Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Rifle for Suppressor Build or Buy

I just ordered my first suppressor. A Dead Air Ti Nomad 30. The wait begins, but in the meantime I want to buy/build a rifle to be my first suppressed. For now I can’t imagine threading my current rifles that I love!

Factory rifle or custom build is good. The purpose for the rifle will be back yard targets to sniping Southern whitetails under 250 yards. Cartridges in my thoughts at the moment are 6arc, 6.5 grendal, 22 Creedmoor, and 6mm Creedmoor. Goal is to have a 8.25lb or less scoped rig with the suppressor that is not so barrel heavy. Does anyone have a suppressed rifle that is not barrel heavy? I know balance is always discussed, but I don’t recall balanced suppressed rifles being discussed. Maybe it’s a tradeoff.

The Howa mini is the easy button to get into the game. But, luckily I have time and I’m not so worried about budget and I want to do this right the first time as much as possible. What would you do for a factory rig and what would be the blueprint if you built? Pics of your rigs always are nice.

I can understand the draw to a rifle like that. I'd factor in 10oz for the can, along with whatever optics/mounts you'll use. Even 16oz for optics/mounts means means that you'll need to be down around 6.5lbs for the naked rifle. What are your thoughts on rifle length? The can is going to add around 5.5-6" of effective barrel length. If it were me, I'd not want more than 18-19" of tube.

I have data for a mouse fart quiet .308.

A friend has similar for .300 BO (same weight/speed as my .308 loads).

IMHO use the 30 cal can as designed for .30.

These are my quiet .45-70 silly loads... same data for .458WM (but... they will not work with your can obviously). The real loads are 405s et al.

Mass is your friend when running quiet.

Friends run the Zeus actions and others (just change the barrel kinda thing... one stock, one optic, one trigger... 20+/- calibers).

I have heard good things about the Solus, but not seen one in person.

https://www.aeroprecisionusa.com/solus

I guess you just need to ask yourself how fast/hard you want to be hitting the targets - as you know, all are perfectly capable.
Based on your parameters, I'd roll likely roll with the 6 ARC @ 16.5" but that's just me.

I hadn't really considered going that short but as you mentioned that would work within my goal and make the rifle handier. I assume the ARC or Grendal would most efficient at that length.

SKane is right. How much velocity do you want? The can will tame probably a third of the recoil. For me, I’d want a 6mmCM here, probably at 18in.

Tikka CTR in 6.5 creedmoor or 308 win?

My cz 527 with 18 inch barrel and 6 inch suppressor isn’t muzzle heavy and is still pretty handy. Moving forward once you go suppressed you will thread ALL of your guns. Some will probably not be very handy suppressed. Some of mine aren’t. I have a harvester 300 that is nearly 9 inches. I use it on 2 guns I don’t care so much about handiness. I also have an ultra 5. I use that on guns I already have and want maximum carry ease. I give up suppression for that but that is more valuable to me in those cases.

It actually came to me this morning that a Tikka in 6mmCM chopped to 18 or 19" would be perfect!! Then a quick search showed they do not chamber for it. The 6.5CM and .308 would put me into recoil range that I'm not crazy about for my use.

With the suppressor in place I'm not anyone could tell the difference between my 6.5 cm/6cm/7-08 with 120gr ammo. None of them have much recoil...and very similar bullet weights and powder charges.

Getting the front end light is going to be all about barrel contour. A Rem M7/mountain rifle contour/Kimber contour or any #1 contour is going to be your huckleberry and will support a titanium suppressor just fine if you keep the barrel length around 20" or under.

A Kimber Montana or Hunter in 6 or 6.5CM or 7-08 or a Rem Model 7 will get you there just as easily as the Howa.

Not sure I see the purpose of a custom rifle for this application but if you build one, don't go heavier than a #1 on the barrel and keep the shank super short.

I'd probably just buy a Kimber in 6.5CM or 7-08, shoot 120gr ammo and call it good. There is not going to be a difference between those two vs a 6CM shooting 107 or 108gr bullets.

Stepping down to the smaller capacity cases will reduce recoil a bit.

I’m hoping to get out and sight in my Christensen Arms 6.5 Creedmoor with suppressor this weekend. This is my second suppressor and am really curious how it and the CM will play together. BTW, only 37 days from order to possession of the suppressor.😀

WOW... That is fantastic. Glad for you.

The OP doesn't know it yet, but this rifle will soon become his favorite and the others that he couldn't bear to cut/thread will soon be red-headed stepchildren.
He might as well get one he really likes and prezactly the way he wants it.

If they aren't muzzle heavy with a suppressor, they are butt heavy without. I'll take muzzle heavy with suppressor. When I'm hunting from a blind or tree stand, I just wait until I'm in the stand or blind before attaching my suppressor.

I did the Howa Superlite in .308 Win (6.5 Creed available as well) and got my rifle down to 7 lbs 0.8 oz suppressed with a 14 oz Omega 300 and NF SHV 3-10X42 scope. My 18" M700 went 9.5 lbs with Greyboe Trekker stock and the same scope. The rifle shoots as well as I'm able to shoot it, but it has some feeding and case ejection issues I need to sort out before I can recommend the rifle. However, my rifle is muzzle heavy but not enough to be unwieldy. Without the suppressor it's pretty well balanced even with a 22 oz scope.







I know someone is going to ask. The bolt doesn't pick up the round 100% of the time from the magazine. At first I thought I was short stroking the bolt, and started paying more attention to what I was doing. I dont think there is enough spring tension to keep the magazine at the proper height under recoil.

The ejection problem is the case just dribbles out of the port. I've tried deep cleaning the bolt, it probably just needs a stronger spring. It just doesn't throw the case, it usually just falls down against my sand bag elbow rest when shooting from the bench.

That's smoking fast on your stamp approval. I'm waiting on a couple that have been significantly longer.

I rolled the dice on the same rifle / chambering you have for nearly the same purpose as the OP is looking to get. Though I won't be plinking with them, the 110 Hammer Hunters were shockingly accurate so they'll get a whirl on deer. With the 110's and suppressor, it's like shooting a popgun.

Will a .243 Win not work? WTD 250 yards or under doesn't take a fast twist or high BC bullet. I'm pretty sure Tikka chambers .243 Win.

Yep. Reading my mind this morning! I've been looking at that and I lean towards traditional rounds as a preference, but with suppressor and all I was thinking outside my box. I've never owned a Tikka. What is the general opinion of their factory synthetic stocks?

[/quote]

The carbon wrapped barrel looks very nice with the suppressor.

wyatt, I did some research before buying a Tikka recently and factory stocks seemed to get pretty good reviews. After looking mine over, I didn't notice anything that had me looking at after-market stocks either.