Really dumb caliber question

Sorry, but my research has shown that a .25-06 isn’t enough gun.

I forgot about that thread. I just went back and learned myself up. side note, when did Timmy get the ban hammer?
 
Building a bolt gun is easier than building an AR rifle. MUCH easier.

Headspacing isn’t the only detail to worry about.

On a savage, so is the bolt baffle.


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The bolt heads that let you shoot about any caliber.
I won’t reinvent that discussion. Similar regardless of brand.

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Not one of these are configured as they were purchased.

Top is a savage 10 that started life as a wood model 10Y .243 Remington and is now a model 10 with a .223 Remington heavy Varmint in an MDT XRS.

Model 11 that was a .223 Remington factory contour and is now a model 11 with a heavy Varmint .260 Remington in a 14.25” LOP Bell&Carlson Fiberglass.

Remington 700 .280 Remington with a Bix And Andy Trigger and a bell & carlson Alaskan stock. It’s short, 13.5” LOP. I need to lengthen it over an inch. This is the one I got from @JLS last winter. He’d know what it started life as.

Bottom is ALL “custom”. This is where life can get crazy if you don’t put a budget together and mind the cost.
Big Horn Origin Long action. This is Zermatt Arms “budget” action. There are also short action and magnum configuration available.
Barrel is a criterion Heavy Varmint and is probably on the cheap end of a custom barrel.
Trigger is a triggertech primary and probably one of the most inexpensive aftermarket adjustable triggers on the market. Bix And Andy make one very similar. It’s currently adjusted to 1.5 lb trigger pull. About as light as I’d want a walking hunting rifle.
Chassis is made by Woox. It’s actually the buttstock of one model and the forend of another model.

I don’t have the scopes I want for the .260 Remington model 11 or the Big Horn rifles. But they are all capable of sub 1/2 MOA without effort.

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So the post of Alice falling down the rabbit hole isn’t wrong. It’s worse than reloading. And if you do both…

You’ll go flippin’ insane with the options available to you.


I have $40 a set for each caliber for go/no-go gauges. A $90 action wrench and a $10 barrel nut socket.

Next up will be the PTG unithroat reamer for making custom freebore and throats for ammo.

All .260 Remington.
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The HP is Barnes Match Burner. The red tip is Hornady ELD-X, brown is Nolser Partion.

Red line is where the gun shoots awesome but the bullet boat tail is this far into the case.

Green line is where the bullet will sit if I rethroat the barrel to let me move the bullet boat tail to just be at the neck.

The difference between running a custom chamber and a saami spec.

So how far into this rabbit hole do you care to take it.

I doubt I could go back to a factory gun. The trigger suck on most production rifles once you start shooting these custom triggers. My cousin has a stock Ruger M77 and even he got spoiled he went and got a Timney for it because “it feels like trash” after he got to shooting my savages.

But there is sooooo much more to it than just checking headspace.
 
on tikkas it's pretty much just checking headspace if he's using factory ammo provided he has the correct bolt face...
And how do they control bolt stroke for say a .224 Valkyrie vs a .338 federal?

That’s where savages have a bolt baffle. If you go from a .223 Remington case that has a long baffle to say a .308 case bolt short action, you have to get the shorter bolt baffle or it won’t feed, strip the round from the magazine are even eject it if you happen to single load.
 
And how do they control bolt stroke for say a .224 Valkyrie vs a .338 federal?

That’s where savages have a bolt baffle. If you go from a .223 Remington case that has a long baffle to say a .308 case bolt short action, you have to get the shorter bolt baffle or it won’t feed, strip the round from the magazine are even eject it if you happen to single load.
You CAN change the bolt stop, which is just removing a pin, or you can use different magazines, or you can just run short action cartridges in the long action mags like I do, or whatever you want. It feeds the same regardless.

This, of course, applies to going down, not going up, though it's as simple as putting in a new bolt stop going up.
 
up and down? Bolt stop?
up&down refer to action length, bolt stop is the side botton that releases your bolt.

since you have the max length possible on that receiver, you don’t have to worry about it. If you were wanting to use a shorter cartridge like a 308, you could always use a 308 tikka mag or just use them in the long mag tikka provided you with. That’s all I meant
 
@neffa3

I'm not the world's expert but I know what you're looking at pretty well. I designed and sold my own barrel vise for a few years, and have changed barrels on rifles a LOT for a guy who isn't a gunsmith.

I don't have the inclination to write a guide start-to-finish, but if you want to chat about your options I'm happy to steer you around the curves. PM if interested. And that's not to say there hasn't been plenty of good info in the last three pages, but when you're newer to the space it can be hard to sort everything.
 
You should just save yourself the headache and buy another rifle. You think you'll save money swapping barrels, but you will be half way to a new rifle, or more. Be like the rest of us and have a safe full of rifles that never get used. They're a great investment.

I've been tending that way for the last year or so, but that barrel checks a lot of boxes... and have you priced out rifles lately? Holy cow!
 
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