.260 on the cheap?

[yellowfin]

So something finally gave me the push I needed to start piecing together a .260 or 6.5 Grendel for both varminting and 600-1000 yard shooting. PA's hunting laws for the moment being annoying as hell not letting me use my beloved AR's in the field (rat bastard pieces of **** need to fix that) has me reluctantly looking at doing something in bolt action which also would be used for the precision realm. How much might I expect to pay for a Savage or Remington action in .308 length or perhaps a no frills used maybe beat up.308/.243/7-08 I can just pry the action out of, or the same in .223 and get a 7.62x39 bolt for it then rebarrel to the Grendel? Hoping $200 or less--can that happen?

From there I'm thinking either Krieger or Hart for the barrel, heavy varminter with 5/8x24 threaded muzzle. Priced in the 300's as I see.

Then on to the stocks...after step 1 and 2, of course. Still, this should stack up far cheaper than buying this sort of stuff off the shelf, right?

Anyone else playing the cobbling together game? Any tips on making this work well, or any pitfalls to avoid?

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

Call Kevin at
http://www.montourcountyrifles.com/

Mcgowen makes good cheep barrels for the savage and Kevin should at this point be able to make you a stock. Dont overlook the 6.5x46 lapua or the creedmore.

[yellowfin]

Dont overlook the 6.5x47 lapua or the creedmore.

I had thought of those, but how are they different? I had also heard of the 6.5-284.

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

I had thought of those, but how are they different? I had also heard of the 6.5-284.

Really very little difference at all, I suppose with any of the 6.5 rounds the differences are subjective. Your going to get a little more speed out of the longer ones, some have better brass and factory loaded rounds available. You wont start to see huge differences in speeds until you step up to the magnums. Here is a 6.5mm list in order of powder capacity, as a general rule you can expect more speed as you go up in charge weight, but that comes at a cost to your wallet and shoulder etc.
6.5 ppc, 6.5 patriot, 6.5 Grendel, 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5x47 Lapua, 260 Remington, 6.5x55 sweed, 6.5x284, 6.5-06, 6.5 wsm, 264 Winchester, 6.5x300 mag, 6.5 sin, 6.5 Allen Mag.

What you have to think about is how you want to run the rifle, the round and action you chose will be a factor in this decision. Some actions are shorter than others, ie savage is shorter than Remington, this comes into play with seating depths and long VLD type bullets.


The 6.5x284 is a 284 Winchester (7mm) necked down to 6.5, SAMMI approved it a few years back, but its been around forever.

[BrigandTwoFour]

Really very little difference at all, I suppose with any of the 6.5 rounds the differences are subjective. Your going to get a little more speed out of the longer ones, some have better brass and factory loaded rounds available. You wont start to see huge differences in speeds until you step up to the magnums. Here is a 6.5mm list in order of powder capacity, as a general rule you can expect more speed as you go up in charge weight, but that comes at a cost to your wallet and shoulder etc.
6.5 ppc, 6.5 patriot, 6.5 Grendel, 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5x47 Lapua, 260 Remington, 6.5x284, 6.5-06, 6.5 wsm, 264 Winchester, 6.5x300 mag, 6.5 sin, 6.5 Allen Mag.

What you have to think about is how you want to run the rifle, the round and action you chose will be a factor in this decision. Some actions are shorter than others, ie savage is shorter than Remington, this comes into play with seating depths and long VLD type bullets.


The 6.5x284 is a 284 Winchester (7mm) necked down to 6.5, SAMMI approved it a few years back, but its been around forever.

There is also the original 6.5x55 Swede in long action (Tikka makes a nice one for the T3 line). Factory loadings are a little anemic for long range due to concerns of operating in vintage Mauser actions, but the velocity can be greatly boosted by hand loading for modern actions. My understanding is that the 6.5 Swede is more or less the European equivalent of the 30-06, long service and very popular for hunting everything up to elk sized game. Lower pressures too, which is good for barrel life.

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

There is also the original 6.5x55 Swede in long action (Tikka makes a nice one for the T3 line). Factory loadings are a little anemic for long range due to concerns of operating in vintage Mauser actions, but the velocity can be greatly boosted by hand loading for modern actions. My understanding is that the 6.5 Swede is more or less the European equivalent of the 30-06, long service and very popular for hunting everything up to elk sized game. Lower pressures too, which is good for barrel life.

Thanks I knew I forgot more than one

[Mac5.56]

Why not buy a .270? You can still find ammo for this caliber, you can get a cheap accurate rifle chambered in it, and it's a great round.

Here is a forum discussion I found comparing the two:

http://www.kifaruforums.net/showthread.php?t=22711

[E. Bryant]

AC offers a relatively affordable .260 Rem barrel for the Remington 700:

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/164...d-muzzle-matte

This plus a short-action Rem700 with a .473" boltface would likely make a nice little rifle for relatively little money, although I'd much prefer a barrel from one of the custom makers that has been fit to a trued action.

The last Rem700 I bought was one of the holiday specials from Dick's - after selling off the barrel and stock, the action ended up being around $260. The cheapest I've seen a used R700 for in the post-panic age was $470 for a stainless-steel .223 BDL in like-new condition, and my buddy picked up a SS BDL in .330 RUM with a Timney trigger for $500. Haven't see any really beat-up examples recently, so I'm not sure how condition would affect the pricing.

[FN in MT]

I'd spend some money #1 on getting the action trued up and sorted out.
In my opinion it's senseless to screw a good barrel into an action that will then wobble in the stock, bolt lugs not fitted as well as possible, etc.

YMMV but I found that starting with the CORE piece of the machine...the action, then moving out from there ; trigger work, bedding action to a stable stock, etc. Gave me my most accurate rifles for the least amount of time and expense.

I have a few buddies who are big on wildcat cartridges which means they rebarrell a lot. Twice in the past several years I bought take off barrels that they claimed "did not shoot". I had my smith (same guy they use) install first a 7mm chambered into a .280 into a trued and straight 700 LA. Dropped it into an HS Precison stock, checked fit with some blue, ended up adding a skim of Acra-glass here and there.

My first groups out of that gun at 200 yds were .950" and .920" for five shots. With standard 154 gr Hornady's.

Point of my story....Both of my friends are impatient. They also claim they don't think having the action gone through is worth the wait time or the money. I believe they are VERY misinformed.

FN in MT

[TehLlama]

I'd spend some money #1 on getting the action trued up and sorted out.
In my opinion it's senseless to screw a good barrel into an action that will then wobble in the stock, bolt lugs not fitted as well as possible, etc.

YMMV but I found that starting with the CORE piece of the machine...the action, then moving out from there ; trigger work, bedding action to a stable stock, etc. Gave me my most accurate rifles for the least amount of time and expense.

I have a few buddies who are big on wildcat cartridges which means they rebarrell a lot. Twice in the past several years I bought take off barrels that they claimed "did not shoot". I had my smith (same guy they use) install first a 7mm chambered into a .280 into a trued and straight 700 LA. Dropped it into an HS Precison stock, checked fit with some blue, ended up adding a skim of Acra-glass here and there.

My first groups out of that gun at 200 yds were .950" and .920" for five shots. With standard 154 gr Hornady's.

Point of my story....Both of my friends are impatient. They also claim they don't think having the action gone through is worth the wait time or the money. I believe they are VERY misinformed.

FN in MT

I suspect the other part of that equation is that they were trying to drive some of those loads too hard. I've always been impressed with people who can run relatively slow, low impulse loads with sanely priced projectiles and instead run enough rounds that they KNOW the drop and can outshoot me handily. I also know enough to realize I'm a lot like your friends, and will try and get a mathematically perfect rifle and be grumpy at how little I can do with it.


YF:
Truing the action, having any kind of decent barrel on it, and bedding it correctly is plenty of mechanical accuracy. Good glass and a good trigger are on my must-do list, because I know I'm the weak link in that equation, if nothing else it's nice to have and helps eliminate the variable of 'where is that error coming from'. Anything else is usually diminishing returns cash spent from everything I've seen, at best.