Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting 30" barrel -7mm Dakota ?

Since Len at LRH is trying to wreck my life -and doing a good job i might add -i have a question.

I have a rem adl model-700 270 that i'm going to have built into a 7mm dakota.
I want to keep it a sporterweight but i'm not sure how heavy of a barrel to order when going to a 30" finished length.?.

In a 7mm my guess 5-6 any thoughts ?

I recently had this discussion with Dan Lilja. A friend and I were going to make long barreled 257 weatherby chambered rifles.

I also thought about a 30" barrel. I already had a 27" #5 in 300 RUM which I liked. I asked about a #5 fluted 30" to match. Dan said he felt that the longest length for a 5 would be 28" If I wanted a 30 I should go to a heavier profile. We ended up with 28" #5s.

Call him up and talk about it.

Have a Browning 1885 Wyoming Commememorative .25'06 that has a 30" octagon barrel, I put regular B78 stocks onto it to get rid of the Western style crescent butt that came from the factory. With a 6x Leupold it all weighs about 10 lbs., stays in about 1" or a hair less with factory 120 grain. Because of the short SS action this is not as unwieldy as you expect and the muzzle blast is held down. No idea what velocities are but no doubt they are an advance over the usual 24".

I looked around on the lilja site yesterday evening and after looking at my #4 barrel that's 26" long w/a 7mm bullet held in place i figured a #5 might be too light for 30"er.
I of coarse didn't have any data to go off of just came up w/a #6 b/c i won't be carrying over long distances anyway.

Gonna order a broughton or rockcreek #6 ,many people have gotten extra=free velocity w/the canted land rifling.

Also read someting i didn't know until a few weeks ago - a sporterweight rifle w/a muzzlebrake kicks less than a heavier rifle.Less weight =less momentum to get started backwards.

I love the 25 cal size -have 25-06 that will become an AI or 25 gibbs in a year or two b/c it shoots around 1/2" groups on good days.=factory barrel.
Thanks azshooter -Mike

villinus, sounds like a nice rig.

I've always liked the 78's and falling block design.

I'd guess you're getting around 180-200fps out of the extra barrel length w/120gr ammo.

Canted rifling, IE 5R ?? Probably as much the cant as the odd number of grooves too. I know my 3 grooves are faster than my 4 grooves generally when compared to pressure.

Jeff

From reading over at LRH -the higher number of rifling is easier on bullet jackets to.-They hit the target in one piece.