Speaking of long range..

[Hohn]

A couple of you might appreciate this build I finished last year.

28” Bartlein heavy palma chambered in 6.5CM by a former navy seal who now works at Crane NSWC.
Zermatt TL3 Short Action, DLC coated, AW cut magwell, 20MOA rail
Foundation Stock
Bix’n Andy TacSport Pro 2 stage set at 1#.(8oz/8oz)

Current optic is a Vortex Golden Eagle since I do mostly known distance fixed position shooting either bench or prone (like F class).


It’s more capable than I am. Here is the first group at 400y when I finally got to give a bit of stretching:

 

[burbguy82]

Nice looking gun. Couple bucksfor sure.

Is it a Remage? (Remington\Savage) build? Cant tell from the picture? I can see what looks like a Savage barrel nut.

 

[Kira]

What caliber...6.5mm?

 

[Rand]

What caliber...6.5mm?

6.5 creedmoor

They just came out with a ruger sfar chambered in it.. but I like my .308 ammo prices.. although 6.5CM is coming down finally.

Much less recoil than 308 though. (a popular comparison)

 

[Hohn]

What caliber...6.5mm?

Yes. 6.5 Creedmoor.

Slightly tweaked reamer, but chambers SAAMI ammo perfectly.

 

[Hohn]

6.5 creedmoor

They just came out with a ruger sfar chambered in it.. but I like my .308 ammo prices.. although 6.5CM is coming down finally.

Much less recoil than 308 though. (a popular comparison)

I handload everything so they cost about the same.

 

[Hohn]

Nice looking gun. Couple bucksfor sure.

Is it a Remage? (Remington\Savage) build? Cant tell from the picture? I can see what looks like a Savage barrel nut.

It’s a Savage with the Bugnut. I reused a barrel I had handy when I built this.

All future barrels will be shouldered prefits— a great feature of this TL3 action.

 

[Hohn]

Nice looking gun. Couple bucksfor sure.

Would you believe that the majority of it was paid for by selling some kegs of RL26? The market rate for the rare magic dust that is RL26 was just too much for me to resist. $200/lb!

 

[Jeffrey Behr]

It’s a Savage with the Bugnut. I reused a barrel I had handy when I built this.

All future barrels will be shouldered prefits— a great feature of this TL3 action.

Savage-thread, or just Savage-barrelnut-type in Reminton thread? I've been using a Savage 12BR action* while trying several-different medium-power calibers**, but I've had little accuracy success with any of them..

I believe these poor results are due to my loss of most of whatever LR-shooting skills I had years ago when I shot thousand-yard groups of 4-9/16" (5 rounds) and 7-odd inches (10 shots) and won 3 of the 4 trophies that day...18 years ago.

I've recently bought a 700SA-based 1000-yd. BR rifle with McMillan stock and 30" barrel in 6.5-284...

...and then a Kauger BR action in 700Rem. SA format...
https://shop.kaugerarms.com/products/dual-port-benchrest-br.html
...and have ordered three new Rem.-thread 'Remage' barrels for it.. If I can't get any of these 3 calibers (25CM, 25-284, and 25WSSM) shooting well I may well totally abandon LR shooting.. Also have a Zeiss LRP S5 5-25x56x34mm scope (MOA reticle) to mount on the new configuration.
.

* Dual-port, right-bolt, single-shot, solid-bottom rifle
** 6.5CM, 6CM, 25CM, 6XC, 6.5-284 Norma, 25-284, and the rarest (= least-popular) 25 WSSM.

 

[Hohn]

Savage Threads with a special nut design from Greg at Southern Precision Rifles. This allows a profile heavier than the normal Savage nut.

 

[Hohn]

Savage-thread, or just Savage-barrelnut-type in Reminton thread? I've been using a Savage 12BR action* while trying several-different medium-power calibers**, but I've had little accuracy success with any of them..
View attachment 262902
I believe these poor results are due to my loss of most of whatever LR-shooting skills I had years ago when I shot thousand-yard groups of 4-9/16" (5 rounds) and 7-odd inches (10 shots) and won 3 of the 4 trophies that day...18 years ago.

I've recently bought a 700SA-based 1000-yd. BR rifle with McMillan stock and 30" barrel in 6.5-284...
View attachment 262906
...and then a Kauger BR action in 700Rem. SA format...
https://shop.kaugerarms.com/products/dual-port-benchrest-br.html
...and have ordered three new Rem.-thread 'Remage' barrels for it.. If I can't get any of these 3 calibers (25CM, 25-284, and 25WSSM) shooting well I may well totally abandon LR shooting.. Also have a Zeiss LRP S5 5-25x56x34mm scope (MOA reticle) to mount on the new configuration.
.

* Dual-port, right-bolt, single-shot, solid-bottom rifle
** 6.5CM, 6CM, 25CM, 6XC, 6.5-284 Norma, 25-284, and the rarest (= least-popular) 25 WSSM.

If you are Ok with buying dies and such, I would strongly suggest the 6 BRA chambering. It’s almost impossible to build one that won’t shoot well.

 

[burbguy82]

I've had little accuracy success with any of them..

You would be one of the only ones, at least out of a factory gun. Savage out of the box is IMO the most accurate.

 

[Hohn]

You would be one of the only ones, at least out of a factory gun. Savage out of the box is IMO the most accurate.

They can be, but the problem with Savages in my experience is gun to gun variation. Some of them shoot so well you can’t believe the price. Most are great shooters but won’t put 10 consecutive shots inside an moa. They’ll do 5 or 7 shots sub moa but not 10.

Then you get about the bottom 25% or so that are train wrecks that should never have been allowed to leave the factory.

And even on the most expensive factory Savages with factory blueprinted action, you still get that heavy bolt lift and “meh” smoothness. It’s depressing to cycle the action in a $2000 savage next to a $700 Tikka.

To me Savages are like Howas: generally very solid, a handful are epic, and some are just incurable lemons. Howas are nicer actions imo.

I own a couple savages and will always have a few for tinkering.

But I think those most consistently good factory rifles are Tikkas. IMO, they are the best factory action for smoothness and they have modern faster twists on some chambers that wouldn’t normally have them.

Tikkas also have a huge aftermarket now, second only to rem 700s.

 

[burbguy82]

They can be, but the problem with Savages in my experience is gun to gun variation. Some of them shoot so well you can’t believe the price. Most are great shooters but won’t put 10 consecutive shots inside an moa. They’ll do 5 or 7 shots sub moa but not 10.

Then you get about the bottom 25% or so that are train wrecks that should never have been allowed to leave the factory.

And even on the most expensive factory Savages with factory blueprinted action, you still get that heavy bolt lift and “meh” smoothness. It’s depressing to cycle the action in a $2000 savage next to a $700 Tikka.

To me Savages are like Howas: generally very solid, a handful are epic, and some are just incurable lemons. Howas are nicer actions imo.

I own a couple savages and will always have a few for tinkering.

But I think those most consistently good factory rifles are Tikkas. IMO, they are the best factory action for smoothness and they have modern faster twists on some chambers that wouldn’t normally have them.

Tikkas also have a huge aftermarket now, second only to rem 700s.

The savage barrel nut system is hard to beat. you can change a barrel in 5 kinutes, head space it perfectly....easy

tikkas are not as easy to work on, and neither are 700s

I had an M24 in the army, it was supremely accurate, the gun had about 4000 down the pipe, and was lights out to 1200. seem to shoot better and better every outing.

 

[Hohn]

The savage barrel nut system is hard to beat. you can change a barrel in 5 kinutes, head space it perfectly....easy

tikkas are not as easy to work on, and neither are 700s

I had an M24 in the army, it was supremely accurate, the gun had about 4000 down the pipe, and was lights out to 1200. seem to shoot better and better every outing.

.308s are easy on barrels. Espcially at reduced 7.62 military pressures. If you were running only M118 or M118LR, that’s considerably warmer, but still 308 will let a barrel last awhile if its cared for. FTR guys will run 3000+ even at elite international competition levels with very demanding precision requirements.

I’m a huge fan of the barrel nut design. And since the TL3 uses Savage threads, it was an easy choice to move the upgraded barrel from my old Savage to the new TL3.

My headspace is set nearly bang on the go gauge. It’s so dialed in that if I warm the go gauge in my hand I can feel the bolt lugs drag ever so slightly vs having the go gauge at room temp. It took a couple attempts to get it just *perfect* but that’s feeling of nailing it is one of my favorite parts of the barrel nut system. I love having the chamber so close to go gauge because it make it so easy to dial in my reloading. I can use the go gauge to set my headspace comparator and measure my brass off the press. My brass comes off the sizing die at -0.002” when zeroed on the go gauge. Perfect.

The only downside IMO to the nut is that it can limit how big a barrel profile you can use if you stay with the OEM style nut. Hence I went the custom nut route to use a barrel that is a full 1.25” at the chamber.

The “problem” I have now is that I’ve shot my Tl3 enough that it’s almost impossible to go back to a Savage action. Once you get used to that incredible smoothness and ruin-for-life trigger, you just can’t enjoy the old Savage as much.

I’m thinking about picking up another TL3 for a potential long action build (300PRC!).