Guys, after much navel gazing, reading of reloading guides etc, I am finally ready to get the ball rolling on a 260rem.

My thoughts are to use an older Sako action as the donor for this project. I can pick up a 243 Forester with an L-579 action for £250.

I don't mind spending a bit more if anyone has any better advice on what to base this new baby on. I want a good quality, smooth feeding action with a floorplate magazine.

Any advice out there?

I would not hesitate to use a Sako as a donor action for me it would be the 75 as I like the 5round flush fit mag and locked bolt design. The down side is reduction in the choice of stocks and other 'goodies' available when compared to a Rem 700

Brian

It depends upon what you want to do with it when its finished as to which action might be the best choice.

If simply for staling then Rem 700 Sako75 or Tikka695.

H5, good point.

The objective is to to build a short handy, moderated stalking rifle. Barrel will be a stainless medium weight sporter profile, 20" - 21" long. Most likely will go for a PES T12 moderator. I plan to stock it with a Sako Monte-Carlo pattern McMillan stock.

Basically a permanently moderated, go anywhere, do anything in any weather, stalking rifle, predominately to be used on Sika and Fallow.

I would probably use a Tikka 595 or a Sako AV.

That McMillan pattern stock is a nice one and it's made for a slug of actions.

I actually bought a Tikka 696 in 30-06 and I am going to take off the junk stock that came with it and use the McMillan.

Great minds think a like I guess. Though mine is a 30-06, and by memmory I think it's the #5 30-06 in the vault.

Everytime I think that I need another 300 Win or Wby I remember that the 30-06 is close enough and holds more ammo.

3 x 300 Win or Wby versus 5 x 30-06 just doesn't comnpare.

Claret, the Sako 579 Forester in .243 would be perfect for that project. Correct length, weight and the feeding will be 100%. I have seen many built like this and they invariably shoot very well. They are often very well put together and concentric (although like any action there are the Friday afternoon jobs).250 is an excellent price for the action. I would not hesitate. Who you gonna get to build it?

Regards\

z

Zaitsev, the £250 is for the whole Sako rifle including a decent set of scope mounts. The gunshop tell me it is well used, stock is knocked about and the blueing is worn - so what!

I am thinking Steve Kershaw for the build. I will call him next week and see what he has to say about this action.

thats even more of a bargain. Snap it up fella!


z

Brian, in regards to modern actions there are few that beats a old school Sako,

In short, get it, have it rebarreled and then get some new simple to clean rust protecting coating, lite cera kote and others, I would love to get mine done up like that after a early season were I have been soaked to the bone four out of five times, the fifth time I was dreanched instead, so ergo a better rust protection would be a good thing.

By the way, I really like the planned set up


/Best regards Chris

quote:

Originally posted by Claret_Dabbler:
Zaitsev, the £250 is for the whole Sako rifle including a decent set of scope mounts. The gunshop tell me it is well used, stock is knocked about and the blueing is worn - so what!

I am thinking Steve Kershaw for the build. I will call him next week and see what he has to say about this action.

I love older sakos but think carefully before leaping.

260rem is quite a tight squeeze in the mag which is strictly no longer than just under 2.8". Of course the 260 is designed to operate at this length but if there was extra length it would be nice to have the flexibility to seat the long bullets out to a matched chamber on a custom barrel.

You will have a mix of chrome moly and stainless. The action and bolt will rust unless looked after.

The trigger can be made excellent but it's unlikely to be right first time out. Mine's taken 3 years to get perfect (1lb 4oz repeatable and safe)The safety locks the bolt.

It's likely that the barrel channel will not be perfect unless you notify McMillan of the profile and the smith is skilled (and has the desire) to work on the channel to be cosmeticaly good as opposed to just floated.

The words lightweight and PES T12 are not compatible! Fantastic quality but very heavy. For light weight you need to order a CUSTOM PES which will be either 32 or (memory) 38mm and have no inner tube on the rear part that goes over the barrel. This makes it lighter, gives more volume but makes the barrel exterior dirty - not a problem as it's stainless and for dedicated moderator use)The 32mm is designed for 223 class but can be made acceptable with very tight baffle clearance (BR level threading required)

Were I doing it I'd get a Remington SPS stainless, chop to 21" bung a Jewell and Tallies on it and stick in a McMillan mountain stock (nice and slim - I've done this with 2 and they did drop in perfectly)For Xmas I'd buy myself some stainless drop in bottom metal from Williams.

Costs about £1300

Barreled action £550
Threading/shortening £100
Jewell £100
Tallies £75
Williams bottom metal £100
Mcmillan mountain stock direct from US) £325 (reckon on getting hit for tax)
PES custom moderator £275 (custom is extra but it lasts forever yes forever)

I've done it twice - results are both astonishingly accurate. My remington barrels are superbly accurate and don't copper foul at all. Both are 19.5" and much more affected by velocity loss than the books say. 243 will just do 2,800fps with 100gr under stiff charges of RL19, the 7mm08 will do 2,650fps with 140gr under H4350. I wouldn't be surprised if a 260 similarly was 150-250fps down on book so do take that into account.

Oh and if you know what you want make sure the smith understands that you want EXACTLY that and not something similar. I got pissed off when my 7mm08 was 19.8" instead of 19.5" Of course it meant nothing except I was trying to build 2 identical rifles not 2 similar ones.

I'd not use a PES mod or a McMillan stock.

There are better and lighter mods out there and the recent McMillan quality control is crap.(They have more work than they can handle from the US military).

But I think the idea of using the Remington SPS stacks up.