What SA barrel would you spin up?

[orch]

Finally got an ARC Nucleus in short action (been waiting to find these up in Canada since ARC started making them... Thanks Go Big Tactical!)

Anyways... I've been a savage guy since I got into long range shooting about 10 years ago and know my way around a barrel nut.
SA savage barrels I have on hand right now: 22-250 heavy straight taper 12 twist, 6.5 creed heavy straight taper 9 twist, 308 tactical straight taper 20" 10 twist and 6.5 rsaum heavy straight taper 28" 8 twist

So far I'm p digging the action... wicked smooth and the two stage Cadex trigger I put on it has made me reassess my opinion of the accutrigger...It's sitting in an MDT LSS xl gen II chassis...
Never being satisfied with what I've got on hand, I'm feeling the need to spin up a new barrel, but I'm not sure what...

I've got both standard (308) and magnum bolt heads for it and max OAL,2.9". As far as they type of shooting I do: steel out to 1400yrds, gophers/varmints out to 1000, as far as large game primarily white tail with the potential to maybe go after moose, elk, black bear and caribou.

If you were in my boat what would you build? Caliber, Barrel manufacturer, twist rate, contour, what bullet you'd want to use etc... it doesn't have be a "do it all" cartridge to cover every scenario I listed... just trying to get some ideas, and I have no problem with wildcats as long as the parent case is relatively available and dies aren't hard to come by...

Orch

 

[jd126]

I also have the Nucleus in a short action and have spun up 3 barrels for it. They are chambered in 6cm for comps, 6.5cm for the Whitetails / Mule Deer & 300wsm for the larger game. The 6cm is a ss medium palma and the other two barrels are carbon fiber wrapped barrels.

Maybe consider the 300wsm to cover your big game hunting. I enjoy shooting mine and the action handles the magnum just fine. The 300wsm barrel is a Carbon Six, 26", 1-9 twist, Magnum contour with a SAAMI spec chamber. I loaded up some 200gr Federal Edge TLR's for hunting this year but have not been too impressed with the overall consistency from bullet to bullet. Some of the bullets were junk and had to be thrown away. Accuracy with them was acceptable but I think I could do better with a different bullet like a Nosler or Berger.

As for the action, I have enjoyed it and have had zero failures so far with the light primer strikes that some guys were having and it feeds all three cartridges from Accurate Mags flawlessly.

 

[elkaholic]

Sherman Shortmags cover the the whole caliber range. They were designed for maximum performance and efficiency in short mag actions. Brass, reamers and dies in stock.
shermanwildcatcartridges.com
call Rich at 208 755-6723

 

[orch]

Sherman Shortmags cover the the whole caliber range. They were designed for maximum performance and efficiency in short mag actions. Brass, reamers and dies in stock.
shermanwildcatcartridges.com
call Rich at 208 755-6723

I've been looking at your SS and SST cartridges...
do you deal with many guys up hear in Canada? Is there much of an issue shipping brass up here?

Orch

 

[elkaholic]

I've been looking at your SS and SST cartridges...
do you deal with many guys up hear in Canada? Is there much of an issue shipping brass up here?

Orch

I have quite a few Canadian customers. Brass is the biggest issue but people find ways through importers, etc to get it there. I really wish that someone would up there would become a distributer. It would be a good market.

 

[Jluck]

7mm-08 Improved is my next SA build. Good all around cartridge I think. Maybe in a fast handling 20" barreled rig.

 

[couesaddict]

I've got a 25 sst that I'm pretty fond of. Almost got 100 rounds down the tube now. If you can get it arranged up there, is definitely recommend one of Rich's chamberings. Excellent data on this site and easy to work with wildcats. I have one of his long action 270 Sherman's as well. I did mine on a Curtis Vector and I'm considering a second bbl for it too.

 

[ducky]

I'd install the Creed or .308 barrel you have and go shoot.

 

[orch]

I'd install the Creed or .308 barrel you have and go shoot.

Well yah that would be the smart thing to do... but where's the fun in that?
Kinda intrigued with the idea of a fast twist 25cal and those 131 blackjacks though...

Orch

 

[Chase723]

If you're going 6mm and don't mind a little bit of a wildcat...or really wildcats that aren't wildcats anymore check out the Sherman Shorts as well as the 6mm Competition Match. For 6mm the 6 Comp is hard to beat. I was out shooting mine yesterday. 3351fps out of a 25" barrel and grouping just over 1/3 MOA at 500. That was using large primer brass, 49.2gr H1000 behind the 105gr Berger VLD at a COAL of 2.8". If you use the small primer stuff you can push it to 3420-3450 safely. It's almost unbelievable. Love that thing.

If you're going 6.5mm and above then the Sherman's seem to be amazing...I'm building a 7SS right now and plan to do a write-up once I'm done. If it does what I think it should do then the 7RM will be finding a new home.

You can buy dies and already fireformed brass for all of them (both the Sherman Short Mags and the 6 Comp).

 

[pburton]

I would do one of the Sherman Shorts, for your purposes, 6.5SS. As far as barrel manufacturer, I don't know what you can get in Canada. But, Brux, Bartlein, Hart, Kreiger, Proof, Benchmark, are all good options.

 

[Wingnut00]

If you're going 6mm and don't mind a little bit of a wildcat...or really wildcats that aren't wildcats anymore check out the Sherman Shorts as well as the 6mm Competition Match. For 6mm the 6 Comp is hard to beat. I was out shooting mine yesterday. 3351fps out of a 25" barrel and grouping just over 1/3 MOA at 500. That was using large primer brass, 49.2gr H1000 behind the 105gr Berger VLD at a COAL of 2.8". If you use the small primer stuff you can push it to 3420-3450 safely. It's almost unbelievable. Love that thing.

If you're going 6.5mm and above then the Sherman's seem to be amazing...I'm building a 7SS right now and plan to do a write-up once I'm done. If it does what I think it should do then the 7RM will be finding a new home.

You can buy dies and already fireformed brass for all of them (both the Sherman Short Mags and the 6 Comp).

Another vote for the 6 competition match!

 

[BallisticsGuy]

.243AI with a .272 neck. Takes factory brass without neck turning but is snug enough to keep brass from over-working. I set it up at 0 headspace and never had to body size the brass.

I personally like Columbia River Arms for that barrel as their reamer is awesome. I managed to pull 1800 rounds of snot rockety fast match loads before the throat got too long. 50% more than I was expecting. I just set that barrel back about an inch and re-cut the chamber to 6XC and I'm already getting .4MOA 5-shot groups from it.