Short Barrel Rifle - Thoughts on Caliber

[MRP]

Oooops

 

[MRP]

6.5 or 308 for all round gun. 223 a bit light for bears or moose. 6.5 should be flatter 308 a bit more energy. Quick load program should tell ya.

 

[Steyr101]

magnum bolt head? 6.5 PRC would be slick

I had thought of that.. but figured the lack of velocity out of the short tube would make it like any other 6.5. Although.. this doesn't have to be a practical build...

 

[Gatehouse]

I had thought of that.. but figured the lack of velocity out of the short tube would make it like any other 6.5. Although.. this doesn't have to be a practical build...

Sure you will lose some velocity, just like any other cartridge. But a 6.5 PRC with a short barrel is still going to be faster than a 6.5 CM with a short barrel. Same as a 300 WM will be faster than a 308. I'm in the process of getting a 6.5 PRC made and will probably go with a 20" barrel. A 24" barrel will likely get me another 100 FPS but 4" of barrel also makes it a little more cumbersome in some situations. And if I shoot a moose at 500 yards it's not as if the moose will notice the bullet is going a little slower.

 

[BigRobb]

magnum bolt head? 6.5 PRC would be slick

X2
You can load 150gr pills to a reasonable speed without eating barrels. You’ll loose some mag capacity and I’m not sure how well it’ll feed compared to a 308. Probably what I’m going to build next out of my nucleus action.

 

[mikeelliot]

I am leaning toward a 6.5 Grendel as well. Already have a 6.5x47 for hunting but the 26" tube is not ideal for Bush. I guess a short 6.5 Creed would be similar performance, lots of great bullets in the 120-130 range.

 

[Warden70]

I would go a different route altogether, you have the light cartridges well covered already... the 16.5" barrel shortens it a bit but really doesn't shave a whole lot of weight... how about filling and entirely different niche altogether... a 16.5" medium bore, I would go with a .358 Win... I happen to have a Ruger M77 Mark II Frontier in .358 Win with a 16.5" barrel and can speak to it's efficiency and accuracy, most of my big game animals over the past couple years have been taken with this rifle from 20 yards to 250 yards... additionally I shot two coyotes while deer hunting using 200 SP's with remarkably little damage, small hole in and small hole out... at least it is worth consideration... it is like wielding the Hammer of Thor, on everything from coyotes to moose.

What he said! LOL. a .358 Win, 308, or 7mm08 would be my recommendations.