Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles What to cull to?

Thinking of thinning down my short action slew of smaller bores to maybe one 6.5 cm to hunt, carry, and shoot....could easily replace 243s, 7-08s, other 6.5 cm, and 308s w/ ONE good one....Kimber, Barrett, nula, custom, or save $ and just buy a Tikka???? Which and why? Light enough to carry up and down, compact enough to not piss me off in a blind, shootable enough to not be finicky at the range to bang away....is there one such animal? Just an exercise on input, since I haven’t tried them all and a $1500-$3k mistake is harder to take than a $500+ one. Thanks for any clarity. Could just keep them all, too. LOL

Keep them all

I like it....just jonesin’ for an improvement on what’s there now. I like certain things about all of them. None of them has the market cornered, though.

Why cull at all?

kimber adirondack in 6.5, 7-08, or 308 your choice.

Cull what you want, save the money and buy a Tikka...then you'll have money left over to repurchase other guns.

Two things:

1.) Gun money MUST go back into guns...it a rule ..

and

2.) FYI Last time I culled, I sold five guns...ended up owning seven when all was said and done.

Kimber Adirondack vs Barrett?

A Tikka superlight might be worth the trouble, too. I like the Kimber action/safety, but not the hit/miss rumors rampant. I’ve always jones’d for an ULA/NULA, but $$$. I’ve been pleased with Tikkas and the super lites before, but doesn’t mean they’re perfect, either. The Adirondack packacke looks cool....just not sure about the stock vs others/customs? I’ve got a rem my 7 that coul be built, just not sure how wise it is to go nuts on a seven action vs a 700....quirks and all. I could also throw a nice stock and a spare 6.5 barrel on a savage 16 LWH, and live with the ugly. LOL

+100 on the Tikka...My T3X is the best shooting rifle of any I have ever owned, nothing came close.


I went to a quality gunshop not so close to my home with 3 rifles, a S&W 44 and came home with a Sako, 2 benelli shotguns nad a Ruger 22 bolt rifle.

It would be really, really hard to make a $1500-$3k mistake buying a Tikka in 6.5 Creedmoor and the $700-$2k scope of your choice.

Culling guns = Blasphemy

Ditch everything and get a 6.5x55 in a Tikka t3.

The 6.5x55 is the coolest and sexiest of the 6.5 class.

Case closed. Problem resolved.

We were working a custom 6.5x55, 130's were at 3150 with R#26, Lapua brass, fed 215 primer. Work up to this velocity in your rifle, our barrel was 26" long.

I'm not good a culling, but I think that if I was going to do what you seeking to do, I'd take a hard look at buying two Kimber Montanas, a 223 and a 6.5 Creedmoor, that I'd set up exactly the same so that I could use the 223 as an understudy to the 6.5 Creedmoor.

In retrospect, I could have repurposed a lot of money if I had committed to the Kimber Montana family in 2004, instead of building dozens of rifles on other actions.

Do luv the 6.5 x 55.

My latest two!



Steyr, Mannlicher




Sako Bavarian, half-stock!

ya!


GWB

That's a hell of a way to start from zero, IMHO. Depending on how much you wanted to spend it be easy to do with several.

RAR's
Tikka's
Montana's
Barrett's


My brother has a set of twin M70's in 270 and 338 WM. Sounds good on paper, but is really nice flipping back and forth and the only difference is recoil.


I like 75's in my 223 and 140's in my 270. Flight path is very close so monkeying around with 75's on breezy days really helps to learn the wind and is cheap fun.

I don't cull guns, I will sell them.



This is exactly what happens.

To quote The Poobs:

I have/had all except the NULA, nothing wrong with any of Your choices.

Only the Kimber Adirondack and the SA Barrett with the 18 inch barrels are compact... nothing a Smith & a lathe couldn't fix in short order on the others.


I'd pick up the Tikka... if it flies Your kite You can start tripping rifles, if not... your not in too deep dollarwise.

Jerry

Don't sell any until you test your notion about one doing it all. Just pretend you don't have the others for a year or two and see if you miss them.

I have a Tikka T3x in 223 Remington and it is a shooter. I don't think you could go wrong with one in 6.5 Creedmoor or 6.5x55. Nothing wrong with thinning the herd, but put the mony back into you hobby. Upgrade some of your glass or spend it on some hunts you have always wanted to do.

Have one really top quality eastern deer rifle and one really good western rifle that can double as a spare and don't scrimp on anything. You will be money ahead in the long run because you can only use one at a time and life is too short to have a safe full of junk taking up space. Every time you look though a four number scope or work a slicked up action you will do a little smile of satisfaction.