One Gun to Rule Them All

[DangerRanger]

For hunting, tikka in a rokstok, for competitive shooting…. Ehhhh tikka in a krg


You can for sure shoot the rokstok long if you just want to practice long range

 

[swavescatter]

Expensive lesson to learn: "Custom" rifle builds are generally bull$hit and simply a good way to hemorrhage cash. Modern rifles like Tikka are like Legos - put the pieces together yourself so you learn and save big time.

6.5 Creed is the perfect one gun. Call up Jake at EuroOptic and get the cheapest stainless Tikka they offer. Get a vertical grip and cheek riser and go to town. Save up for an aftermarket stock once you realize what you want. Grab a used Maven RS 1.2 from here - there's going to be a lot dumped on the market now that the S2H scopes are coming out. Sportsmatch T084 rings. Buy a good value suppressor (Airlock or UM seem to be solid choices these days). Have a local gunsmith chop and thread the barrel to your desired length (will need an adapter to go 5/8x24 most likely but that's fine).

Start shooting and familiarizing yourself on how to properly set up a stock Tikka before spending money blindly only to realize you wish you had done something different.

 

[Jordan Smith]

Food for thought, but if your buddies are up to reload (or you are up to get into it), an 8 twist 7mm-08 will do everything a 6.5 CM will do in terms of low recoil loads in the 120 to 140 something bullet class, but can also be loaded up with heavier and higher BC projectiles and do everything a 7mag or PRC will do, just not quite as far out as they will.

More upsides:

Much higher BC bullets available in 7mm for reach out and touch something work.

Feed 308 brass (second only to 5.56 for being the most common rifle brass on the planet) through a sizing die and get instant 7mm-08 brass.

Straddles the fence on suitable powders, so you can use most of the 308 class powders (Varget, R15, H4895, etc) all the way up through all the powders used in. 6.5 Creed and 30-06.

Downsides:

Nobody OEMs a gun with the 1:8 twist you really need to get the flexibility I describe, so you will be getting a prefit or custom barrel put on something (a Tikka is a great candidate). On the upside, chances are good the custom barrel will outshoot the OEM barrel by a fair margin.

You have to reload for it to get the flexibility I describe. There is good factory ammo for it, but not a wide selection. But again with the upside, reloading is super rewarding. I shudde to think of going back to factory ammo anymore.

Just my $0.02 as an old guy. 7mm is the best mm, IMHO.

Another downside is that you need a medium-length action with 3.000”+ of mag length to optimize this setup. Of course, using a Tikka makes this easy with a bolt stop swap and the use of LA mags, but it’s worth pointing out, none-the-less.