Need help

[James D Crawford]

I'm looking for some suggestions on caliber for a new build I'm doing.

Here are the givens;

20" sendero contour barrel
Medium sized game, mule deer, pigs, maybe an elk
Medium range, not looking to shoot past 500 yards at game, targets maybe farther.
Can be long or short action
I reload, so no need for factory availability

So what caliber would you recommend keeping in mind the 20" barrel.

.308 Winchester would be very good, brass & Bullets widely available, a proven shooter to 600 meters. Others might be 7mm-08 and the 7mm Express (an easy make from 30-06 military or commercial brass). Good luck with whatever you settle on!

 

[Deleted member 25294]

I'm looking for some suggestions on caliber for a new build I'm doing.

Here are the givens;

20" sendero contour barrel
Medium sized game, mule deer, pigs, maybe an elk
Medium range, not looking to shoot past 500 yards at game, targets maybe farther.
Can be long or short action
I reload, so no need for factory availability

So what caliber would you recommend keeping in mind the 20" barrel.

Since you're going with a short barrel I'd start with a high velocity round.
7 SAUM would be awesome and should perform well from a 20" barrel, especially now that ADG brass is out!
If you want a little less recoil I'd go with the 6.5 PRC

 

[Joshuaham]

I really like medium bore for 0-300 yards. More of a momentum play than precision. I have never had a hog run off into the briars with my 356 win 220 grain at 2450fps. It really hammers them, never recovered a bullet they always exit. It's essentially a 358 for a reloader. For another football field away any 338 is interesting especially if you like to dial the scope. If you dont have the barrel length for the latest speed load you will have 200 plus grains of bone crushing heavy hot lead on game. Its fun to have a totally different set up to fill a different niche.

 

[Rem7mm08]

I'm looking for some suggestions on caliber for a new build I'm doing.

Here are the givens;

20" sendero contour barrel
Medium sized game, mule deer, pigs, maybe an elk
Medium range, not looking to shoot past 500 yards at game, targets maybe farther.
Can be long or short action
I reload, so no need for factory availability

So what caliber would you recommend keeping in mind the 20" barrel.

Sounds like a 7mm-08 build in my opinion. Good bullet selection and easy on the shooter. Add a break if you want to see the impact.

 

[Tex_Hunter]

I went through a similar thought experiment myself... based on the wide range of game you mentioned and keeping inside of the maximum range; with a 20" barrel I'd be tempted to build a straight 284win (that's road I'm currently on, still looking for a Win M70 donor action to start the build).

You reload so that's a non-issue. Based on conservative assumptions on velocity loss with barrel length you'd be at least 100-150fps ahead of a 7-08 in that config.

If not that, then build a fast twist 308 and run heavies.

 

[Creedmoor shooter]

With only a 20in barrel and elk on the menu, I'd go with a 7mm-08 or a 308. I'd probably lean towards the 7mm-08. Great little round.

 

[big cds]

I am with alot of the people on here. Go with the 7-08 if you are reloading or if you don't or just like to burn thru alot of rounds get the 308 and shoot some of the cheap ammunition that is available

 

[big cds]

There is a Tika 7-08 for sale on the for sale forum (delete if this is not cool)

 

[Colin78]

I talked to my smith today and he mentioned the new 6.5 PRC. Said he has built a few with 20" barrel and they performed remarkably well. Getting 2900 to 3050 fps pretty easy with 143 eldx.

 

[Prairie]

.308 Win...

My thoughts exactly! Tried and true! All the new hot rod calibers and whizz bang hype tends to confuse a lot of people or give audience to selling the "latest and greatest"! Not saying there's anything wrong with that if that floats your boat. Just saying that it's hard to beat what's been proven for many years and hunts personally. I own a lot of various calibers and they're fun to play with but this last elk season found me carrying my trusty .308 Win. However, opinions are like (insert whatever you want), everybody's got one!

 

[James D Crawford]

I talked to my smith today and he mentioned the new 6.5 PRC. Said he has built a few with 20" barrel and they performed remarkably well. Getting 2900 to 3050 fps pretty easy with 143 eldx.

Get a stainless barrel...it should improve accuracy life for that round. Get the barrel exterior ceramic coated in a dark blue-black color, low sheen.

 

[Good]

338 Federal
8.59 Galaxy

 

[Rem7mm08]

338 Federal
8.59 Galaxy

Interesting (to me) that you mention the 338 Fed. It would have enough thump. Pondering the notion of adding a Henry Long Ranger in 338 to my collection.

 

[RandySch]

I'm looking for some suggestions on caliber for a new build I'm doing.

Here are the givens;

20" sendero contour barrel
Medium sized game, mule deer, pigs, maybe an elk
Medium range, not looking to shoot past 500 yards at game, targets maybe farther.
Can be long or short action
I reload, so no need for factory availability

So what caliber would you recommend keeping in mind the 20" barrel.

Colin78:

The .308 as previously mentioned is tried and true with shorter barrels. The .284 would also be a good choice. Another option to consider is the .270 Winchester. I have an older Savage 111 with a 20" barrel, .270 Winchester. I have kept this rifle for 40 years in part because the parameters you are looking at are the ones I use this gun for. Before I started hand loading I used 130gr Remington Bronze Points almost exclusively. At that time most of my shots were 300 yards or less. The 1 MOA this round gave me worked extremely well. Moving West and hunting in areas where my potential range move out to 500 yards or more coincided with me starting to reload. I developed two loads for this rifle that work real well. The most accurate is 140gr Barnes TSX sitting in front of 56.4gr of RL16, WLR primers. It has an average MV of 3075 FPS. It cuts clover leafs at 100 yards. The second load is 140gr Hornady Interlock sitting in front of 61.7gr of H4831SC, WLR primers. This has an average MV of 3100 FPS and typically groups under .75 MOA. Both use Remington Brass. Neither of these are high BC bullets but for under 600 yards they work well. One of the advantages of the .270 over the .284 or .308 is the larger case, more powder capacity. Reloading with bullets in the 130 to 150gr range you can approach the performance of the 7MM Mag without the bang. Also the recoil is manageable and a muzzle break is not necessary.