New caliber selection

warboar21 said:
I bought a Tikka T3 7MM Rem Mag about 4 years ago. I have tried and tried to get this rifle to shoot but it just never shot well enough for me. I've tried several different bullet and powder combinations and found two bullets that it would shoot. Neither one of the bullets are what I was wanting so I ended up putting the gun in the safe and moving on to something different.

I am looking at re-barreling the Tikka and have been thinking hard on which caliber I want to go with. I had thought about going with another 7mm Rem Mag barrel as this would be logical since I already have the dies, brass, and everything needed for loading it. But then I start thinking of building something else. I have been thinking hard on two calibers in particular.

The first caliber I was looking at was the 257 Weatherby with a fast twist barrel around 26" long. I have a first generation Remington Sendero in 25-06 and love everything about it except the weight. I have taken everything from Pronghorn to Elk with the rifle but the gun is heavier than I like.
My brother has a 257 Weatherby and has also harvested quite a few deer and elk with it and loves the rifle.
I was thinking I could put a faster twist barrel on it and take advantage of the sleek heavy VLD bullets to really take advantage of the Caliber.

The second caliber I am looking at is the 270 WSM. Again I would go with a 24"-26" fast twist barrel to take advantage of the long VLD bullets. I was thinking with the long action of the Tikka I could really take advantage of seating the 170gr EOL out there and gain the extra velocity.

I am leaning pretty heavily towards the WSM as brass and other reloading components were easier to get a hold of prior to the current situation. I appreciate any and all feedback you all have.
Click to expand...
OMR makes CF Tikka prefits. Problem is I hear pulling the Tikka barrel off is probably gonna suck as they a tight. This is the 1st time Ive ever heard of a Tikka not shooting well. But... its manufacturing so everybody could have one bad day.
I have a OMR Remage CF 26" prefit in 7mm mag 8T and it shoots .4/.5 with a 180 gr vld-h at 2944 fps.
 
warboar21 said:
I bought a Tikka T3 7MM Rem Mag about 4 years ago. I have tried and tried to get this rifle to shoot but it just never shot well enough for me. I've tried several different bullet and powder combinations and found two bullets that it would shoot. Neither one of the bullets are what I was wanting so I ended up putting the gun in the safe and moving on to something different.

I am looking at re-barreling the Tikka and have been thinking hard on which caliber I want to go with. I had thought about going with another 7mm Rem Mag barrel as this would be logical since I already have the dies, brass, and everything needed for loading it. But then I start thinking of building something else. I have been thinking hard on two calibers in particular.

The first caliber I was looking at was the 257 Weatherby with a fast twist barrel around 26" long. I have a first generation Remington Sendero in 25-06 and love everything about it except the weight. I have taken everything from Pronghorn to Elk with the rifle but the gun is heavier than I like.
My brother has a 257 Weatherby and has also harvested quite a few deer and elk with it and loves the rifle.
I was thinking I could put a faster twist barrel on it and take advantage of the sleek heavy VLD bullets to really take advantage of the Caliber.

The second caliber I am looking at is the 270 WSM. Again I would go with a 24"-26" fast twist barrel to take advantage of the long VLD bullets. I was thinking with the long action of the Tikka I could really take advantage of seating the 170gr EOL out there and gain the extra velocity.

I am leaning pretty heavily towards the WSM as brass and other reloading components were easier to get a hold of prior to the current situation. I appreciate any and all feedback you all have.
Click to expand...
Sell the gun . I have wasted more time & money
Trying to get guns to shoot .
Time to start new
My $ .02
 
SArnold30 said:
^^^^^ I agree. Warboar, I really like that overlapping cartridge collection. Are you married? If so, I need your pointers on how to convince my wife I need another rifle in a different caliber.
Click to expand...
I've discovered that my wife is amicable to her getting a new pair of shoes every time I get a new rifle. That suits me perfectly as her habit is significantly cheaper than mine.....lol?
 
SSG Graybush said:
OMR makes CF Tikka prefits. Problem is I hear pulling the Tikka barrel off is probably gonna suck as they a tight. This is the 1st time Ive ever heard of a Tikka not shooting well. But... its manufacturing so everybody could have one bad day.
I have a OMR Remage CF 26" prefit in 7mm mag 8T and it shoots .4/.5 with a 180 gr vld-h at 2944 fps.
Click to expand...
To bad OMR doesn't have a caliber that I'm interested in. They look nice though
 
Warboar. The 20 MOA only comes in useful when you do not have enough "Elevation Travel" in your scope for long shots. One of the limiting factors is ppl with 1 inch tubes not being able to get 100 yds zeros because they run out of travel.
 
I stopped at Sportsman's Warehouse on the way home from work and went to the reloading area. I found 150 pieces of brass, dies, and plenty of bullets in 270 WSM. The ammo section had plenty of 270Win and the WSM version. One that surprised me to see was 270 Weatherby. Haven't seen that on the shelf in any store since I lived in UT 20 years ago.
Anyways I think you know which way this is going. I walked out of the store with plenty of reloading components (dies and brass).

Now I just need to settle on a barrel length and profile. I am thinking about staying close to the factory profile but slightly larger so if I want to thread it for a suppressor I can use one without having to install an adapter. As far as barrel length goes, I think I would need at least a 24" barrel to take advantage of the velocity from the WSM.
 
I have a takeoff Tikka 24" 270 WSM barrel that shot great, I just wanted to replace it with a 300 WSM. It's also threaded 1/2x28 for a can. Tikka tolerances are tight enough to swap barrels easily. PM me if you are interested.
 
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warboar21 said:
I have done all kinds of things. I have tried two different scopes, I have used two different sets of rings, I have pulled the rifle from the stock and made sure there was nothing touching the barrel. I took a little more material out of the barrel channel just to make sure nothing was touching. I ensured the actions screws were torqued down to recommended specs. I borrowed my friends bore scope to ensure the barrel didn't look like the last Remington I bought with messed up rifling 2/3rds up the barrel and all kinds of tool chatter. The barrel was smooth and the lands and grooves looked perfect.
I have tried Sierra, Hornady, Berger, Barnes, Nosler, and Swift. I tried all of them at various seating depths. I've tried just about every powder combo one can think of.

The only factory load that shot worth a darn was the Sellior & Belliot 140gr round nose. I had three rounds touching in a nice clover leaf. I bought this box of ammo as the cheapest thing I could find for rifle sight in and barrel break in. I have found that the 150gr Nosler Ballistic Tips will shoot slightly over an inch consistently. I also have to keep the velocities down under 2900fps to achieve this.

I have put an honest effort into this rifle and like I said i'm done with the 7mm Mag barrel that is on it now. Besides the Remington with the sewer pipe barrel i've only had one other rifle that wouldn't shoot and that is a Howa chambered in 6.5x55. The throat is so long on it that you can not seat a bullet out far enough to get close enough to the lands with anything i've tried. I need to have that barrel pulled and have it set back and recut the chamber. It's also in the back of the safe next to the Tikka.
Click to expand...
Bore scope the barrel, had a sako 85 hunter I bought brand new missing 3/8 of an inch of throat brand new out of the box.
 
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