Cartridges suited for short barreled rig?

[AK4900PA]

I recently came across the Mcmillan CS5 and since I don't currently have $5k laying around I got a wild hair to build a short barreled precision rifle with a folding stock.

While the .308 would be the easiest and most obvious choice, I'm curious what other cartridges you folks would suggest for a short barreled rig. I've noticed the 7mm WSM seems to be pretty popular with the striker/xp100 crowd.


Here's my criteria...

-COAL of less than 2.965" in order to function in alpha mags

-Available as factory loaded ammo as I do not currently handload

-Minimum of 1000 ft/lb of energy at 500 yards out of 16.25" barrel

-Maximum bore of .308 to utilize suppressor

-Ability to push high BC bullets at reasonable speeds to minimize drop/drift

 

[AK4900PA]

Any xp-100/striker/contender shooters out there? I know you folks have experience with similar setups.

 

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

I think this would have seen a lot more traffic if it was posted in the long range pistol forum.

 

[JARHEAD1371]

I'm considering a 6.5 WSM with a 20" or 22" barrel, suppressed. Used for deer with a 140 gr Berger Hybrid or VLD, it should be good for out to 800+ yds.

 

[comfisherman]

Just cut a 270 wsm down to 17.5 inches. Don't know why I didn't go 16.5, kinda chickened out going all the way. Have not shot over 130 grains but I'm doing about 200 fps accross the boards less than 26 inches. Kinda surprised as I figured it would be north of that, some bullets and weights are worse than others. But still it does quite well. I would think the 7 wsm would do better.

Honestly love the stubby 270, definitely need to order another barrel and consider nitride. Its the rifle I shoot as well as my friends shoot the most. Don't know why but a 270wsm the size of a normal 22wmr makes for a hoot to shoot.

 

[AK4900PA]

definitely sounds like the 270wsm or 7wsm is going to be the way to go. I originally was looking at the 6.5 creedmoor or 7/08, but I'm afraid the short barrel is going to rob too much speed to have the ballistics I'm looking for.

Initially I was leaning towards the 270 to reduce any unneccessary recoil, but from what I've seen online their pretty much identical in that respect so I'm now leaning towards the 7mm for the better selection of high BC bullets.

 

[comfisherman]

If your choosing between the two WSM's. I'd firmly suggest the 7 wsm, although bullet selection for the 270 is really taking off, there are still more for the 7.

Also, bullet weights are going to be really close as it relates to recoil. The correlation of recoil is a combination of powder charge, bullet weight and velocity all over rifle weight (few things left out but the basic gist). As such a 150 from a 7 and a 150 from a 270 will recoil preceptably almost identical.

.277 and .284 are really close in size unless your trying to burn a lot of powder in a short distance. I would think that the 7 would loose less fps in a short tube than the 270 with equal weight bullets.

The variable of the factory ammo does put a different spin on it. Did a quick serch of miday, and they do not offer very much in the way of high b.c. factory offerings. The best looking one was the cor bon factory with the 180 vld. That would be the only true high B.C. offering for the two.

 

[AK4900PA]

If your choosing between the two WSM's. I'd firmly suggest the 7 wsm, although bullet selection for the 270 is really taking off, there are still more for the 7.

Also, bullet weights are going to be really close as it relates to recoil. The correlation of recoil is a combination of powder charge, bullet weight and velocity all over rifle weight (few things left out but the basic gist). As such a 150 from a 7 and a 150 from a 270 will recoil preceptably almost identical.

.277 and .284 are really close in size unless your trying to burn a lot of powder in a short distance. I would think that the 7 would loose less fps in a short tube than the 270 with equal weight bullets.

The variable of the factory ammo does put a different spin on it. Did a quick serch of miday, and they do not offer very much in the way of high b.c. factory offerings. The best looking one was the cor bon factory with the 180 vld. That would be the only true high B.C. offering for the two.

I came to pretty much the same conclusion. I'm not overly concerned with factory offerings since I do intend to handload once life settles down (im in the process of relocating out of state right now). I also checked midway and was looking at the corbon loads. I ran some numbers on hornadys ballistics calculator and the 7wsm load minus 250fps to account for the short barrel gave almost identical drop/drift as corbons 7/08 168gr load out of a full length barrel. That seems like a reasonable compromise to me in exchange for the portability of having a rifle I could throw in a backpack.

 

[lloydsmale]

308 hands down. Its the round that wrote the book on short barreled rilfe performance. If long range shooting is your goal then theres a ton of match bullets and even match ammo out there for it. If you handload its a real easy round to find accuracy with and brass is easy to find and cheap as are bullets. If huntings your deal a 308 shooting a 165 partition at even 2400 fps is capable of killing anything in the US well with maybe the exception of browns and grizzlys and would even no doubt kill either of those. S___ hits the fan and it will make a good survival rifle. Another advantage is other then .223, 308 ammo is about the most common and most available ammo. Some of the selections already given are better in one way or another but none of beats the old 308 across the board.

 

[tyler.woodard04]

15.5" 7MM WSM shot 168's at 2550 and 140's at 2940. just be careful going with a folder and a 16.5" barrel. you need to meet the 26" overall requirement.

 

[AK4900PA]

15.5" 7MM WSM shot 168's at 2550 and 140's at 2940. just be careful going with a folder and a 16.5" barrel. you need to meet the 26" overall requirement.

I was under the impression that the 26" measurement was taken with the stock extended. Is this incorrect?

 

[comfisherman]

I have no notion of the lenth laws, however my 17 inch barreled savage short action is 25.5 inches long. I cant imagine a hinged folder would not extend the stock another 1-1.5 inches and you would be good to go.