A thread to keep track of thoughts and progress and to knock around ideas.
I have the first gun I ever bought. It is a Ruger M77 20 inch Ultralight in .308, it was made in 1989. I know this was in the era of Wilson barrels with spotty QC. It never was stellar accurate but has taken plenty of deer. It never was abused but did see a lot of rounds and finally got to where it produces shotgun patterns instead of groups. It went to the back of the safe and has been there since with the intention of getting a new barrel. I think this is the year to make it happen.
I have been doing my research and found that Pac-Nor is back from the ashes and looks like it is going to be $615 + shipping to have a barrel fitted. I have not spoken to them yet, just going off of web site info. This will be my gauge.
I am looking to keep the rifle light and handy, the reason I was drawn to it from the start. I do not want to go back with .308 Win, I have others and I also have my dad's Savage M99 in .308 that I am working on to see if I can get it to shoot accurately, it may need a new barrel also and it's on thread.
I am looking for whitetail accuracy for 300 yards and in.
Caliber consideration, the rifle kicks like a mule and I wish to go down in caliber mainly to give my wife something easier/lighter to shoot. I have her a Winchester model 670 in .243, no recoil because it is a heavy bastard. I will load my own ammo. I did try 6.5 Creedmoor brass in the magazine, it did not stack well, leaving me with legacy calibers without having to do modifications.
.243 Winchester - bullet choice is decent, brass on hand.
.257 Roberts - bullet choice is limited, brass is only made in limited production runs.
.260 Remington - overwhelmingly amount of bullets (Thank you 6.5 manbun...) plenty of brass. I think this is where my heart is settling.
7mm-08 - I bought my son a Remington M-7 in this, I never was impressed. His wife shoots this now and it does ok but he is still not a fan. Upper limit of this goal.
Everyone is welcome to knock around ideas and point out the error of my ways. I'm gonna go smoke a cigar now.