I welcome your opinions with respect to the following:
I have a couple of Remington 700 SAs sitting around and I plan on building two relatively lightweight hunting rigs, one for my 14 year old daughter and one for my wife. Intended use - varmints, feral hogs, deer, fun at the range.
I've settled on a 6x47L for one of them, the one for my daughter. She's a natural but new to centerfire rifle and I want to build her something that is versatile/capable but easy to handle.
Now for my wife's rifle. She's a rookie behind a rifle trigger but she's shot her share of 12 ga. target loads to reasonably good effect on clays, so she's accustomed to recoil. I'm kicking around .243 Win., .243 AI, 6.5x47L, .260 Rem, .260 AI and 7mm-08. Considerations for each follow.
The straight .243 Win has quite a bit of objective support, given the availability of a wide variety of factory ammunition and its ability to shoot a big range of bullet weights well. It will handle varmints very capably and it will do a fine job on medium game with the right bullet. Flipping the coin over, I can't remember the last time I bought a box of factory ammo for centerfire rifle, thereby diminishing the factory ammunition argument. It does burn quite a bit of powder in a little hole, so barrel life is not long, but this will be a hunting rifle - 2,000 rounds of hunting accuracy is a life time. 6mm bullet selection remains a strong plus.
The .243 AI - everything the .243 is, plus 200 fps and a little shorter barrel life. I currently load for a .243 AI, so the components are on hand. Feeding from a mag is not as reliable as the straight .243. Fire formed Lapua brass doesn't seem to require trimming EVER, so that's a big plus for me - I hate trimming brass. Lastly, I've found the .243 AI remarkably easy to tune for accuracy.
6.5x47L - I'm leaning this way, but not definitively. Feeds well from a magazine, its accuracy is well established, huge selection of very good 6.5mm bullets, pretty good barrel life and it's the parent case for the 6x47L, thereby simplifying things on the loading bench. The 6.5 brings substantially heavier bullets into the picture v. the 6mm, adding to the flexibility. The only downside I can think of is the occasional supply problem with brass.
.260 Rem - I've always thought that one could make a compelling argument that the .260 Rem is among the very best medium game chamberings out there. Lots of good bullets from which to choose, feeds like crap through a goose, accurate, easy to handle - what's not to like? It does give up some bullet seating flexibility to the 6.5x47L (longer case, shorter neck).
.260 AI - Same thing applies here as with the .243 and the .243 AI. I currently load for the .260 AI, so fire forming and case prep are a wash. I'm not about to give up my .260 AIs!
7mm-08 - One of my go-to deer rifles is a 7mm-08. This choice is more biased to the medium game side of things and it does offer additional capability that comes with greater bullet weight. Perhaps not as versatile as the 6.5s.
So, what say you? As I mentioned, I'm leaning toward the 6.5x47L but not in a huge way. Thanks in advance.
I have a couple of Remington 700 SAs sitting around and I plan on building two relatively lightweight hunting rigs, one for my 14 year old daughter and one for my wife. Intended use - varmints, feral hogs, deer, fun at the range.
I've settled on a 6x47L for one of them, the one for my daughter. She's a natural but new to centerfire rifle and I want to build her something that is versatile/capable but easy to handle.
Now for my wife's rifle. She's a rookie behind a rifle trigger but she's shot her share of 12 ga. target loads to reasonably good effect on clays, so she's accustomed to recoil. I'm kicking around .243 Win., .243 AI, 6.5x47L, .260 Rem, .260 AI and 7mm-08. Considerations for each follow.
The straight .243 Win has quite a bit of objective support, given the availability of a wide variety of factory ammunition and its ability to shoot a big range of bullet weights well. It will handle varmints very capably and it will do a fine job on medium game with the right bullet. Flipping the coin over, I can't remember the last time I bought a box of factory ammo for centerfire rifle, thereby diminishing the factory ammunition argument. It does burn quite a bit of powder in a little hole, so barrel life is not long, but this will be a hunting rifle - 2,000 rounds of hunting accuracy is a life time. 6mm bullet selection remains a strong plus.
The .243 AI - everything the .243 is, plus 200 fps and a little shorter barrel life. I currently load for a .243 AI, so the components are on hand. Feeding from a mag is not as reliable as the straight .243. Fire formed Lapua brass doesn't seem to require trimming EVER, so that's a big plus for me - I hate trimming brass. Lastly, I've found the .243 AI remarkably easy to tune for accuracy.
6.5x47L - I'm leaning this way, but not definitively. Feeds well from a magazine, its accuracy is well established, huge selection of very good 6.5mm bullets, pretty good barrel life and it's the parent case for the 6x47L, thereby simplifying things on the loading bench. The 6.5 brings substantially heavier bullets into the picture v. the 6mm, adding to the flexibility. The only downside I can think of is the occasional supply problem with brass.
.260 Rem - I've always thought that one could make a compelling argument that the .260 Rem is among the very best medium game chamberings out there. Lots of good bullets from which to choose, feeds like crap through a goose, accurate, easy to handle - what's not to like? It does give up some bullet seating flexibility to the 6.5x47L (longer case, shorter neck).
.260 AI - Same thing applies here as with the .243 and the .243 AI. I currently load for the .260 AI, so fire forming and case prep are a wash. I'm not about to give up my .260 AIs!
7mm-08 - One of my go-to deer rifles is a 7mm-08. This choice is more biased to the medium game side of things and it does offer additional capability that comes with greater bullet weight. Perhaps not as versatile as the 6.5s.
So, what say you? As I mentioned, I'm leaning toward the 6.5x47L but not in a huge way. Thanks in advance.
