Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Campfire Rifle 2020 - New GAP 6.5 PRC Build for the Campfire - Your Input Please!

I’ve grown to like DBM setups too, even in my hunting rigs. That being said, if you aren’t going to be shooting in PRS type comps, you won’t miss it much, provided you have enough magazine COAL.

Freebore needs to be given some thought. There are plenty of guns that will shoot great with bullets seated not kissing the lands, but why rule out that option out if you don’t have to? You can always seat deeper if that’s where it wants to shoot but if you cut the freebore too long, you won’t be able to reach the lands if that’s where it wants to shoot. Soooo, get some brass and the bullets you are interested in and make some dummies. Seat the bullets so that the heel rides just a hair above the neck/shoulder or about .050” shorter than magazine length, whichever is shorter. Measure the cartridge base-to-ogive for each dummy and pick the one with the shortest base-to-ogive. Have George’s crew throat your barrel so you can kiss the lands with that dummy. This will allow you to reach the lands at magazine length with any of your desired bullets.

For twist, get on Berger’s website and play with their twist rate calculator. Go with a twist rate that gives a 1.51 or higher stability factor. Pretty sure JBM has that function available too. No way I’d go with less than 1:8.

Not sure how the Carbon wrapped Bartleins weigh out, but I’d go with as heavy as I could get and not have the overall package too muzzle heavy. I’ve Been through several custom builds with light barrels and have never gotten anything less than Bartlein’s #3 to shoot to my satisfaction. I know you’ll hear much to the contrary but that’s how it has worked out for me. Barrel length also affects balance. In the PRC, I’d personally go 24” but most of my hunting is in fairly open country.

Pick a stock with a high enough comb to give you both good cheek weld and scope alignment. For me, that means an adjustable comb, which does add some weight to the rear of the stock, which in turn affects the balance, which means a little more weight out front to counter it. Most folks seem to get by without an adjustable comb just fine. I’m in the minority in that regard.

Triggertech trigger. Period. End of story. At this point I won’t even consider anything else on my rigs. They are that good.

There are a lot of good Picatinny rings out there. I really like Seekins, but believe it or not, the cheap SWFAs have worked as well as anything. The APAs are really nice.

I like brakes for recoil reduction and more importantly spotting impact through my scope, but unless you are going to wear ear pro while hunting, I’d not do it. Your ears will ring for days... You could have your barrel threaded for a brake and also get a thread cap to put on while hunting but at a minimum, I’d recheck zero when switching between them, as well as grouping. Like any weight on the end of a barrel, a brake will affect harmonics, which means possibly a different POI and/or grouping when removing or adding it. I don’t have a brake on my hunting rig.

Give a thought to bipod use. I’ve found that prone bipod shots don’t present themselves nearly as much while hunting as I thought they would. That being said, I want the option to attach one if I need it. I went with a four inch section of Picatinny rail because it had the integrated flush cup in it, but if doing it again, I’d go with a two inch. I have flush cups on the side of my stock anyway, so never use that feature in the rail. Which brings me to sling swivels. Flush cups on the non bolt side make for a far more comfortable carry than the traditional belly mounted sling swivel studs. Additionally they allow for a tactical type in front carry which can be useful at times. I’ve not used the non-rotating type cups yet but can see the appeal.

Scope choice. Is this going to be a rig you’ll carry for long distances? Your Razor is a seriously heavy scope. Good but heavy. Might investigate other options. A certain amount of weight is the nature of the beast when it comes to reliable tracking and ruggedness, but it can be had at much lighter weights than the Razor.

John