FIGJAM
Well-Known Member
I would take a hard look at the 26 Nosler.
Suggestions, thoughts on rifle build
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I would take a hard look at the 26 Nosler.
FIGJAM
Well-Known Member
Browning makes an x-bolt McMillan that is semi-custom. They also have a new max long range that looks pretty good.
Since you don't reload you should stick with a cartridge that has consistent (meaning low ES/low SD) factory ammunition available, that's not insanely priced. Since you were saying 6.5 or 7mm, if I were you I'd be looking at 6.5 Creed, 7mm-08, 7mm rem mag.
Barrett fieldcraft is under 2k and weighs 6 lbs. Buy a used tikka and use it as a donor action. Many gunsmiths can put it together for u for less than 2k. Another choice is patriot valley arms
If you wanted to build off your 700 i think you could swap your bolt for one with a 308 boltface and rebarrel to 6.5 creedmoor. Need a new magazine setup as well for that. Could do a short mag bolt face and do 6.5 prc or a saum as well.
BH020 ~
Interesting dilemma. I can relate, owning a tight 300 rum. I also am in process of a bit lighter build for deer. Many great suggestions here. My Nosler 26 6.5 is an impressive beast but a couple old school calibers are well worth considering. The 270 Wsm and 270 Wby. I mention 270 Wsm because this forum has some outstanding contributions on what can be done with the 270 Wsm. The 270 Wby ballistics are hard to beat (130 grain to 170 grain ) combined with the right components offers what you are looking for with a forgiving nature that is hard to describe till you own one. Let us know.
Interesting dilemma. I can relate, owning a tight 300 rum. I also am in process of a bit lighter build for deer. Many great suggestions here. My Nosler 26 6.5 is an impressive beast but a couple old school calibers are well worth considering. The 270 Wsm and 270 Wby. I mention 270 Wsm because this forum has some outstanding contributions on what can be done with the 270 Wsm. The 270 Wby ballistics are hard to beat (130 grain to 170 grain ) combined with the right components offers what you are looking for with a forgiving nature that is hard to describe till you own one. Let us know.
Litehiker
Well-Known Member
The .300 RUM is overkill for deer.
I use a 6.5 Creedmoor for deer and cow elk (as well a long range competition) and suggest it or:
6.5 PRC pr 6.5 /.284 Norma for even flatter trajectories - but more recoil
Eric B.
I use a 6.5 Creedmoor for deer and cow elk (as well a long range competition) and suggest it or:
6.5 PRC pr 6.5 /.284 Norma for even flatter trajectories - but more recoil
Eric B.
johnlittletree
Well-Known Member
Love it someone gives you really solid advice but it is not what you want to hear so it is pitched right away. "I was thinking something in 6.5 or 7mm."......If you want a specific answer that you have already selected as the only answer why bother to ask anyone else? Nothing fired from an AR15 platform is worth using for deer, elk or wild bore not if you are looking for clean kills under less than ideal settings. People get stupid real fast when hunting with a AR15 based platform.
What people are really saying when they do this is " I have already selected the cartridge I want to use now guess what it is and pat me on the back for it!"
6mm Creedmoor or 243
Mag., 6mm Rem., 243 Win. and 6mm Creedmoor. All are viable hunting cartridges, but the Creedmoor is proving the best competition round. Similarly, the 6mm Creedmoor compares to the 243 Winchester. ... Both cartridges throw 100-grain to 108-grain bullets about 2,950-fps to 3,000 fps MV from 24" to 26" barrels.Mar 26, 2017(Google Source).
I can see why someone would like the 7-08 but exactly what is it that you think makes the 6.5 Creedmore so desirable outside of punching paper? For the record nothing against the Hornady Proprietary cartridges other than the propaganda and the constant shortage of brass and loaded ammo and lack of very many offering in bullet weight at any given store that happens to have some in stock! Think about it the 7,62x51, 7mm-08, and 6.5 Creedmore are so close to each other when talking about hunting white tail out to 650m as to be practicably interchangeable. 6 of one and a half dozen of the other! For a hunting round though the 7.62x51 and the 7-08 both have access to much heavier bullets than the 6.5's when looking at it from a hunting stand point. A lot of the uber 6.5 bullets do not hold up well in hunting.
Is your primary goal to kill meat for the freezer as cheaply as possible with components that are never out of stock or be trendy? If you really want to have problems and be the trendiest person at Deer camp go with 6.5x47L you would likely be the only guy in 500 miles of deer camp shooting the 6.5x47. Want to be even trendier put it in a AI-AW rifle or a Model 7. You can not be trendy and have great component selection and huge variety of in stock factory loaded ammo one or the other!
The 7mm-08 is a legend in deer hunting and it can be used just as well on Elk so long as you do not get crazy with the yardage. Mr. Bell killed 1100+ Elephants with brain shots with a 7mm Mauser the cartridge that the 7mm-08 is based on.The 6.5x55 is a legend a few decades back in High Power Shooting and globally as a Moose, Elk, White Tail cartridge.The 260 Remington was designed to replicate the 6.5x55 Swede cartridge. The Creedmore makes marginaly more sense for some competition use but for hunting it does nothing that the far cheaper to load and easier to find factory loaded ammo of the Remington 260. Hard cold facts not hype. More deer have likely been dropped with 30-06, 30-30 and 12ga. slugs than anything else but no one ever comes on this sight wanting any of those! LOL Yes The slug especially even if fired like artillery would not make it to the deer at 650m.LOL My point is you have cartridges that are proven winners and then you have trendy! I can remember when Alf and David Hasselhoff bikini underwear with their faces on them was trendy in Germany for grown men trendy is seldom the best way to go. No one makes or sells those anymore but ugly tighty-whities are still being sold!
People seem to forget that this is a hunting forum and if hunting is not the primary focus of the discussion than it belongs on a another forum on this site not Long Range Hunting.
I can still remember when the 6.5x55 and 7-08 were all the rage! We did not see the shortage of brass though or a lack of match grade bass when they became trendy unlike the Hornady and Nossler proprietary cartridges.
Sadly no one comes on here and says "I want to blow money on a trendy cartridge I do not need and can not routinely get brass for just because I have more money than common sense!" If someone did that then I would have no choice but to recommend the PRC line of cartridges, 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum, 6.5-300WM AI and other crazy stuff not needed to kill a white tail at 650m!
So we either have people asking the wrong questions or we have a lot of group think and ego stroking going on.
What people are really saying when they do this is " I have already selected the cartridge I want to use now guess what it is and pat me on the back for it!"
6mm Creedmoor or 243
Mag., 6mm Rem., 243 Win. and 6mm Creedmoor. All are viable hunting cartridges, but the Creedmoor is proving the best competition round. Similarly, the 6mm Creedmoor compares to the 243 Winchester. ... Both cartridges throw 100-grain to 108-grain bullets about 2,950-fps to 3,000 fps MV from 24" to 26" barrels.Mar 26, 2017(Google Source).
I can see why someone would like the 7-08 but exactly what is it that you think makes the 6.5 Creedmore so desirable outside of punching paper? For the record nothing against the Hornady Proprietary cartridges other than the propaganda and the constant shortage of brass and loaded ammo and lack of very many offering in bullet weight at any given store that happens to have some in stock! Think about it the 7,62x51, 7mm-08, and 6.5 Creedmore are so close to each other when talking about hunting white tail out to 650m as to be practicably interchangeable. 6 of one and a half dozen of the other! For a hunting round though the 7.62x51 and the 7-08 both have access to much heavier bullets than the 6.5's when looking at it from a hunting stand point. A lot of the uber 6.5 bullets do not hold up well in hunting.
Is your primary goal to kill meat for the freezer as cheaply as possible with components that are never out of stock or be trendy? If you really want to have problems and be the trendiest person at Deer camp go with 6.5x47L you would likely be the only guy in 500 miles of deer camp shooting the 6.5x47. Want to be even trendier put it in a AI-AW rifle or a Model 7. You can not be trendy and have great component selection and huge variety of in stock factory loaded ammo one or the other!
The 7mm-08 is a legend in deer hunting and it can be used just as well on Elk so long as you do not get crazy with the yardage. Mr. Bell killed 1100+ Elephants with brain shots with a 7mm Mauser the cartridge that the 7mm-08 is based on.The 6.5x55 is a legend a few decades back in High Power Shooting and globally as a Moose, Elk, White Tail cartridge.The 260 Remington was designed to replicate the 6.5x55 Swede cartridge. The Creedmore makes marginaly more sense for some competition use but for hunting it does nothing that the far cheaper to load and easier to find factory loaded ammo of the Remington 260. Hard cold facts not hype. More deer have likely been dropped with 30-06, 30-30 and 12ga. slugs than anything else but no one ever comes on this sight wanting any of those! LOL Yes The slug especially even if fired like artillery would not make it to the deer at 650m.LOL My point is you have cartridges that are proven winners and then you have trendy! I can remember when Alf and David Hasselhoff bikini underwear with their faces on them was trendy in Germany for grown men trendy is seldom the best way to go. No one makes or sells those anymore but ugly tighty-whities are still being sold!
People seem to forget that this is a hunting forum and if hunting is not the primary focus of the discussion than it belongs on a another forum on this site not Long Range Hunting.
I can still remember when the 6.5x55 and 7-08 were all the rage! We did not see the shortage of brass though or a lack of match grade bass when they became trendy unlike the Hornady and Nossler proprietary cartridges.
Sadly no one comes on here and says "I want to blow money on a trendy cartridge I do not need and can not routinely get brass for just because I have more money than common sense!" If someone did that then I would have no choice but to recommend the PRC line of cartridges, 6.5-300 Weatherby Magnum, 6.5-300WM AI and other crazy stuff not needed to kill a white tail at 650m!
So we either have people asking the wrong questions or we have a lot of group think and ego stroking going on.
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Orange Dust
Well-Known Member
These are both excellent choices for the conditions asked for by the OP. I may get some flack, but the 257 WBY mentioned earlier is not. It lacks the power needed for anything other than broadside shots over 500. The 257 is fine further, but you are limited, and have to be very careful how the animal is standing that far. You can get away with a quartering shot that far with a 270mag and 150's.
Orange Dust
Well-Known Member
I will also add if you don't want a magnum, a 7mm-08 loaded hot with a 139gr SST is as good as it gets for deer in a non magnum. Hornady makes this in a factory load.
Considering you don't handload and you are looking at factory ammo, plus the fact you have a rifle with SERIOUS horsepower in the 300 ultra mag, if I were you I'd be plunking my money down on a Ridgeline in 6.5 Creedmoor. Plentiful factory ammo with all types of bullets these days, heck you can get the Hornady American Whitetail ammo with their excellent Interlock bullet for under $20/box. For longer range shooting you can go with the Precision Hunter 143 ELDX. Or other brands.
Then since you don't reload, you can sell the once fired brass for about $0.30 a piece (or maybe more) if you so desire.
Low recoil, cheap to shoot, and gives you more trigger time.
What's not to like???
Then since you don't reload, you can sell the once fired brass for about $0.30 a piece (or maybe more) if you so desire.
Low recoil, cheap to shoot, and gives you more trigger time.
What's not to like???
The 270 sits between 6.5 and 7mm and I have used them out to 300 yards but couldn't go farther due to my scope,Leupold 4 power.
Old Rooster
Old Rooster
FIGJAM
Well-Known Member
The 270 wsm would be another really good round to look at. Good factory ammo, fast and flat, hits hard. Its a really sweet round and what I have been shooting the last couple years. It offers great performance in a short action with a shorter barrel, which equals lighter weight most the time.
WildRose
Well-Known Member
.260 Remington or 6.5CM would both be great choices. I've piled up boatloads of deer and hogs with the .260's over the last five years.
