Christmas Rifle Build for Son

[isItFallYet]

My son just turned 14 and I want to purchase a rifle kit for him for Christmas. By kit, I mean components to build a complete rifle. I’d like the kit to be as “kitchen table” assembled as possible. He already has some hunting shotguns and a M&P15-22 for range days. This particular rifle would primarily be used for white tails, banging steel, and possibly some western hunting in the future. If he’s anything like me, he will keep this rifle forever.

With that being said, what cartridge and components would you recommend? Budget will probably be around $1500 (without optics), so some components can be upgraded by him later. I understand that $1500 doesn’t buy much these days.

Additionally, reloading for it easily would be beneficial. My initial thoughts are .308 or 30-06, just because of the nostalgia factor to me, but I also considered something a bit more mild like .243 Win.

What action? T3 or Rem700?
What stock, barrel, etc?

Also, the rifle will wear an Infinity X can by Liberty Cans (already in the safe).

Thoughts? Recommendations? Experience doing this with your kid?

 

[Billogna]

MY vote is for a Tikka T3 lite in 7mm-08 with an SWFA 3-9 scope. He'll have a hard time "growing out" of that but it won't beat him up either.

 

[sndmn11]

$1500... That's tough


These get you $1399 before shipping/FFL/Black Friday discount

Curtis Custom Scout Action - Preferred Barrel Blanks

The SCOUT action comes with a matte stainless finish. Black anodized aluminum rail. Headspace is within .001. It takes the same barrel tenon as AXIOM and Hybrid. Shares the same ejection port as the Valor. Precision 3 lug bolt action with a 60° bolt throw and standard Remington 700...

preferredbarrelblanks.com

Curtis Custom - Fixed Shoulder - Prefit Barrels

Curtis Custom – Prefit Barrels Curtis Custom offers several actions that hold .001″ tolerance on their headspace datum. The Helix Hybrid, Axiom Hybrid, Scout, and Valor actions all have tightly held tolerances that allow for fixed shoulder prefits. Our barrels are made with the counterbore for...

preferredbarrelblanks.com

Maybe add a Timney and an ebay rem700 factory take off.

I would probably prefer a nucleus to change bolt heads. https://www.americanrifle.com/shop/nucleus-gen2-bolt-action-1062?category=5#attr=384,36,123,18

I very much like the idea of starting off with a Tikka, then ordering a prefit and the tools, or a new stock, or whatever "upgrades" he wishes to get. Going that route could also land you a high volume barrel like a 22br prefit to pair with a factory 6.5creed.

6creed/243/25creed/6.5 creed/7-08

 

[Tullis94]

I would go Tikka in a 7-08 or 6.5 creed. Keep the factory barrel and get a better scope. They are also very customizable if he chooses to in the future. Just my opinion.

 

[isItFallYet]

$1500... That's tough


These get you $1399 before shipping/FFL/Black Friday discount

Curtis Custom Scout Action - Preferred Barrel Blanks

The SCOUT action comes with a matte stainless finish. Black anodized aluminum rail. Headspace is within .001. It takes the same barrel tenon as AXIOM and Hybrid. Shares the same ejection port as the Valor. Precision 3 lug bolt action with a 60° bolt throw and standard Remington 700...

preferredbarrelblanks.com

Curtis Custom - Fixed Shoulder - Prefit Barrels

Curtis Custom – Prefit Barrels Curtis Custom offers several actions that hold .001″ tolerance on their headspace datum. The Helix Hybrid, Axiom Hybrid, Scout, and Valor actions all have tightly held tolerances that allow for fixed shoulder prefits. Our barrels are made with the counterbore for...

preferredbarrelblanks.com

Maybe add a Timney and an ebay rem700 factory take off.

I would probably prefer a nucleus to change bolt heads. https://www.americanrifle.com/shop/nucleus-gen2-bolt-action-1062?category=5#attr=384,36,123,18

I very much like the idea of starting off with a Tikka, then ordering a prefit and the tools, or a new stock, or whatever "upgrades" he wishes to get. Going that route could also land you a high volume barrel like a 22br prefit to pair with a factory 6.5creed.

6creed/243/25creed/6.5 creed/7-08

Yeah, that’s gonna be a little more than $1500

 

[isItFallYet]

I have some 6.5s. This rifle needs to be more of a modern day classic cartridge. I’m even considering 270. I have considered Tikka, and I really like their actions. Their rifles sure have gone up in price over the last couple of years. This would be more about spending time building something together though. I suppose a Tikka chassis swap could be fun…

 

[Unckebob]

$1500... That's tough


These get you $1399 before shipping/FFL/Black Friday discount

Curtis Custom Scout Action - Preferred Barrel Blanks

The SCOUT action comes with a matte stainless finish. Black anodized aluminum rail. Headspace is within .001. It takes the same barrel tenon as AXIOM and Hybrid. Shares the same ejection port as the Valor. Precision 3 lug bolt action with a 60° bolt throw and standard Remington 700...

preferredbarrelblanks.com

Curtis Custom - Fixed Shoulder - Prefit Barrels

Curtis Custom – Prefit Barrels Curtis Custom offers several actions that hold .001″ tolerance on their headspace datum. The Helix Hybrid, Axiom Hybrid, Scout, and Valor actions all have tightly held tolerances that allow for fixed shoulder prefits. Our barrels are made with the counterbore for...

preferredbarrelblanks.com

Maybe add a Timney and an ebay rem700 factory take off.

I would probably prefer a nucleus to change bolt heads. https://www.americanrifle.com/shop/nucleus-gen2-bolt-action-1062?category=5#attr=384,36,123,18

I very much like the idea of starting off with a Tikka, then ordering a prefit and the tools, or a new stock, or whatever "upgrades" he wishes to get. Going that route could also land you a high volume barrel like a 22br prefit to pair with a factory 6.5creed.

6creed/243/25creed/6.5 creed/7-08

That is my build except I used a LA Zermatt Origin, Preferred Barrel Blanks barrel, and a Timney Trigger. I had a old Remington synthetic stock that cost me $55. The Origin is nice in that it has easily replaceable bolt head so I could convert it to 300 PRC if I went insane and "needed" one,

I would get my daughter a 6.5CM or 243 18-20" threaded barrel. Neither of them would beat her up.

Tips for OP: (that I learned in my build)
- If you are looking for a lightweight rifle, a shouldered prefit will probably weigh more than the Barrel Nut version with everything else the same. Ask the people making your barrel.
- if you buy a Remington take off stock, the early synthetic stocks were much stiffer than recent/current synthetic stocks.

 

[Harleyman1974]

Age? I'm looking at a 243 for my son this black Friday... He's only 9, so it'll be some he had to grow into. I'm going to start with the Savage cheapy for him for now.

Sent from my motorola one 5G UW using Tapatalk

 

[B23]

Tikka in 270 Win, IMO, would be an awesome choice for a variety of reasons with one of the most important being they shoot crazy good right out of the box. I have a family member that bought a new Tikka SL in 270 Win and with factory ammo the thing is beyond impressive with how well it shoots.

With the aftermarket constantly growing bigger for Tikka products they've become an awesome platform to build off of, especially, for those wanting to do their own builds.

 

[rkcdvm]

$1500?
You can get some damn good production rifles for that. I like the tikka action. I still shoot my old t3. If you like the rem700 actions, I think bergara still clones them. I have both, I love both. I do have a custom rifle and I will have to say it’s only marginally better (and it’s probably the optics) for the amount of money over the others for the cost.

 

[wnelson14]

$1500?
You can get some damn good production rifles for that. I like the tikka action. I still shoot my old t3. If you like the rem700 actions, I think bergara still clones them. I have both, I love both. I do have a custom rifle and I will have to say it’s only marginally better (and it’s probably the optics) for the amount of money over the others for the cost.

This

You can do alot with a b14 Bergara

 

[pc3]

I bought my son a Begara sporter in .270, reasonably light weight, fits him like a glove and it is accurate. I had a spare Vortex PST 2.5-10x32 FFP on hand and we mounted that in Talley Light Weight's he has taken 5x fallow deer does with it to date.

We load the speer 150 gr spitzer and the BC is reasonably high, that bullet is underrated, really performs well on game.