Which caliber for Remington 700 long action (3006 bolt face) rebarrel?

[JC in Calif]

I have a Remington 700 long action with a bolt face for a 3006 and it is the drop floorplate type action for the internal magazine. What are some other cartridge options for this rifle with no modification other than the barrel swap of course? This would be hunting out to 400 yards (deer with a very occasional black bear) and target shooting out to 600 yards. I wish to keep relatively light weight so the barrel will be a sporter or magnum sporter type contour. I would like to keep the barrel to 24 inches max. I will put a brake on it if it is anything more than say a 7mm08 haha as I do not care for recoil lol. Open to all suggestions! As an FYI I do reload so outside the norm cartridges are ok. I currently shoot a 6.5creed, 6.5 prc (my love at the moment haha), 7mm08, 7mm rem mag and a 28nosler. I am trying to avoid hyper barrel burners like the 28nosler but I am ok with slight barrel burners like the traditional 300 win mag or 7mm rem mag. Thanks!

I built a 6.5/284. LA allows plenty of room to seat bullets out.

 

[Alibiiv]

I built a 6.5/284. LA allows plenty of room to seat bullets out.

Im
Not sure this will fit the bolt face without opening it, and the feed rails might have to be modified

 

[FlyGuy11]

I have a Remington 700 long action with a bolt face for a 3006 and it is the drop floorplate type action for the internal magazine. What are some other cartridge options for this rifle with no modification other than the barrel swap of course? This would be hunting out to 400 yards (deer with a very occasional black bear) and target shooting out to 600 yards. I wish to keep relatively light weight so the barrel will be a sporter or magnum sporter type contour. I would like to keep the barrel to 24 inches max. I will put a brake on it if it is anything more than say a 7mm08 haha as I do not care for recoil lol. Open to all suggestions! As an FYI I do reload so outside the norm cartridges are ok. I currently shoot a 6.5creed, 6.5 prc (my love at the moment haha), 7mm08, 7mm rem mag and a 28nosler. I am trying to avoid hyper barrel burners like the 28nosler but I am ok with slight barrel burners like the traditional 300 win mag or 7mm rem mag. Thanks!

I ran into the same problem, if you handload 280 A.I.

 

[duckklr]

How about an up-size drill-out and cut re-rifle bore to 8MM-06? Hornady 8mm 170gr. SST at 2700fps with 50.3 grains of H4895. Costs about $300 plus shipping for just a barrel rebore with a wait of 3-4 months.
I'm a fan of big bore and shoot the 8mm Rem Mag (western mules) and the .375 H&H (Africa). I'm running out of 8MM brass (100 on back-order from Australia).
The last two years I've used the 8mm Rem Mag with Hornady 8mm 170 gr. SST (at 3100 fps with 77gr of IMR 4350) for Bang-Flops in Wyoming and Nevada, last year off-hand at under 100-yards. The rifle has a new Bartlein 26" SS barrel on a Hogue stock with full length aluminum support and one pound of mechanical recoil absorber and weighs in at 11+ lbs and yes I do carry/stalk with it and I'm just about to turn 73.
So, since I'm getting low on 8mm Rem Mag brass and have lots of 8MM bullets, I'm going to have at least one of the three old Rem 700's I just bought on-line rebored and re-rifled to 8mm-06. Yes, I do use a lead sled with 50lbs of bagged lead shot on it so I can shoot all I need when working up a load at the range but on the trail, when I pull the trigger on game I never feel the recoil nor hear the report.
With an 8mm-06 I'll always have access to brass (many hundreds of 30-06 empties) and the recoil will be the same as shooting a 30-06 with a 170-grain projectile and, the new 8mm bore will be cut grooves rather than hammer forged. For more detail info on the 8mm-06 go to BasllisticStudies.com for Terminal Ballistics Research. Happy Big banging.

 

[CHAGA50]

I have a Remington 700 long action with a bolt face for a 3006 and it is the drop floorplate type action for the internal magazine. What are some other cartridge options for this rifle with no modification other than the barrel swap of course? This would be hunting out to 400 yards (deer with a very occasional black bear) and target shooting out to 600 yards. I wish to keep relatively light weight so the barrel will be a sporter or magnum sporter type contour. I would like to keep the barrel to 24 inches max. I will put a brake on it if it is anything more than say a 7mm08 haha as I do not care for recoil lol. Open to all suggestions! As an FYI I do reload so outside the norm cartridges are ok. I currently shoot a 6.5creed, 6.5 prc (my love at the moment haha), 7mm08, 7mm rem mag and a 28nosler. I am trying to avoid hyper barrel burners like the 28nosler but I am ok with slight barrel burners like the traditional 300 win mag or 7mm rem mag. Thanks!

280 AI .,

 

[Wyo32]

I built a 6.5/284. LA allows plenty of room to seat bullets out.

Im
Not sure this will fit the bolt face without opening it, and the feed rails might have to be modified

Bolt face is the same but may need to tweek feed rails. Mine required no modification for my 284 Win (Lapua).

 

[Alibiiv]

I would choose the 35 Whelen: powerful, good range an accurate. It exploits the power available from the 30-06 case much like the 358 Winchester does from the 308 case. You need to hand load to make these two grand old cartridges sing.

This one reply got me laughing, I like the way you think!!! The OP pretty much has the smaller calibers covered quite well, great reply!! I have a couple of Ruger 77s that started out life as 30-06s, JES reboring turned the into 35 Whelens; 1-15!twist.We shoot steel out to 300 yards consistently, I'm sure with some practice 400 yards would be a possibility, but......after 300 yards the data I've read has some serious trajectory drop going on

 

[Alibiiv]

Bolt face is the same but may need to tweek feed rails. Mine required no modification for my 284 Win (Lapua).

Rebated rim right? The cartridge does have good ballistics, just not familiar with the round!!

 

[Saskquatch6]

All great suggestions so far - I think I'd lean toward the 280AI but it may be redundant to your other 7mm's. I also have a soft spot for 6.5x55AI (close ballistic twin to 6.5-284) and (at least up here for now) Lapua brass is available and good loads can be developed with a wide range of slow burning powders. Bullet selection is hit or miss, but have had good accuracy with almost anything 120-156 gr. If you want something a little bit different from what you already have in the safe it'd be hard to beat 270 Win or 270AI. Great problem to have Bigeclipse!

 

[jarnold37]

I have a Remington 700 long action with a bolt face for a 3006 and it is the drop floorplate type action for the internal magazine. What are some other cartridge options for this rifle with no modification other than the barrel swap of course? This would be hunting out to 400 yards (deer with a very occasional black bear) and target shooting out to 600 yards. I wish to keep relatively light weight so the barrel will be a sporter or magnum sporter type contour. I would like to keep the barrel to 24 inches max. I will put a brake on it if it is anything more than say a 7mm08 haha as I do not care for recoil lol. Open to all suggestions! As an FYI I do reload so outside the norm cartridges are ok. I currently shoot a 6.5creed, 6.5 prc (my love at the moment haha), 7mm08, 7mm rem mag and a 28nosler. I am trying to avoid hyper barrel burners like the 28nosler but I am ok with slight barrel burners like the traditional 300 win mag or 7mm rem mag. Thanks!

You named some cartridges that would require the bolt to be opened up, which would also need new extractor. I have tried many different cartridges from 40 grain capacity to 122 grain capacity. I need to be careful in saying this, but I have not really run into a"barrel burning" cartridge. Yes, some erode faster than others, but it seems that quick strings that heat up the barrel seem to be more detrimental to erosion. But, it is easy to change bullet seating depth as the lands move outward. Most rifles are not shot enough to "burn out" the barrel. A well known barrel maker told me most barrels that seem to be burned out are usually just fouled. It was mentioned of one .308 that had almost 10,000 round and could no longer get to the riflings and bullet was barely into the neck. However, after all of this, I would like to recommend a chambering to go with. The 30-06. You can get great brass, it is not overbore, it is well balanced and accurate. It will shoot 150 grain bullet at 3000 fps and has enough case capacity to shoot bigger bullets for almost any type of hunting.

 

[Jlusk]

If your true expectation is to hunt at 400 yards than stick with the 30-06. It gives you the flexibility to shoot lighter/faster bullets for small to medium game, while also allowing heavy bullets for medium/large game. In reality, if you really hunt in the 300 yard range I would choose the 35 Whelen. The 35 Whelen will never feel like too much gun for small/medium game, and will put down medium/large game with authority within 300 yards.

 

[264 Win Mag Man]

For quite awhile the 280ai was the most popular rifle I built and everyone loves them. Not till a few yrs ago did the creed beat it out on the customs I built. It's still the number 2 cartridge I do. I built quite a few 6.5-06imp for 1000 yd BR shooters and it's a hammer as well. The 6.5-284 will be kind of redundant to your prc. I'm a big fan of 6.5s because of recoil concerns and I don't put brakes on my hunting rifles. If you didn't already have a 65prc I would do the 65-284 but since you do the 280ai is a very nice do all cartridge. Nothing wrong with a reg 280 either. Have fun choosing or just build one of each.
shep

I like the 6.5-06 ai easy on brass and you can use 30-06 brass lots available .

 

[DirectDrive]

You need a .30 in the stable.

.300 PRC vs. Other .30-Caliber Magnums

Designed specifically for ELR (extra long range) use, the Hornady .300 PRC is optimized for shooting way, way out there.

www.shootingtimes.com

.300 PRC Review: Everything You Need to Know About the Hornady Cartridge - Guns and Ammo

The one glaring weakness in the .30-caliber magnum cartridge lineup is best highlighted by examining the requirement around which Hornady designed the .300 PRC; the requirement came from SOCOM. Here's a full review.

www.gunsandammo.com

 

[HTJ]

I have a Remington 700 long action with a bolt face for a 3006 and it is the drop floorplate type action for the internal magazine. What are some other cartridge options for this rifle with no modification other than the barrel swap of course? This would be hunting out to 400 yards (deer with a very occasional black bear) and target shooting out to 600 yards. I wish to keep relatively light weight so the barrel will be a sporter or magnum sporter type contour. I would like to keep the barrel to 24 inches max. I will put a brake on it if it is anything more than say a 7mm08 haha as I do not care for recoil lol. Open to all suggestions! As an FYI I do reload so outside the norm cartridges are ok. I currently shoot a 6.5creed, 6.5 prc (my love at the moment haha), 7mm08, 7mm rem mag and a 28nosler. I am trying to avoid hyper barrel burners like the 28nosler but I am ok with slight barrel burners like the traditional 300 win mag or 7mm rem mag. Thanks!

270 Winchester would be a fantastic caliber to go with. Excellent hunting caliber