I figured I would start this thread to document the evolution of what I decided was my new long range everything rifle. Much thanks to MontanaMarine for all of his help and insight.

History:
I grew up shooting a 338 win. My dad said that was the minimum for elk and if I wanted to shoot an elk, I should use the 338. In retrospect, he was definitely f*cking with me. He used a 7mm Rem for everything and had shot quite a few elk. Anyway, recently I started shooting again and slowly came to the conclusion that I could not survive putting the number of rounds down range that I really should to maintain the competency level I required. This meant that even though I loved my Tikka 695, it would have to go and be replaced by something I could shoot that much.

Rifle:
I already had a Tikka T3 in .243 and a DRW .260 built on a T3 action, so the action type and cartride family was pretty much determined from the onset. I had also talked to MM about the viability of the 208 A-max in the 308. So based on all of this, I bought a new synthetic/stainless T3 in 308 and added a SWFA 3-9 in Talley lows.

Problems:
I wanted a relatively light rifle (the 695 was over 9 lbs) and something I would feel comfortable shooting and hunting with. The Tikka T3 was good on most fronts, but there was some room for improvement.

First, I needed to address the height of the scope. The tupperware stock that came with the Tikka did not get my head up enough to effectively shoot from the prone position. To cure that problem, I blatantly ripped off 16Bore and machined the Talleys so I had 0.100" clearance. This brought the scope down to the perfect height for me in prone.
[Linked Image]
[Linked Image]

Second, I replaced the recoil pad (limbsaver) and the bolt shroud (tikkaperformance). I am on the fence about getting a tactical bolt knob for it and will probably decide that when I have spent more time shooting it.

Third, I wanted to run heavies in the rifle, but I did not want to single load. So I traded my 308 mag for a 30-06 mag. I then trimmed the bolt stop back with a dremel and had a long action. I thought this was a solution until I tried to run some rounds through it. It jammed on every round. To fix this I made a magazine insert (I cut the lid of a berger bullets container to the right dimensions, stacked the strips up and melted them together.) I then cut the back of the feed ramp off and epoxied the insert in the back of the magazine. I left myself 3.100" of usable magazine length. The 208's touch the lands at 3.080" and I am going to run everything 0.020" off the lands in the future. The 190 ABLR touches the lands at 3.065". It now loads flawlessly.
[Linked Image]
Finally, I painted it. Pictures to come.

Future:
1.)Bed the action
2.)Softbrake from DRW
3.)Get it blooded

All in all, I like the outcome. It's under 8 lbs with 3 in the mag and feels really comfortable. I am working up a load for the 190 gr ABLR with Varget that is right at 2600 fps. I think this will be a good bullet for the 308 because it seems to be soft enough to open at slower velocities and it has a great BC.

J.A.F.O.