Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats What action?

So, which action for a custom hunting rifle? I have ideas, but wonder what you are thinking?

Looking for smooth feeding, low bolt lift, crf, classic style....something like a custom Mauser 98 or a Win 70 or?

If a Mauser, what requires minimal work to tune it up to quality custom rifle smoothness.

Defiance has the winchester style claw extractor as an option

Tikka

pre 64 M70

Brno ZG 47

What are you planning on hunting? CRF is great if your life depends on it (i.e. war fighting gun or you are hunting cape buffalo or lions), but if you are after North American game than any of the modern push feed actions will do just fine and probably give you better accuracy to boot. If you are looking for all of those things, then look at a Blaser R8. Great action and you can change out the barrels to match your current game.

What chambering are you looking at? Long action, short action, or intermediate action? The cartridge length matters.

If you are looking at a short action chambering, then the Remington 700 or one of the clones is your best bet. If you want a long action, then the Tikka action will give you every thing you need. If you want intermediate, then a Mauser action with a ton of work on it will suffice.

That gets my vote.. The guys touting better accuracy claims with their pushfeed actions have never owned a good pre 64. :

Semi custom 338wm:



And my 30-06 featherweight:


If the guy wants to build a good CRF rifle, I say hell yes go for it.. There's a reason the pre 64 model 70 is considered the "rifleman's rifle"... Just sayin.

This is an entire rifle for sale but the action would be great for a build.


http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5451078981/m/7451061552



.

I am biased towards Mausers, I have converted a number of military CZ24 and I enjoy them, but I may have gotten smarter. I am currently doing two builds identical except calibers (7x57 and 9.3x62) and I am using commercial FN mausers as they require much less work to build sporting firearms as the bolt is turned down low enough to clear most scopes, they are drilled and tapped for scope bases and they don't have the thumb cutout on the lefthand side of the receiver reducing the stiffness. What's not to like controlled round feed in a very robust action.

The only mods I am doing to the iron is to add 3-position swing safety to both actions for personal preference as I like to lock the bolt back instead of just locking the trigger from firing. The FN commercial 98's can be had pretty cost effectively by scoring your LGS, pawn shops, or gunbroker for Sear Models 50 and 51. You should not have to look long to find a donor action for $350 or less.

These are my thoughts on a decent place to start for a hunting gun, yes there are better actions out there that are more accurate, lighter, stronger, faster locktime, ... I like the old classics, except they will have modern mid-to high-end optics, but the actions themselves may have launched the bolt action as the actions of choice for slowfire military and hunting for a long time. Yes, there were bolt actions that predate the 98 it may have been the 98 that firmly plated the flag into the sand for bolt actions. This could all be bunk, if so it does not make the 98's any less good as a hunting gun.

Gorgeous rifles per usual, Whitebird.

Commercial Mauser, Pre-64 or Classic win M-70, Rem 700.

MM

P64 Model 70 or a Classic are my choices. Not that I think they are the best, but they are the best for me.

And dang Whitebird! Those are some beauties right there!

Simple enough, look up anything on Maurice Ottmar's creations and go from there.


If you were in Europe I would suggest Dorleac and Dorleac for inspiration.

Depends on the type of rifle. A pure classic then Mauser or M70. If a working rifle then Zastavia or Montana. Here is a beauty but not sure of cost: https://mayfairengineering.com/components

I like the Dakota action and almost nothing needs to be done to it. There is also the Mausinfield but I think I would go for the Pierce just on looks alone.
There are many more options around but I would keep checking the classifieds for a commercial Mausers or one already upgraded for scope use.

There were the Doumolin actions available at a very decent price, not sure if any are still available. Looks like they are: https://www.sarcoinc.com/search.php?search_query=doumolin%20action&section=product If you opt for this read (or wade through with hip boots on) the many reviews of this action. If I shot RH I would buy a couple.

I have a number of customs built on Rem 700. They’re readily available, not expensive, tunable and very accurate. Also I have several on Sako actions. They’re nice but I’ll take the Rem 700 for accuracy.

Granite Mountain is highly regarded.

https://granitemountainarms.com/

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I can respect where you are coming from, but a Remington action is not ideal in my vision for a custom hunting rifle....looking for crf.

Have you priced one?