I’m looking at building my first semi custom rifle. At the moment I’m thinking on using a tikka t3x action, carbon six barrel prefit barrel and undecided on the stock. The purpose of this rifle will be occasional long range target shooting and mountain hunting. I am wanting to use my suppressor and keep barrel length between 20-21 inches. I’m thinking 300wsm using possibly Berger 200.20x bullets, as I will be hand loading for this rig. My question is for those of you that have built custom rifles, what would be y’all’s recommendation on carbon vs steel barrel? Do I just need to find a good gunsmith to put on the barrel. I’m really wanting this rifle to be very Capable out to 1000 yards. Opinions on long action vs short action tikka? Open to any and all opinions at this point. Thanks
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First Rifle build
- Thread starter Muddslinger
- Start date
That's a short barrel, I would push it out to 22inches. Think about using lighter bullets to harvest a little more speed it will help more than just using a heavy bullet. Also, consider 6.5 -300 WSM, you need speed for a shorter barrel to perform its best. That's my opinion.
Tikkas are all built on long actions and can be converted to short action by replacing the bolt stop. Would also need to replace your magazine.
I just did a build off a Tikka action. Put a proof carbon barrel on it. Both steel and carbon barrels shoot great, just depends on what you are willing to pay. I figured if I'm going to do a build, might as well make it how I want it. And I love the look of carbon barrels. Replaced the trigger spring with a Yo Dave spring and and super happy with it. With my 26" barrel it weighs in at just over 7 lbs without my scope.
I just did a build off a Tikka action. Put a proof carbon barrel on it. Both steel and carbon barrels shoot great, just depends on what you are willing to pay. I figured if I'm going to do a build, might as well make it how I want it. And I love the look of carbon barrels. Replaced the trigger spring with a Yo Dave spring and and super happy with it. With my 26" barrel it weighs in at just over 7 lbs without my scope.
Tikkas are great matches for WSMs loaded with heavy bullets when they have the long action bolt stop (and a faster twist barrel). They're almost a medium action since they're limited to about 3.2" iirc. I'm slowly pricing together a long action 284 Win Tikka hunting build.
Carbon 6 is a good option for the prefit barrel. Theoretically you can do it yourself with a few tools (barrel vise, external action wrench to remove the factory barrel) but Tikkas are on really tight. I wasn't able to remove mine, had to send it to LRI. Once it's off, all you would need for a shouldered prefit is a barrel vise and an internal or external action wrench. If a barrel nut install you'd need a barrel nut wrench, a go gauge, and an action wrench.
Carbon 6 is a good option for the prefit barrel. Theoretically you can do it yourself with a few tools (barrel vise, external action wrench to remove the factory barrel) but Tikkas are on really tight. I wasn't able to remove mine, had to send it to LRI. Once it's off, all you would need for a shouldered prefit is a barrel vise and an internal or external action wrench. If a barrel nut install you'd need a barrel nut wrench, a go gauge, and an action wrench.
Definitely run the long action bolt stop if you plan on running heavies.
pretty much any decent bullet in a short mag will do fine for target shooting at 1000.
pretty much any decent bullet in a short mag will do fine for target shooting at 1000.
X2. You'll definitely need speed to get out to 1000 yards and magnums like 26" barrels to burn all that powder. I wonder what advantage if any will a 300WSM out of a 20-21 inch barrel have over a .308 firing the same bullet? I'm willing to bet that they'd be within 100fps of each other.
