Taper question and barrel question for Magpul 700 Hunter Long Action

[Cicilia]

Question 1) I'm going to convert my 2019 R700 XHR/XTR to a new rifle. It is presently the long action 30-06 triangular. I plan to move it to a 6.5 Creedmoor. My stock is the 2019 Magpul 700H LA. Supposedly the heaviest of the Palma tapers allowed is the Medium Palma Factory Taper, which I believe is the 0.830" Varmint and Sendero platform. Magpul doesn't mention anything else on their website and they say "will fit any standard Remington barrel and action". The thing is Remington Defense has the 700 Police HBAR and also had the MTU/M40 contract and on that barrel used the sniper contour (straight contour) of 0.895". And if I could re-use this stock; my first choice would probably be the Max Heavy Varmint contour since that's the maximum for IBS & NBRSA for heavy varmint class. Has anyone been able to do a MTU/M40 or a Max Heavy Varmint on their Magpul without having to sand the front?

Question 2) I plan to run 0.264" 140 grain Hornady ELD Match since I have about 10,000 rounds of it already. But my present 6.5mm setup is a 1:8 twist and 22" barrel length and a 5 groove barrel. If I go to a 6 groove barrel on this new project and do a 1:7 twist; can I reasonably expect to get roughly the same benchrest results? Or does 1:7 need 150 grains? Right now at 1:8 I am typically seeing 0.25 MOA group sizes and a mean radius of 0.15". This will be a 1K yard rifle but I do expect performance in a benchrest.

 

[Rob01]

I would recommend not building a 6.5 Creedmoor on a long action. You can make them work but the short action is where it's happiest. If it will be a single load then long should be ok. No idea on that stock but you have it in hand so you should be able to look and see how heavy it will take and if the barrel channel can be relieved for a heavier barrel.

With 140 ELDs you don't need a 7 twist. An 8 will work fine. Some people do use faster like 7.5 or 7 but they are usually using heavier/longer bullets than the 140 weights. If all you will shoot is 140 ELDs then I would go 8 twist.