Donor action

Toying with another build, maybe something which will make the spinning Ferris Wheel at JG's go all the way over. My 77gr .223 was the little train that couldn't.

Looking at a 6.5 creed, baby sister to my 6.5 Weatherby, or maybe a 7mm-08 since I'm already set up to load it.

Anyway Academy runs the cheapy Rem 700 on sale, which caliber should I get to build on?

Trying to stay kinda on a budget. I'm going to gather parts and dump them in Trigger Times lap for the build, I didn't know he was building guns full time now.

SHORT OR LONG ACTION???

243, 308, or 7-08---- short

With 7-08 you never know you may get a shooter right out of the box

He's not building guns full time.

It doesn't matter what the rifle is that is the donor action. 243, 7-08, 308, ect. As long as it is a short action with a .308 bolt face. 6.5 Creed or 7-08 both would be very nice.

darn he's a great guy.

short action it is. I'll get it and stick it in the safe

if you just want the action, why not find a K98 and built off that? Certainly it can be found cheaper

I like the long action better. I tried to first build a Savage 7mmo8 short action and found that my reloads would not fit in the internal mag. Then I used a long action 110 and re-barreled for the same caliber and did not have any more problems. If you are not reloading then you will probably not have any issues but you try to get a precise OAL then go long action.

The 7-08 barrel I have, Tony chambered, and it is on a short action. Seating 162 A-maxes even with the lands I still have a looooong ways to not fit in the mag. So it depends on who does the chambering.

Agreed...freebore controls all of that.

On the subject, will a 105 gr 6mm fit in a standard factory tikka mag?

And that is as long as you do not use an external mag like with my new build. My reloads will not fit in a 308 AI mag so I needed to use a long action with a 300 win mag / mag.

snag a 243 and do a creed

Write down the length of case head to ogive. Then seat the bullets just long enough your ammo will fit in the mag. Then you will know how far they are jumping to lands. My 6.5 Creedmoor was chambered with a reamer that had done several barrels. My 140 A-maxes are jumping .024" No big deal, I seated them to fit the mag then went about powder testing.

Same thing, seat the bullet so that the whole cartridge will fit in the mag.

I take it you're asking if one could reach the lands inside mag length with a tikka standard 243 mag running 105 amax bullets. My Tikka T3 lite 243 mag measures 2.83" I've never checked OAL with 105's to touch lands in that Tikka because it has 10 twist factory tube that wouldn't stabilize them, but I suspect I wouldn't get to the lands within mag length.

I do shoot 105 amax in my re-barreled M700 243, 105's touch the lands at 2.875", which fits within the BDL mag box that measures 2.9" or so. But I wouldn't get close within the Tikka mag at that OAL.

So it does depend on how much freebore the smith used when chambering the barrel.

If I seated the bullet in the case 80 thousandths or more farther into the case, it would fit the 308 external mag barely. So the bullets were originally seated 20 thousandths from the lands so that would make it 100 thousandths jump to work with the external mag. This is with Nosler Hunting ballistic tips 140 grain.

See if I can't do a better job explaining, freebore is the space between the end of the chamber and where the rifling starts.

So in your example GLC, if you took .100 off your freebore you would be touching the lands where you are seated right now.

People play with freebore to get the bullet to sit in the neck where they want and another reason to change freebore would be for use of mags. I don't know what my freebore is in my 6slr but if I seat the bullets right at mag length I'm jamming them...so the freebore is pretty short on it.

Now, to take this one step further...depending on the bullet design will change everything so you can have a chamber done for one bullet and you swap designs and you have to start over. An example, a 105 hybrid is longer than a 108 boat tail...so while I said above I can load the hybrids at mag length and actually be jamming I might try a 108 or an amax and not be able to touch and stay within mag length.

Does that make more sense?

Also, I have known guys who order their reamer with 0 freebore then use a throater to get the freebore exactly where they want it. It gives them some flexibility and they don't have to order 6 different reamers to get different freebores.

Aren't custom rifle stuff fun?

If you want to spin the ferris wheel, why not a 338LP? I know JG likes rifles that blaze over 3100fps... Something about he likes to fix his equipment

With the T3, I believe you can change out to the long action bolt stop and swap to a long action magazine, OAL problem solved.

Then again, there could possibly be feed issues there...

Lies I tell you! All lies!

It doesn't take a big gun to break his crap

Disappointed in the 3/8" AR 500 for those close targets. I'm gonna recut some new bolt holes but I will be replacing them with 1/2" AR 500. Everything inside 500 yards.

love me a big hunk of ogive....goes great with hot pocket !!!

I just wish I could've seen the target fly off when I shot it. Did you ever find it?

I found it immediately. It was behind the berm.

Just an idea here and not sure if it would work so don't flame too much. Seeing as how most broken targets were from bolts being hit would it help to run a bead or two of hard surfacing rod over the bolt head. It helps a lot on plow bolts to keep from loosing sweeps so it might help in this case.

I've had that cross my mind, dee. Just wonder if they'll hold up to the bullets. Worth a try, but those rods are spensive!

I have welded to AR 400. The little 1 MOA plates have a grade five 5/16" bolt welded to the back of them. I preheated the AR and TIG welded the bolts on. PITA, but so far it has worked.

They aren't cheap but they work.

How hot did you have to preheat? Something like welding cast maybe.

I don't think a suspecting bullet is going to care if there's hard surface or not. It should blow right through that too. Worth a shot tho

use grade-8 (SAE) or better bolts and they will take quite a few strikes, they cost allot more but in the long-run they are cheaper and less of a headache. regular bolts will shatter on first impact.