the same room with until it gets restocked with a Boyd's Heritage Monte Carlo after the beating it put on me last range outing. The Tikka is 24.3' on the barrel and has the standard 1:10 twist. Don't get me wrong - I like light, and I like powerful. I don't like evaluating my collarbone for breaks.
I did some looking. Let me back up and say I like the gun. I've wanted the T3x Laminate Stainless for a long time and the price just keeps climbing! Now that I have one... I did some research. We know there are pre-fits and all sorts of stuff for the T3x out there now. I found a couple of prefits: 1 is a satin stainless very much like the factory barrel. Factory contour, 24", but fluted (even lighter) and twisted 1:7.5 and chambered in 6.8 Western. The Western holds roughly 4 grains less powder than the WSM, but will shoot heavier bullets, so any recoil savings with the small powder reduction is negated. This configuration will have MORE recoil! But I've wanted to try the 6.8, just not in a factory gun with factory ammo (Winchester only?). It's a drop-in fit, color matches, and it's a fluted match aftermarket barrel like all the cool kids shoot! No brass available, however. Not sure I'd want it if it were. This would be a situation where I'd perform barrel break-in with 20 rounds of factory ammo and then reload having some decent formed brass onhand. New Winchester bass is bad enough generally, that it needs fire forming anyway. Is the Western on its way out already?? May make my recoil issue worse, but I might put up with it for an uber accurate 6.8 Western!
Option 2: I ran across is an aftermarket match quality barrel chambered in the same .270 WSM. Factory contour. No flutes, solid barrel, but here's the caveats: it's 20" long (lighter), bigger at the muzzle to accommodate a 5/8x24 pitch brake. AHA! Recoil issue solved! Twisted 1:8, so I can shoot most any .277" bullet. So here are my concerns: it's Cerakoted black. I'd have a black barrel and stainless action unless I had the action coated. 2nd, and most importantly, wouldn't cutting 4.3" off the factory length pretty much leave me with the same performance as a standard .270 Win with 24" pipe?? I could shoot a broader range of bullets and the little 20" barrel would be a dream climbing a tree with!
Or C, should I just keep the factory barrel and forget it? Assuming it shoots well and doesn't stomp me like a mad horse. Obviously it would depend on how well the facrory barrel shot, I guess, but I'd be foregoing a few perks.
I guess another option is to keep the factory barrel and get one of the others to switch to depending on terrain and game. Was going to sell the factory tube, but Tikka barrels are the cheapest out there/bring the least money on resale. Even less than Savage. If you didn't know this, it's completely true according to the Gospel of Me. Sold lots of factory barrels!
I'm already geared up to load the WSM. Would need dies for the Western.
So assuming the factory barrel gets about 1 MOA accuracy... which way would you guys go?
As much as the Western intrigues me, I'm leaning toward the short, fast twist WSM with break ability.
