Spec out your ultimate high country big game rifle- Photo added

[fredo]

Built my 1st 6.5 4s for "out west" big game hunts, just waiting on cashing in elk & deer preference points to use it! Have used it successfully back here on deer to almost 700yds and coyotes to 660yds...

Rem 700SA, #4 Bartlein 1:8.5 @24" + brake, deep fluted barrel & bolt (Kampfeld style)
Micky Gamescout, Surgeon DBM, Premier Lite Tac 3-15x50, Seekins base & rings. All up, slung & loaded, its just over 9.5 lbs & shoots 130VLDs @ 3200 & 140JLKS @ 3070 both like a friggin' laser. That's not too much for me to carry, considering the performance it allows...

Different glass & Talley mounts could shave a lb., easy, but I like it, as is.

Building a 2nd 6.5 SAUM 4s now, with a 22" #3 contour barrel, AWR stock, Talleys & a baby Kahles on top, just for a goof! Reckon it will be ~2lbs. lighter, rock & roll. Should qualify as a "sheep rifle", if ever I were to chase one...

Beautiful animals, gents!!!

 

[Huckleberry75]

Lane Precision built me this 6.5 saum on a Defiance Deviant and Manners EH3 carbon fiber stock. Without the bipod, it weighs 8.5# as pictured, but it usually wears 10oz of Suppressed Armament Systems Barricade out front. Slinging the 130 Berger vldh at 3240, and is a powder puff to shoot. It does nasty things to elk and coyotes. The next build will be on a Defiance Deviant Ultra Light and Manners EH6 carbon Fiber, but that's a ways down the road...or until the oil field picks back up.

 

[MQ1]

A number of years ago, after work brought me to California, I discovered how heavy an 9 pound rifle was hunting pigs in hilly terrain near Napa. My closest friends would describe me as a stubborn brute, and I was amazed at how heavy and unweildly my standard hunting rifles became when I started seriously trudging up and down real hills with elevation. On top of that, I learned that some old injuries were really limiting the amount of weight I could carry even when I was in good shape.

I called Dan Dowling, who had done alot of accuracy work for me on my live varmint rifles, and after a couple phone calls, we decided to put together a rifle based on an old Remington action that I found a good deal on. He trued it, adjusted the factory trigger to a reasonable weight, and added a lightweight McMillan Edge stock and a new skinny Hart barrel. I put on some light weight Talley Rings and a tank of a Burris 3-9 Electro-Dot with the heavy German #4 reticle. We discussed calibers at length, weighing the pros and cons of the .270 Winchester, 30-06, and 6.5-06 as well. I had used a 25-06 for a number of years as a long range varminter, and Dan's feeling was that since I wasn't looking to hunt bear, I'd not be under gunned with the 25-06...he made it clear that it would be his choice if he was building it for himself. We ultimately went with the 25-06.

The finished rifle weighs a bit less than 7.5 lbs with the scope, and I was completely amazed at the difference in my hunting experience. Not a fancy caliber, I know, but it has fast become my all-time favorite hunting rifle because it is stupid accurate, light, and stupid accurate. Coyotes, Deer, and Elk have all been taken with this rifle, and although I've not really thought of a sheep hunt yet, I have little doubt that this will be the rifle for that when the time comes. Now that California has the no lead ban, I've found that Barnes bullets are impressively accurate (as expensive as they are). Cold bore shots are spot on, and The rifle is set up with a maximum point blank range at a hair under 300 yards. If I need to shoot any farther, it is simply hold over (or hunt closer). Nothing I've shot with this rifle has taken much more than three steps, with the vast majority being shot with boring, old 115 grain Nosler Partitians.

It is not fancy looking and has already acumulated a bunch of scars. I'd post a picture but I don't think it nearly as impressive as all the others posted in this thread, and I don't think it would really add much anyhow. The caliber most would call antiquated, and I have to laugh because I made all my brass from 30-06 Lake City I had left over from my dear old Dad's hoard from shooting CMP matches with his M1 Garand. It is light, accurate, not hard on my injured bones and dependable as hell...with just the right amount of ugly that noboby but me likes it.

FWIW,

MQ1

 

[gunlover05]

MQ1, I love your post, as I am a believer the old calibers are still great. I'm sure many would like to see your 25-06, I already like it even more that it is "ugly".

 

[Huckleberry75]

MQ1, I might have posted one of those fancy rigs further up the page, but I cut my teeth on a 6mm Rem ADL and after that, for many years, used a Browning a-bolt in 25-06 as my "go to" rifle. No doubt, the old quarter bore is a fine cartridge for just about anything in North America.

 

[MOShooter]

Defiance ultralight action. Benchmark carbon fiber barrel
Manners elite hunter stock
Swarovski z8i 2-16x50
30-06AI