Shopping my first "nice" rifle

[MarkOrtiz]

I'm kind of in the same boat. I am looking at 6.5 PRC right now. Just trying to narrow down the rifle.

 

[Neckbone]

Well, I've come across a savage 110 ultralight used with reported 15 rounds through the pipe for $975 out the door. Its in 6.5 creed. I may give up on goldilocks and get me a new deer rifle. Im going to check it out tomorrow. Hard to beat for that price..

Tell you what, doing a deep dive into ballistics, cartridges, etc... watching videos and reading forums can really scramble ones brains and complicate the rifle buying process. There is a lot of data to read but I have a feeling that at the end of the day, under 400 yards it doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot.

At the end of the day there is no perfect round/rifle for everything. No matter which way you lean there is a trade off elsewhere. I guess thats why one ends up with a safe full of rifles!

 

[Neckbone]

I'm kind of in the same boat. I am looking at 6.5 PRC right now. Just trying to narrow down the rifle.

I feel like narrowing down the cartridge is harder than figuring out what rifle to get!

 

[Stearinlys]

I got a factory 8 twist T3x .243 rechambered to .243AI, and if I were doing it over would probably sell the factory barrel and order a 6CM prefit. The AI is sweet. Looks super sexy (which we all know looking cool is the most important part). I like not having to trim brass. But dies are a pain and expensive (admittedly I got a little stupid with dies and spent way more than I needed to). Good brass is available again (or was last I checked) but for a while good .243 brass was tough to get.

6CM gives up probably 100-200 fps to the .243AI. It's the easy button in terms of brass, dies, factory ammo.

I was searching for a "goldilocks" cartridge to get long barrel 6CM performance out of a short barrel and I think I have it. I'll almost certainly get another .243AI barrel now that I have stuff sorted out and dies and all that, but in hindsight it was a lot of squeeze for a little juice. But that juice is very tasty.

Edit: to make this relevant to OP, I built this gun as a "do it all, Western long range deer/elk/pronghorn/bear/whatever" rifle to replace a 7mmRM that I loved to shoot as long as I was wearing double ear pro. Field use, others at the range, with my kids, all sucked big time. Not one regret, wish I'd done it sooner. .243AI, Rokstok, 19" barrel and suppressed. Zero hesitation recommending this or something close to it as a do everything western rifle.

This is super helpful thanks! Are you using 108's then?

 

[Stearinlys]

I feel like narrowing down the cartridge is harder than figuring out what rifle to get!

I felt/feel the same way. I tried to figure out what the thought process should be though instead of getting stuck on a cartridge/bullet bandwagon as I always do...

I figured it goes this way:
1. Do I suck?
2. Am I recoil sensitive? How much?
3. What's the legal calibre size where I am?
4. What ranges am I hunting at?
5. What animals am I going for?
6. What kind of terminal performance am I looking for on target?
5. What Bullets and Speeds can achieve the above 6?

That's helped me anyways

 

[MarkOrtiz]

I felt/feel the same way. I tried to figure out what the thought process should be though instead of getting stuck on a cartridge/bullet bandwagon as I always do...

I figured it goes this way:
1. Do I suck?
2. Am I recoil sensitive? How much?
3. What's the legal calibre size where I am?
4. What ranges am I hunting at?
5. What animals am I going for?
6. What kind of terminal performance am I looking for on target?
5. What Bullets and Speeds can achieve the above 6?

That's helped me anyways

This is a great way to look at it, and what I have been hearing a lot of lately. Pick what you want to hunt and the range you feel comfortable at. Pick a bullet and speed that gets you to a lethal shot on the game and distance and let that dictate the cartridges that will do the job. Pick the cartridge that has the least recoil that will do what you need.