Help spend my money on a hunting rifle build

I’m currently looking into putting a 7mm mag together for all around deer/elk hunting. I initially was going to convert my Tikka T3 .270 into a 280ai. Because of the ammo situation (I do not currently reload) I decided the just go to a 7mm mag as it is readily available around me. I want to shoot this suppressed so I am looking for a max barrel length of 24”, preferably 22”.

Do I pick up a Tikka T3 lite in 7mm and rebarrel it with a prefit or buy a custom action and piece it together? Or is there a better factory rifle that fits my criteria for $2k or so? I’m wanting to be able to do all of the work at home, so a prefit barrel for the action is a must. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
For $2K you can get a Christensen Arms Ridgeline in .280 AI with a threaded carbon fiber barrel. I just bought one a couple weeks ago when they were running the $350 rebate that ended on Sept. 30th. My local shop only had 1 in stock, so I bought it. But you can buy them online anytime.


I got really lucky and found a brand new older model Ridgeline in .280 AI that has the 24” threaded barrel.

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