Centrefire Rifle Calibre Advise Required

[Deker 3,478]

Another vote for 6.5x55 here, much more versatile than .243. WHY, especially at the fox end? It has a great choice of bullets which have a good bc and its easy to load for. The .243 has a greater choice and is easy to load for! buying new i would look at a Tikka T3 laminate, the laminate stock is a lot more stable and heavier and more expensive than the crap injection moulded synthetic I know a lot of people on this forum would give you an argument on that, and not everyone wants to carry around the weight, especially for a night on the fox! and even the walnut.

 

Personally i would not bother going to Sako as once you start getting towards that sort of price you can pick up a good used Tikka 695 action and have a krieger barrel fitted and drop it into a decent stock fornnot a lot of difference in price. He isn't talking about the Olympics, a T3 Lite (for example) will shoot better than the vast majority of its owners, one hole or 1/2 inch groups tend not to make any difference for general field work.

 

I'm not looking for an argument just your rationale, perhaps you could elaborate more please! The OP said Fox and deer.

 

Cheers

[rimmer 33]

got to say i would go for the 6.5 swede or a 270 i may even look at the 6mm grendle a friend of mine has one and he recons it a great round. 270 is a v good round.

[martyn79 2]

Apologies Deker on reading my post back it sounds a little arsey which was not the intention,it was early and i didnt have enough time to explain myself properly.I tend to get a little anal regarding rifles having researched allsorts about them for years and specing my own rifles.

 

With regards to the 6.5x55 being more versatile this is my opinion on the matter.the 6.5 has bullets ranging from 85 grains to 160 grain round nose making it well equipped to deal with everything from fox upto the largest deer in the uk such as the huge parkland reds.I know that a 100 grain .243 bullet should kill any of our deer,which it will but often it can be a bit marginal on larger species.The 6.5 bullets have a great bc giving them the edge on a windy scottish hilside for example helping with wind deflection and helping them to retain a higher impact energy over a 100grain .243 bullet for example.For fox the 95 grain v-max works a treat but if one load is required to cover everything from fox to deer something along the lines of a 120 grain ballistic tip or 129 sst would do well.I just cant see the point in limiting myself to a cartridge and caliber where the maximum bullet weight is around the 100 grain mark such as the .243 when deer come into the equation.

 

With regards to stocks,it is everyones personal choice and if they dont want the extra weight that is up to them. Injection moulded synthetic stocks are prone to torquing under load and firing,especially when shot from a bi-pod,this is why any decent riflesmith will not base a project around them.Composite synthetic stocks such as McMillan are an entirely different beast and would be my first choice.Walnut stocks are prone to moisture and swelling if not kept really well sealed which can affect point of impact,Laminate stockes being formed from many pieces glued together under high pressure are not as susceptible to the elements and are stronger to resist torquing.

 

I mentioned the custom route just to make the op aware that it is quite possible to build something to his spec and liking should he decide he wants to spend the sort of money that is involved when buying a sako.A lot of people prefer being able to spec things such as barrel length,profile,twist rate etc aswell as type of stock.

 

Hope that helps explaining my views? I know you are not looking for an argument,forums like this one are great for promoting healthy debate and hopefully people can learn bits and bobs from what everyone posts.