Looking for Suggestions on a Build

[Bully]

What I have:
R700 S/A with .384 (.223) bolt face
Timney trigger
PTG .223 bottom metal/mag
McMillan Stock

I also have a lathe with just enough knowledge to get me into trouble.

I want to build my personal rifle. I do not have a barrel. I'm looking for caliber/barrel/twist suggestions and ideas. My first thought was to build a 22Nosler but the more I look into it, the less intrigued I am by the caliber. I don't want to open the bolt face or action up to change it to anything other than what it was born as. I will be truing the action as well since it's all opened up anyway.

I'm sure I'll get the requisite "Pay a gunsmith and save yourself the trouble/money" but if I wanted to do that I wouldn't post here looking for suggestions. I'd post in the caliber sub forums.

Thanks in advance to those willing to help.

 

[swd]

6x45's are a lot of fun. Very easy to load and mild to shoot. Great for varmints, deer. Go 9" twist and the 95SMK makes it a nice 600+ yard cartridge for targets and steel. One pass through a die and load.

 

[scubohuntr]

Depends what you want to do with it. A .300 Blackout would be fun to plink with, but shockingly useless unless you were going to suppress it and lob big, dumb subsonics around. Any of the 6/6.5/7mm .223 based cartridges would be similar, but less useless. For a non-.223 varmint option, .17 Remington would be interesting, and a .221 Fireball might be just weird enough to work. Go with a pretty fast twist (~8") on any of them.

 

[Shawnba67]

6x45 would be great. Since it is a remmy you could throat it longer and gain a but of HP since you wount be limited to a 2.26 oal. Dies are cheap enough Hornady makes them as a regular off shelf.
20 PRACTICAL could be lots of fun also. Equally easy to make as 6x45
And theres always the Ackley!

 

[Fast14riot]

20p is a great round. No feed issues, run a 10t for 40s, 12t for 32s. Zero freebore. But don' forget to get new cleaning rods, jags, powder funnel, etc if you'e not shooting 20s now.

 

[X Ring Accuracy]

If you want more choices, change out the bolt for a .473 face.

 

[Bully]

If you want more choices, change out the bolt for a .473 face.

Read the original post.

 

[CharlieNC]

I love the 223 and have two, one for Ftr and another for tac shooting. You will not do any better than a prefit CBI barrel which you can install yourself. A number of us shooting Fclass shoot with these do well, and when we don't it has nothing to do with the barrel. It may not be as tight as a custom for bench rest. Rem match chamber in 8 twist handles the 80gr bullets fine.

 

[ebb]

Look in the heading Small Stuff 22s - 20s and 17s there is a discussion titled 224 Valkyrie see if that trips your trigger.

 

[alintx]

X3 on the 6x45. It's a great, versatile little round that's deserves more attention than it gets!

 

[Bully]

I love the 223 and have two, one for Ftr and another for tac shooting. You will not do any better than a prefit CBI barrel which you can install yourself. A number of us shooting Fclass shoot with these do well, and when we don't it has nothing to do with the barrel. It may not be as tight as a custom for bench rest. Rem match chamber in 8 twist handles the 80gr bullets fine.

I'm planning on threading my own barrel and truing my own action.

Look in the heading Small Stuff 22s - 20s and 17s there is a discussion titled 224 Valkyrie see if that trips your trigger.

Won't fit my bolt face(from a quick look). Looks like a ton of fun tho.

 

[Sniper338]

20 vartarg
20 tac
20 prac
6x45
300blk

 

[ShaunBrady]

Welcome to the slippery slope. I saved wildcats for a few projects in.

A 223 from a 2.550" magazine is distinctly improved over what you can shoot from an AR15 magazine. Same cheap readily available components, and significantly more performance.

I've finished load development for a 26" 1:7 223 barrel throated to take the 75 ELDm at 2.525" with 0.025" jump. Velocity is 3040 fps using H4895 and 6-8 loading pressures.

I used a 223 match reamer and Uni throater. You're likely to use both of those more than once.

 

[Bully]

Welcome to the slippery slope. I saved wildcats for a few projects in.

A 223 from a 2.550" magazine is distinctly improved over what you can shoot from an AR15 magazine. Same cheap readily available components, and significantly more performance.

I've finished load development for a 26" 1:7 223 barrel throated to take the 75 ELDm at 2.525" with 0.025" jump. Velocity is 3040 fps using H4895 and 6-8 loading pressures.

I used a 223 match reamer and Uni throater. You're likely to use both of those more than once.

A regular old 223 is in the running as well.
How do you like the 7 with 75's? I'm considering running a 7 as well as I know that the barrel that I kinda want is available in a 7 right now. I'd really like a 7.7 or 8 but if you're having luck with the slightly faster twist I'd take the chance.

 

[ShaunBrady]

A regular old 223 is in the running as well.
How do you like the 7 with 75's? I'm considering running a 7 as well as I know that the barrel that I kinda want is available in a 7 right now. I'd really like a 7.7 or 8 but if you're having luck with the slightly faster twist I'd take the chance.

For what I'm doing with it, I'd run a 6.5 twist if they were readily available. With the 7 twist and that bullet, the stability factor is 1.76 at my local conditions. With a 6.5, it would be 2.05, about where I want it for ELR practice. With a 7.7, it would be 1.46. Not bad, but not great if you intend to shoot it to where the wheels fall off. It pelts a 16"x24" plate at 1200 yards. It has hits on a pair of those plates in a 24"x32" array at 1600 yards.

The gun is intended for cheap practice with readily available components. By dropping to the 223 from my regular ELR guns, the effective distance of my existing range is increased by 50-100%, but the optics work so much better than they would at the longer distances. There will be practice days where it is futile though. There will be others where at least I'm missing with cheaper bullets.

If you'd like to run shorter bullets, the 7 twist might be over the top, but it should work in a wide range of conditions for the 75 ELDm.

 

[Bully]

For what I'm doing with it, I'd run a 6.5 twist if they were readily available. With the 7 twist and that bullet, the stability factor is 1.76 at my local conditions. With a 6.5, it would be 2.05, about where I want it for ELR practice. With a 7.7, it would be 1.46. Not bad, but not great if you intend to shoot it to where the wheels fall off. It pelts a 16"x24" plate at 1200 yards. It has hits on a pair of those plates in a 24"x32" array at 1600 yards.

The gun is intended for cheap practice with readily available components. By dropping to the 223 from my regular ELR guns, the effective distance of my existing range is increased by 50-100%, but the optics work so much better than they would at the longer distances. There will be practice days where it is futile though. There will be others where at least I'm missing with cheaper bullets.

If you'd like to run shorter bullets, the 7 twist might be over the top, but it should work in a wide range of conditions for the 75 ELDm.

Thanks Shaun.
I'm betwixt and between the 75 ELD-M and the 77 TMK. It looks like either work for me (twist and bullet) as the furthest I'll be able to realistically shoot will be 1k (maybe once a year) and most of the time will be at 300.

 

[ebb]

Sorry Bully I guess it slipped my mind that it wasn't a 223 case. But now that I think that kind of performance out of a 223 isn't possible.

 

[Bully]

Sorry Bully I guess it slipped my mind that it wasn't a 223 case. But now that I think that kind of performance out of a 223 isn't possible.

It’s all good. If I do anything like that it’ll be a 22x47Lapua. I have the brass from my 6.5 (that will be my next project) that is gonna get changed up to another caliber on a Savage action and I’ll hard fot the barrel.

 

[hoz53]

It’s all good. If I do anything like that it’ll be a 22x47Lapua. I have the brass from my 6.5 (that will be my next project) that is gonna get changed up to another caliber on a Savage action and I’ll hard fot the barrel.

so this means you havent chambered a barrel yet? when i did my first barrel i used a cheap GM barrel so i wouldnt be out so much if i messed it up. I would just do a .223. mabie a wilde chamber so youd have more freebore.

 

[Bully]

so this means you havent chambered a barrel yet? when i did my first barrel i used a cheap GM barrel so i wouldnt be out so much if i messed it up. I would just do a .223. mabie a wilde chamber so youd have more freebore.

I have not. However I'm very blessed to have a friend that is a 'smith and is going to walk me thru the steps of putting an action and a barrel together.