Hello: I am in the decision making process of deciding what rifles to have built for my oldest son. One elk rifle and one deer rifle. This post concerns the deer rifle.
I am going to find a good bolt action such as Winchester Model 70, Remington 700, Ruger, Savage, etc.. I will have a new barrel chambered for some caliber and have a new wood stock built for it. I am under no time schedule.
I want this deer rifle to be built around a unusual but proven cartridge. Examples might be some 6 or 6.5mm caliber. Maybe an Ackley Improved round. This rifle will be a bolt action, scoped, flat shooting gun. What I'm looking for here is some ideas from others who have built successful deer rifles before. Part of this rifles appeal will come from its "one of a kind" uniqueness. Examples I have thought about-6mm-06, 257 Ackley Improved, 6mm/244 Ackley Improved, 264 Winchester Magnum. Any ideas on this project will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jim

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Jim,
Of those you mentioned I would vote for the 6mm Ackley. Fast,light recoil, relatively easy to make brass, and lethal on any whitetail this side of Saskatchewan.
Good Shooting
HBB

I tend to lean towards the 6.5 for a deer rifle. While I've shot many with the 6 I think the 6.5 is a better choice. Also you are starting to get an excellent selection of 6.5 bullets. Many would lean towards the 6.5-284 now that there is brass available. But, unless you are wanting the short action I lean towards the 6.5-06 or 6.5-06 Ack or 6.5Gibbs. Any of these cases will give you enough capacity to do what you want. For a factory round the 264 is fine but, burns more powder to get where you want to go. If you want max velocity go with the 6.5STW. But, you will need a long 700 or 70. The Ruger is too short.

Jim,
Who are you kidding? You're building that rifle for yourself, you're just going to let your son hold it
How about the .270 Ackley Improved? Saeed has used this cartridge with great results in Africa.

George

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Shoot straight, shoot often, but by all means, use enough gun!

HELLO

Long or short action?
Short action, I would have picked the 7-08 or 308 win.

If you use a long I would not picked a cartridge under the 277 cal. A larger caliber allows you to hunt more game like Sheep, Goat, pronghorns, black bear etc. The 6mm are good for small deer, but is not my choice. There are many fine improved cartridges. I would have gotten an Improved cartridge that are easy to find high quality brass for and are easy to fire form.

This is just my opinions, pick what feels right. Good luck

Rem SA and chamber it in 257DGR, that is what I did, But on a Nesika K action.

Light recoil, 250AI + velocities, cases are formed as well as any factory case before you ever fire them so if you loss a couple while hunting it is not like lossing your AI fire formed cases.

Good Shooting
Jeff in ND

Jim, after a Cascades elk hunt last fall, I become intrigued with the .264 Win my partner was using. I didn't want a belted mag though and started a search for the most an 06 case could produce. I found and went with the .264 Hawk. Basicly an 06 improved or 9.3x62 case necked to 6.5. For nostalgic reasons, I went with a VG-24 mauser. I hope to receive the rifle this week and will report the entire custom rifle experience on this forum.
You can find information at Z-Hat Custom Gunsmith. good shooting.