Bush rifle

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bearhunter338-06

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I am considering building myself a little bush rifle. I want to do the work myself so I will be building the rifle on the Savage or Marlin rifle. It will wear an 18.5 inch barrel, with a Bell&Carlson stock. I am having troubles deciding on witch caliber to chamber the rifle to. The rifle will be used on deer, moose, elk and maybe a bear.

I was thinking of going with 338-08 (338 Federal) 35 Remington or the 358 Winchester. My shots will be 100 - 150 yards at their furthest. All are capable for my desired use.

I would like your thoughts on this, keeping in mind that the rifle will be built on a modern bolt action.

Thanks
 
Personally, if you are going to throw moose and elk into the equation I would go with the .358 Winchester. Although fully capable of dumping a moose, the .35 Remington is less than ideal on anything but a broadside shot in my experience. The .358 with a stout 250 grain bullet will wade a lot more meat.
 
I don't think you can go wrong with the .338 Federal or .358 Winchester, they'd be my choices over the .35 Remington. I personally would probably pick the .358 just because it's cooler, and you've got a bigger hole to burn your powder in which helps with the short tube.
 
this is gonna be wild. and not really to your specs, but what about a 9.3x62 mauser from tradex?

theyre sporterized, cheap, barrel can be cut if you want. the bullet is big and heavy, can bust through the brush and take down what youre looking for.

if your shots are shorter, the 9.3x57 is nice too

i know this goes against your "this will be built on a modern action", but thought id throw it in
 
simko said:
this is gonna be wild. and not really to your specs, but what about a 9.3x62 mauser from tradex?

theyre sporterized, cheap, barrel can be cut if you want. the bullet is big and heavy, can bust through the brush and take down what youre looking for.

if your shots are shorter, the 9.3x57 is nice too

i know this goes against your "this will be built on a modern action", but thought id throw it in
Click to expand...

Beat me to it.:mad:

I was going to suggest the 9.3x57 because the OP was talking about short action rifles and calibers, but I've made no bones about being an afficionado of the x62 version. There are no flies on the M98 action in terms of medernity. Hell, the Remington M700 is 49 years old and the Winchester M70 is 75 years old and no one would say that they aren't "modern".
 
Ive had this same idea in my head for a couple years as well. I've been shooting a Sako 85 .338 Federal for 3 years now and while other equally nice rifles have came in that time...the .338F has stayed while others went down the road.

My plan was a Model 70 CRF SS action with a 18.5" barrel with XS Ghosts sights and McMillan Edge stock. Something similar can be built on a Savage action as well :) .

The .338F will sling everything from 160 TTSX's @ 3000fps to 225 Accubonds at 2550... :)
 
The whole jest of this project is to built a light short action rifle my self. This means I will be buying the Marlin XL7 or the Stevens 200. Barrel will be a prefit from Shillen.

Yes I have asked all the questions and I do have the ability to build this rifle myself.
 
You are going to build a short barreled Savage for the bush? Perhaps it will look something like this:

Alaskan.jpg
 
bearhunter338-06 said:
The whole jest of this project is to built a light short action rifle my self. This means I will be buying the Marlin XL7 or the Stevens 200. Barrel will be a prefit from Shillen.

Yes I have asked all the questions and I do have the ability to build this rifle myself.
Click to expand...

To be fair, you wouldn't be building a rifle yourself at all unless you're running the machines and files, you'd be assembling. When it gets diluted to the point of assembling parts other people or companies made, you might as well take the excellent solution offered by two posters above in the Tradex Mausers. It'll be cheaper, you'll have a better gun to show for it in the end, and it'll look better too. Best of all, you're on the range quickest.

If you already have the lathe, sounds like you do if you're doing the barrel shortening, you'd be in the woods with a short barreled Mauser carbine twenty minutes after opening the parcel- including wiping on the cold blue over the new crown.
 
Ardent said:
To be fair, you wouldn't be building a rifle yourself at all unless you're running the machines and files, you'd be assembling. When it gets diluted to the point of assembling parts other people or companies made, you might as well take the excellent solution offered by two posters above in the Tradex Mausers. It'll be cheaper, you'll have a better gun to show for it in the end, and it'll look better too. Best of all, you're on the range quickest.

If you already have the lathe, sounds like you do if you're doing the barrel shortening, you'd be in the woods with a short barreled Mauser carbine twenty minutes after opening the parcel- including wiping on the cold blue over the new crown.
Click to expand...

Where would the fun be in buying a rifle. If I wanted to buy a rifle I would go get a Ruger compact and be done with it.
 
Ardent said:
To be fair, you wouldn't be building a rifle yourself at all unless you're running the machines and files, you'd be assembling. When it gets diluted to the point of assembling parts other people or companies made, you might as well take the excellent solution offered by two posters above in the Tradex Mausers. It'll be cheaper, you'll have a better gun to show for it in the end, and it'll look better too. Best of all, you're on the range quickest.

If you already have the lathe, sounds like you do if you're doing the barrel shortening, you'd be in the woods with a short barreled Mauser carbine twenty minutes after opening the parcel- including wiping on the cold blue over the new crown.
Click to expand...

I guess that makes this X4.

Old doesn't mean obsolete from a shooter's point of view, just from a manufacturers. To build a comparable rifle today would put the price into the stratosphere, but for a few hundred bucks you can get a 9.3X62 Husky or Brno from Tradex, and you can still make the modifications to it that you wanted to make to the "new" off the shelf rifle and in the end have a superior rifle.
 
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