So last week I met my dad up at the cabin for a break from everything. We got to spend a couple days goofing around before the girls (and Henry) and the noise arrived.
A few months earlier we got together at the cabin and for my 1/2 century B-day, he handed me a rifle case with a T3 sporter in 6.5 Creedmoor with a 24" barrel, identical to the one he had picked up after having a conversation with me about what I would get if I was going to buy a 6.5.
He knew I would likely not buy one for myself anytime soon, in spite of thinking highly of the setup, since I kill stuff well enough with my .308s and .300s.
I ended up taking it home and doing some mods to it before I even shot it, to make it more suitable for the style of hunting and terrain I most commonly hunt.
I swapped the sporter stock out for a factory composite T3 Varmint stock. The Varmint stock has a raised cheek piece and flat bottomed fore-end, as well as really free floats the barrel. Then I modified the bolt stop to take advantage of the fact that T3s are long actions. I then swapped out the magazine for a 300 win mag magazine. I loaded some projectiles in unprimed new cases and the longer .300 wm mag allowed me to chamber some very long cartridges. They eject without issue as well. More on that later.
The scope I had intended to put on it took an unintended tumble and had to be returned to the mothership (SWFA 3-15), so I pulled my older and much loved NF 5-22 off my target .300 and bolted it on, as it was already in a mount, and the intent was to just get it on paper and see how it shoots/do load development. My first thought was how goofy the thing looked at first, but after shooting it a bit, I admit I am having reservations about changing much up at the moment.
The T3 Varmint stock makes a difference in the handling/shootability of this gun. I shot this alongside a T3 22-250 and it is a bit more steady with the wider fore-end. Really liking how this seems to have a balance of just the right amount of overall barrel length and weight.