.243 rifle info

[mountie]

Hi to all,

I'm new to this board and the 6mm in general. After reading the 6mmbr site, and in particular the .243 page, I've been looking for one of the "suggested rifles"....the Remington 700 VSSF-II in .243.....unfortunately I have not been able to find one and remington doesn't have the .243 listed as an avaliable caliber......was this rifle produced in past years? I'm not totally stuck on the Remington, but the combination of synthetic stock, lower overall weight, as well as the avaliability of aftermarket parts make it the front runner. Any other factory rifle suggestions would be welcomed as well.

 

[fdshuster]

Mountie: Be sure you need a .243: if you do a lot of shooting, the barrel will be destroyed around 1400 rounds. I burned out a Douglas chrome-moly at 1350, replaced it with a stainless Shilen, and it lasted for 1400. Bought a new Savage 12BVSS last July, and at 400 rounds am already looking at fire-cracking in front of the chamber/ it's being re-chambered to 6BR with a no turn .272 neck / ordered the reamer this morning from "Pacific". It is the classic example of "over-bore", and has a lousy 20 degree shoulder angle that contributes to very short barrel life. Just my experience/opinion. If you plan on shooting a lot, there are better choices out there. fdshuster@hotmail.com

 

[mountie]

fdshuster,

thanks for them info. I was wondering what kind of barrel life I could expect. I currently have an F-class .308 built on a mauser action and enfield hammer forged barrel but I was looking for something that could be multi-usage.....I figured I could do tactical matches and still have a rifle to poke the odd varmint or White-tail with. I like the ballistics of the 6.5-284 but thought barrel life was an issue there, as well as not having the availability of factory ammo.....any suggestions on what to look for?

 

[fdshuster]

Mountie: From your second post I take it you are limiting yourself to a factory rifle and ammo,,?). Suggest you scroll down the left side column on the home page to "barrels",,under "bullet previews") and click onto "factory vs custom borescope video" for a brief video. An eye-opener on the "quality" of some factory barrels: I've looked at new factory barrels with my borescope that are worse than this example! I would have suggested the 6XC, David Tubbs "across the course ctg.", but that requires reloading. With factory ammo only in 6mm you are pretty much limited to .243 and 6mm Rem. .243 would probably meet your needs, but just be aware of a barrel life of around 1400 rds.

 

[mountie]

thanks for the info guys.....I figured I would start with a factory rifle and learn what I liked and disliked about the 6mm game then progress to a custom. A tactical match rifle would be my ultimate goal and I'm excited by the info contained here on the 6 and its variants. I'm looking to increase my smithing skills as well and this seems to be a great platform.

As far as the .243 is concerned what is involved in shortening the barrel? Is it a matter of getting rid of the issues at the throat or does the round affect the barrel as a whole?

The local shop is a Tikka/Sako dealer and I may end up going that route....it will mean approx. $400 more than I had planned on for the rifle but I guess that's what they made over-time pay for......

 

[Gunner75]

I started with a .243 SPS varmint for the local matches around here. Shots great with 87gr v max's. It is a bit ugly to some, but just fine for me. Naturally I restocked it and bedded, but for a factory tube, it shoot's great!

First weekend of shooting, I shot at least 6 500m,3 shot) groups and they avg 2.15". I know it is only a 3 shot group each time, but man, this thing just really liked the 87gr max's a lot.

Conditions were awesome.

I have since built a rifle on a Surgeon action, and turned my .243 SPS Varmint into a coyote calling rig, and it easily takes care of that stuff w/o issue.