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.

Or just buy one rifle in 6.5 (chambering of your choice), or 270, or 308 - any of those calibers will cover everything you need for both Eastern and Western hunting.

drover

Gun Safes have an abnormal vacuum effect, if you create space, the vacuum sucks in others until there is no longer any room.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

F

Tikka 6.5 Creedmoor

LOL....yeah, I thought it was a given that you only roll over gun $ and guns. I’m just looking at some simplification and selective improvement to the stable.

I keep trying that, but rifles keep sneaking in my gun safe. Must be at night when I’m asleep. Here’s a Creedmoor that snuck in there yesterday.

Tikka T3X CTR comes in 6.5 Creed, 260 Rem or 308 Win.
Blued or Stainless barrels and actions
70 degree bolt lift
Teflon Bolt is very smooth
20" barrel (or 24" in the 6.5 Creed)
Threaded Barrel 5/8 x 24 for muzzle brake
0 MOA Steel Picatinny Rail makes a great platform for Burris XTR Signature Rings (AKA 'Horn rings) if you want to add some cant....
7.5 lbs
Stupid Accurate
Metal not Mattel Plastic Bottom Metal like found on the regular T3X
10 Round DBM ( And Eurooptic.com has spare one's on sale for $72.00)
Functional Black Plastic Stock

Here at the 'Fire we speak only of growing, never decreasing one's collection of long-guns. Sniff. 😛

Culling is always a bad idea. I decided to cull my rifle collection a few months ago and so far there has been a net gain of 2. But they are rifles I have wanted for a long time and in great condition....I don't think I have room in my safe to cull any more.

6.5cm sounds good to me. I don't know there's much difference than a 7-08 though. Except factory ammo prices and availability favor the Creed. But the 7-08 is likely more efficient in a 20" barrel.

Then a 30-30 and a 223 would be good company.

Keeping it compact with a short action cartridge rules out the use of a long action rifle in my book. I mean I don't want a short action hunting rifle with a 22" barrel to be 44 inches long. But that's just me I guess.
I'd probably pick a Seven or an X-Bolt because I'm cheap like that. Although I'm sure that Adirondack or similar would be nice.

For a build, I saw someone here had a 600 or 660 with a custom stock and barrel in 6AI that would also make a shory, light, and sweet 6.5 CM. I guess I'd even settle for a little longer rifle with a similar stainless ADL.

I haven’t owned a Barrett so won’t comment on that one. Regarding the other options, I would go Tikka, Kimber, NULA, custom and in that order. Others will disagree.

Story time. Over the last several months I sold several things and set out to build the perfect lightweight, compact whitetail rifle. I sent a 700 sa to a well regarded smith that had done some work for me previously. He built me a 7-08 just as I specified with top shelf components. McM stock, light custom barrel, fluted bolt and barrel, skeletonized handle, Zeiss, etc. It's light, handles decently, balances decently, shoots well but is a picky snob on what it's fed.

You know what groups better, handles better, balances better, and eats everything I've ever put into it including low grade, cheaper hunting ammo? A bone stock t3 superlite in 308. All I ever did was put a dnz mount and Bushnell elite 4200 on top of it along with a claw sling and a little dark green electrical tape on the barrel mostly just for decoration haha. It does everything better and consequently gets the nod over the custom when going afield. I probably have 4 times the Money into the custom. Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with the top shelf custom, the bone stock t3 just does it all better.

Maybe I just got lucky but from evening I've read about the t3, that's not the case. Thought about painting the SL, sticking it in a manners, and upgrading the glass but worried I'd mess up perfection in the process. Will probably just leave it alone and trip the custom at a loss or retube or rebore or to a 358 winnie just cause I've been wanting a 35 something. Long story short, just buy a tikka and go forth and kill things. Good luck.

Russell
Hpb_rst

i,like the others here,never advocate "culling" any rifle in my gunsafe. unless you have been unhappy with it for some reason. if its in my safe its earned a right to be there probably by shooting sub 1" groups @ 100yds multiple times. but, if "culling" as you say, is your intended trajectory then by all means save the coin,unless you have been jonesing for yrs for a nula and your saying to yourself that this is the last hurah for you, and just buy a Tikka T3 in whatever caliber you want. my personal favs are the 6.5x55 swede,.260 rem and the 7mm-08 rem. wonder why remington can develop and bring to market some of the absolute best calibers then fall flat on their face marketing them??? remington needs to take a page outta hornady's play book there imho. sorry to get off topic. i was just wondering..................
good luck,
Big Ed

I hear ya. Tempted to grab a super lite 6.5 and maybe a ctx to sit at the bench with. I’d love another 358 or Whelen bolt gun again, just for my ‘heavy’, if/when needed. I figure the 6.5 will do everything all my 243-308 short action stuff will do, for less fuss....then I have my other 35s. ....which are all lever or single shot 356s/358s and such. My other thought is to just build a 6.5 AR, for shooting fun, and keep everything else, swapping a caliber/model here and there, and add another safe and finish the hidden gun storage closet. LOL