Thinking of building up a target rifle and looking for input

dsdmmat · Dec 31, 2018

Well I have several target rifles built on 700 actions and one factory target rifle based on the savage 12 action.

My target rifle calibers are 30-06 Springfield, 224 Valkyrie, 6.5 Creedmoor, .223 Remington and .308 Winchester.

I am looking at doing another target rifle on a savage target action in either 5.7x28 (short range) or .224 Valkyrie (long range).

You can buy single shot target actions made by both Remington and Savage, or you can go with the 1800 dollar actions for your build.

Really depends on how much you want to spend. If you buy a used rifle you will have parts to get rid of (trigger, stock, barrel) and some to keep ( bottom metal, recoil lug, magazine internals, and bolts).

A good barrel, trigger and stock will change a run of the mill Remington into a tack driver for as little as 1500 bucks ( if you bought the rifle new).

The 6mm Creedmoor is a factory target round then there are a bunch of wild cats out there in 6mm if you want to load for them. I think the 6XC is one of the top 6mms at the bench.

I would go with your savage action and build off that. You already have it and all you require is a bolt head and barrel for cartridge changes. You can get bolt heads from Pacific tool and gauge pretty reasonable.

GUNSICK · Dec 31, 2018

Used Ruger 77/22 with new barrel free floated, upgraded trigger and a bedded stock.

Jaywmustang · Dec 31, 2018

Remington 700 SPS Barreled Action 6.5 Creedmoor 22" 86503

That and throw it in a chassis system. Is weight a factor?

nortatoga · Dec 31, 2018

You could look into some of the Bench rest forums! A friend of mine shot a Savage (not sure if it was the 110 or 112 series) in 223 and did quit well, After he shot the barrel out he re-barreled it with a Hart barrel and did even better. He has since upgraded to a actual bench rest rifle in some variant of 6mm.

We both belong to Pine Tree Rifle Club in Johnstown NY ( though it is not my home Club as it is 38 miles away my home Club is 5 miles away) PINE TREE RIFLE CLUB , they hold a lot of matches that may interest you.

Vapor · Dec 31, 2018

Howa barreled action. You can get them at brownells. Or with that budget, one of the new tc chassis rifles.

I have a savage model 10 heavy barrel that I bought a chassis for. Still less than $1000.

Don't discount. 243 win.

7.62x51FMJ · Dec 31, 2018

+1000 for what Vapor said. I just built a Howa 1500 in .308, yeah I know, with a 24 inch heavy barrel. 475 bucks. Then plopped it into a HS Precision stock for 350 bucks. If ya got the rest of the accessories you're good to go for not a lot of money. They also have the heavy in 6.5 Creed if you swing that way. You can also use the Hogue fully Aluminum bedded stock for 200 bucks to save a little cash. But not as good as the HS Precision stock.

Oh and it was easier than building an AR rifle.

nortatoga · Dec 31, 2018

Vapor said:
Howa barreled action. You can get them at brownells. Or with that budget, one of the new tc chassis rifles.

I have a savage model 10 heavy barrel that I bought a chassis for. Still less than $1000.

Don't discount. 243 win.

7.62x51FMJ said:
+1000 for what Vapor said. I just built a Howa 1500 in .308, yeah I know, with a 24 inch heavy barrel. 475 bucks. Then plopped it into a HS Precision stock for 350 bucks. If ya got the rest of the accessories you're good to go for not a lot of money. They also have the heavy in 6.5 Creed if you swing that way. You can also use the Hogue fully Aluminum bedded stock for 200 bucks to save a little cash. But not as good as the HS Precision stock.

Oh and it was easier than building an AR rifle.

I own two Howa's a 223 and a 308 well made rifles. And I if I remember you can now order different barrel twist rates!

BDinPutnam · Dec 31, 2018

I haven't built one but Howa does seem to make nice stuff. My FIL has a 300 win mag that is magna ported and shoots like a 308, it's a nice piece and good quality.

tony · Dec 31, 2018

If this was truly for your wife I would look for a used short action rifle with a sporter weight barrel in .243 Win. (or the like). I like Rem. or Savage actions. I say a sporter weight barrel so your wife can handle it easier than manhandling a heavy barrel around. Remember, you want it to be fun for HER. Load her ammunition down a little, use lighter bullets like 75 grainers. If you've created a new shooting partner you can always have the action rebarrelled with a heavier contour later if she wants. If she doesn't care for paper punching have it rebarrelled for something you like. Don't rule out an old standard like the .243.

Another reason for the Rem or Savage action is that there seems to be much aftermarket stuff for them. Your long action Savage and a short action cartridge selection will require more parts to make user friendly.

Good luck.

meketrefe · Dec 31, 2018

A savage precision carbine or LRP model (12 too) chambered in 6mmBR will produce groups inside a dime at 100 yards, consistently.
Also a remington 700 but will have to be blueprinted and then chambered for that round so while at it most likely will be better to go
with an aftermarket Remington 700 action and in this area the Bergara is the best value right now. Buy a new rifle and use that one.
No need to blueprint or anything else, just re-barrel.

Why the 6mm BR? Well for once is the king of BR score competition. Less powder than others, the perfect amount I would say and
the 6mm bullets are among the best value comparable to 22 yet ballistically superior for anything one wants to do. It is one of the
most efficient casings ever devised and lapua brass and ammo is good to win a gold medal so no need for anything else.

Another good one is the 6.5mm BR but this is a cat same as the 7mm BR or the 30 BR also with a huge following in br crowd.

I would say get a 8 twist and then one can do amazing things with something as short as a 21" barrel, tactical, practical work, hunting
included. But if one does the home work it is a very good candidate that produces tack drivers.

This is a round that can be also shared with an AR15 upper but for keeping the 20-21" compact rifle I would say the 6.5mm BR is
a tad more versatil and barrels last even more.

No need for 308 cases or below. Too much powder and not really needed for that kind of work. keep in mind the 6mm has value packs
in the same price as the 22 caliber match. Like a hornady or sierra bulk pack of 105gr match bullets for arond the same same
as the 75-80gr 22 caliber ones but better bullets in terms of ballistics coefficients.

One also has the mazing 95gr bergers that come out screaming.

I would say research the proven calibers that are easy on the pocket and same for the actions/rifle. No need to reinvent anything
at this point. The new fashions come and go and some of these older calibers will still be there winning the competitions.

If you want to go 6.5mm that I believe is not really necessary specially with larger cases, then the 6.5mmx47 lapua is one that
is a very good quality round. It has been racking up medals all over the world since it came out.

But as one goes up in powder and grain then the cost comes up and at some point one is going to wonder about the 7mm
that offers the best possible ballistics across the board in small calibers w/o getting into ultra magnums.

If you reload the 7mm-08 will do everything the 6mm, 6.5mm and even the venerable 308 will do and much more. But
then where does one stop.

that is why I suggest to look into the 6mm very closely. Choose a bullet that is good like a 105gr-107gr Match and the rest is choosing
the "postman" to send that bullet that in this case the BR does not need introduction and w/o going with some of the overbored
casings and the corresponding barrel torching.

Choose the bullet and bore you want and then build around for that to be all the best it can be and to fit you and fit your needs.

Everything starts and ends with a bullet, hopefully a good one. The rest is just the means of delivering that mail.

meketrefe · Dec 31, 2018

Two things.

Howas.

Regarding the Howas. Their actions are not total crap but they are also weak.
I have never seen one fail in person but in competition circles it is known they have given up at a faster rate than other well proven, time tested actions.
I have not worked with this action but I understand the concerns from others who have worked with them and explained the failures and look at blueprints.
They could be better should they had more meat around the tenon and more rigidity and support for the lugs. But there are concerns about the heat
treatement mistakes too.

Another one that is even worse is the Mossberg patriot that folks are using for rebarreling projects but mossberg went overboard with the mill trying
to make the action lighter and left something weaker than what it shoudl be.

For a starting budget the Savage axis is the best and can be made a match action but at a cost unless you are a gunsmith or machinist.

I do believe the bergara is hard to beat for a remington blue print but also consider a savage 10 with the nice barrel swap and bolt face swap feature.

The savage predator (not the XP) has the same beefed up receiver as their LRP models that are also well priced. The only one beefed up like
that is their BGA and the 338 lapua but that is in Long Action and larger thread size. Not a huge deal since all average calibers work great with
the standard shank/threads.
In other words, the LRP is like the target action (all beefed up) but wiht the bottom milled for the bottom metal and magazine.

If one wants to spend some money in aftermarket I feel the Bergara is first (great budget) but then the mauser-Winchester hybrid
in a remington 700 blueprint with the benefit of intergrated recoild lug (machined into the action from a single billet) and then
the amazing controlled feed and fixed ejector plunger. I prefer this system than the SAko or Badger extractor systems.
Another thing the bergara fixes nicely, better than the sako or expensive Badger retrofit. Amazing value.

As you go up in actions and feature prepare the wallet, obviously! lol

2nd thing about the 243 winchester.

Awesome round no doubt but not the ideal for this type of use. It is obviouly overbored like the 6x47 lapua, creed, X, etc..
If you look closely the 6mm BR is not too far behind with almost 1/2 the powder and barrel will last twice and
proven winner.

Again not a bad round but not really the round for this type of work imo.

meketrefe · Jan 1, 2019

fnfalguy said:
So this AM at around 5am, the dog woke me up and then he went back to sleep. I guess he was prompting me to get on the interwebs to add to my confusion. Now I’m thinking going in two parallel paths:
1) get 223 barrel for the Savage 112, will have to have the bolt switched out as well as it is in 308
2) look at either 6x45 barrel for AR or 6x45 complete upper. Swap out trigger in one of my lowers to something a bit less milspec.

Thoughts?

6x45 is a very budget friendly round and very accurate with some good reloading. I have them and they are a joy to play with this and shoot.
just keep in mind they are a tad slower rounds (3-4 grains or so difference ) so they do not produce the same speeds but for the type
of use you do they can be very handy. Also look at the 6mm TCU that gives you 1 extra grain.

I think I had a thread on the 6x45 here or other forums. I have to check.

Upstate43 · Jan 1, 2019

.223 makes the most sense for right now.

Low recoil: check.
Will be good for new shooters: check.
100-300 yards max: check.

Plenty of used or even new actions/rifles for not much $.

If you already have a .308 rifle, I honestly don't see much point in going to a 6mm or larger. Some of those 6mm and 6.5mm will offer better recoil relative to the .308, but there is quite a bit of overlap in capabilities. More importantly, if you're only dealing with 300 yards max, any of those calibers will be overkill.

Vapor · Jan 1, 2019

Upstate43 said:
.223 makes the most sense for right now.

Low recoil: check.
Will be good for new shooters: check.
100-300 yards max: check.

Plenty of used or even new actions/rifles for not much $.

If you already have a .308 rifle, I honestly don't see much point in going to a 6mm or larger. Some of those 6mm and 6.5mm will offer better recoil relative to the .308, but there is quite a bit of overlap in capabilities. More importantly, if you're only dealing with 300 yards max, any of those calibers will be overkill.

I was actually think that any modern center fire cartridge chambered in a bolt action or ar will easily handle 1-300. Caliber selection is only important related to recoil comfort for the shooter , price, and easy of ammunition procurement.

meketrefe · Jan 1, 2019

223 is an awesome round. The only problem with the 22 calibers is the limited amount of decent match bullets. They are good for 800 yards but any 6mm for the same price will do much better bucking the wind. So lets say it puts the equivalent to a 77gr-80gr 22 bullet with a 6mm 105-107gr projectile to 800 yards with more precision and
even out to 1000 yards if one wants to go for that kind of distance with everything else that
this requires, specially training and study along with optics and other equipment.

But in the shorter distances out of 500 yards is the same effect. 6mm is more consistent specially in days with wind. If one wanted to hunt also the 6mm assortment starts where the
22 caliber ends with options that are appropriate for white tail, pigs and what not. Also a huge benefit of the 6mm over the 22 caliber unless you are talking about small animals only.

The cheap ammo is really out of the equation here because it doesn't matter how much 223 ammo variants are, all the other regular ammo cannot
be used for the purpose of this thread.

Then it becomes a matter of convenience, reload or not preference. Even the 6mmBR with match winning commercial ammo available from lapua and
Norma one wants to probably reload because of the huge savings.

So once you pass that dilemma then the 6mm TCU, 6x45, 6mm-6.8, 6mm dasher become also great alternatives at different levels of complexity
and cost (specially brass).

The 6x45 is so forgiving it is actually easier to reload than the 223. Sometimes I think one can piss inside a case and still get sub moa ammo with
a progressive reloader. Brass, magazines and bolts is the same we use for 223.

In the AR15 the 6.5BR is a very efficient round if one wants to get something that does both worlds.

The valkyrie doesn't make much sense. This is a caliber should have been in 6mm. The 6mm WASP can be used to make a round based
on the 6.8spc case that outperforms the 22 caliber. It will essentially be a 6mm valkyrie. The 22 nosler could also be used for those who want
to use the 223 bolt but then pay more for the brass.

All that is needed is: 6mm wasp reamer, 6mm neck throather, or order the barrel headspaced with a 6.8 or 223 bolt (6.8 or 22nosler donor)
and then the 6mm Wasp dies.

So many simple great options.

meketrefe · Jan 15, 2019

Great rounds! the BR is so fun and so freaking accurate. The king of BR Score competition!
Plus the barrels last much longer than the 243, 6x47 lapua, dasher, 6 creed. and all the other Overbored nonsense, all for a few extra fps that are not even needed.
I mean the 6x47 lapua is another that has been racking up medals left and right all over the world but not worth the expense unless one is going to compete IMO.
The BR is one of the most efficient and inherently accurate cases ever devised in the history of firearms. If you see all the latest 6.5 and 6mm saturday
night fever fashions the freebore, sholder and upper dimensions are all inspired in the 6mm BR itself.

Of course one can go hotter but IMO, at the end of the day, less becomes more.

Don't even bother to spend more in Norma brass. Lapua has to be the most inexpensive brass ever. If you take care of it and don't go too hot and anneal ones in a while with this BR one, it will last for ever.

I had lapua 308 palma cases give me 50+ reloads w/o loosing primer pocket tension or showing signs of stress. Of course w/o going crazy that is what ruins ANY brass.

meketrefe · Jan 15, 2019

Barrels... oh boy! lol.

I like Krieger 5R barrels and have several of them and, yes they are as good as they cost.
But for the 6mm I am not particularly sold on Krieger and find others to be very good like Bartlein, Lothar Walter and of course Rock Barrels also 5R.
I think for a budget barrel a Wilson Match barrel is the same as ones they use in PAc-Nor and they also have polygonal.
the best polygonal barrels are lothar walther IMO but they do not have them in all the bores.

There are so many good options that your head will spin. Just see if you find a good one with quality chambering jobs and precut perhaps
will save you some money vs. ordering from a blank. You can lap it yourself.

Twist I would go with 8 or 7.5 but 8 should be enough for most of the bullet lengths you are going to shoot with a BR case.

I use 8 twist across the board for all the 6mm cartriges. I am not interested in 115grainers or crazy long solids for any 6mm caliber.

Also don't go nuts with length. 21"-22" is about perfect and while 24 will give you a tad more speed perhaps no longer than 22 will make a very
handy rifle. I guess it depends if you want to squeeze a few extra fps. This case is not as wasteful as a 243 or the other larger 6mm and
will give a good burn w/o going nuts. In fact, in those others w/o 26-28 barrels is wasting powder. So one more reason for those being wasteful.

meketrefe · Jan 15, 2019

fnfalguy said:
@meketrefe Based on the price of this one, I’m guessing I shouldn’t expect much if I went this route, but figured I would ask. EABCO Accuracy Barrel fits Savage 10/110 and Axis, 6 BR Norma, 1:8, Blue

I don't really know them nor used them.
What stock are you using?
I think you could go for a premium barrel and stay below 1.2K for the whole rifle (w/o glass)

Profiled but not chambered....

6mm/.243 5R 1:8 Twist, 26" Finished, #13 Barrel | Grizzly Industrial

Reamer...

PTG Interchangeable Pilot Chamber Finish Reamer 6.5mm - MPN: 892317

meketrefe · Jan 15, 2019

Shilen SS... very good price. Backorder.
Shilen Barrel Savage 110 Series Standard Shank 6mm - UPC: 197706966896

meketrefe · Jan 15, 2019

fnfalguy said:
Put myself on the back order list and holy crap the go/no go gauges for 6BR are crazy expensive compared to other ones I’ve purchased

The rifle currently is sitting in this
Choate Ultimate Sniper Savage Stock - Bedded, Free Floated, Designed by Maj. John Plaster

You don't need the go/nogo headspace gauges. It is a waste of money. Nobody needs them in fact.

All you need is sized case from your dies as you are going to headspace it to your brass
to get the most accurate possible fit. Perhaps your favorite commercial ammo too, and will headspace to make
sure both are snug but the bolt can drop easily pushing gently with one finger.
The headspace gauge is more something for lawyers, not precision builders or shooters.

It seems to me the choate stocks need some work on them like a full bedding right?
Is not that they are bad but are not like top tier out of the box.
Perhaps you have done that already?

nortatoga · Jan 16, 2019

If you are looking to get in to some serious competition check-out pinetreerifleclub.org They have monthly matches in the summer, alternating 100 and 200 yard matches. I've been a member for 8/9 years though I haven't been in awhile as it is about a 40 mile drive and my other Club is 5 miles away.

Phauxtoe · Jan 16, 2019

look into HIGH POWER rifles and websites Tons of info and amazing usable rifles.
I am building a Service Match Rifle, Mine is a semi auto. going to matches you see AMAZING bolt guns and those guys shot them from Prone, standing and sitting.

I just dont understand bench rest guns, its a reloading hobby!

nortatoga · Jan 16, 2019

Not shooting like this even prone.

meketrefe · Jan 16, 2019

nortatoga said:
Not shooting like this even prone.

View attachment 38942

It would be nice if it was larger to be able to read it. What caliber?

Thinking of building up a target rifle and looking for input

.308 Win

Donut Master

6.5 Creedmoor

.308 Win

.338 Win Mag

.308 Win

9mm

.338 Win Mag

.475 A&M Magnum

.223 Rem

.450/400 Nitro Ex

.450/400 Nitro Ex

.308 Win

.308 Win

.450/400 Nitro Ex

.45 acp

.308 Win

.450/400 Nitro Ex

.308 Win

.450/400 Nitro Ex

.450/400 Nitro Ex

.308 Win

.450/400 Nitro Ex

.450/400 Nitro Ex

.308 Win

.450/400 Nitro Ex

.338 Win Mag

.338 Win Mag

.338 Win Mag

.450/400 Nitro Ex