As always appreciate all the advice.
I'm pretty sold at this point on getting the threaded 20" Tikka T3X Lite.
I'll be a decent regular at the range once I get a rifle and take some lessons. That's already budgeted for.
My budget for rifle, scope, and suppressor is around 5k all in, but I'm also happy not spending all that at this point. Just because I saved it all doesn't mean I need to spend it haha. It'll be way lower than that for the Tikka set up.
Plus after becoming proficient at shooting, I still have to learn to hunt. I'll learn a lot a long the way and then can think about modifying it or upgrading later.
Man if I had a 5k budget and was starting from scratch, I'd do the following (this is where I'd end up)
Tikka .223 $700
SWFA 6x42 MQ $350
Sportsmatch TO84 rings $60
AB A-10 suppressor (optional since you'll have the can for your other rifle)
A little over $1k in a rifle that will realistically do absolutely everything that you stated you wanted to do. Most productive, highest value training rifle there is. It'll pay for itself with ammo savings in a few years if you want to learn to shoot further than it is capable. Perfectly fine main/only rifle until you want to grow that 400 yard max effective range on animals. You'll never regret owning it. Perfect backup/loaner rifle with essentially infinite barrel life. $0.70 per round for good practice ammo, $1.30-1.50 per round for good 77TMK hunting ammo.
Tikka T3X .243, sell stock and barrel $500
6CM prefit from
@hereinaz or PBB $600
Rokstok $600
Maven RS1.2 $1200
UM rings $130
Unknown Suppressors OG or AB Raptor 6 or 8 suppressor $1200
$4200 in a setup that will hang with rifles 3-4x its cost for ability to put rounds on target at any conceivable reasonable range. Effective terminal range of 800+ (way further than the vast majority of us should be shooting animals). Targets to 1200+ for sure. Easy and good factory ammo that doesn't break the bank. Spend a little more for cerakote and barrel fluting if you want to make all the other girls jealous at the range. Do the Rokstok later if the budget prefers it.
Honestly though, this whole rifle could easily wait another year or two. The way I would get to the above setup is to get the .223, Rokstok, Maven, UM rings, and OG/AB suppressor now and have a kickass setup you can shoot the crap out of without worries of barrel life, ammo cost, etc. Very low recoil, very fast learning curve, and if you haven't read the .223 for deer, elk, moose thread do that and kill a few animals with it.
Next year (or later) get the 6CM or 22CM set up and swap stock, scope/rings, etc onto it. Put the factory stock from it on the .223, pick up the SWFA for the .223, and now you have two excellent rifles that are a perfect complement to each other for 99.99% of anything anyone ever needs to do with a bolt action rifle in North America.
Edit to add: The only reason for the barrel swap is that Tikka doesn't currently chamber the T3X in 6CM. If they did I would 100% leave the factory barrel on. The reason for 6CM instead of .243 is that it is easy and affordable to find factory ammo with the bullets that work best in 6mm diameter. I have a .243 AI made from a factory Tikka barrel that I love, but it only works for someone who loads their own ammo. The straight .243 Tikka is great if you hand load, but the 103 ELDX and 108/109 ELDM are not readily available (unless through a boutique ammo maker like Unknown Munitions). You could certainly buy from them, but the difference in ammo cost per round pays for the barrel and then some (especially if you're able to sell the factory barrel unfired). The 90 ELDX is available as factory ammo, but it's not taking full advantage of what a 6mm can do. Realistically it won't be what holds you back, but in the context of this scenario I would do the route that gets me the bullet I'd really prefer to shoot.
seriously appreciated
