great something else to look at...I wouldnt turn my nose up at a nice old Winny, but I would also be quite happy with a Ruger M77 or a purpose built Daumoline Mauser 98 in any flavor that the bolt face can handle! I did pick up 3 Daumoline's for future projects, and they are still available and inexpensive, for now! Matched up to one of the nice Boyds stocks, and you have an awesome set up to work with in any flavor your heart desires!
That's good to hear about your experience with barrels. But you bring up an issue, a small one but non the less.. I'm leaning more towards target shooting (probably a lot of rounds, about 33-40 per day, 1-4 "days" per month during summer on average) as I have a hunting license for bow on deer and elk 'this year' but considering rifle for bear so I'd have to work up a killer' 270 load for that at some point. I like to have options with this gun. Mostly I want to shoot small groups at 100-500 yards with the option to shoot long distance and hunt. I'm actually thinking 2 main favorite loads for this gun, one with the 110amax or 90varminters and one with Bergers 140VLD or 130VLD for longer range target. If I AI'ed I'd look into 150gr with the same gun, probably NLRAB or Berger VLD or something from cutting edge bullets. So when you shoot do you feel your barrel to see how hot it is? Or do you just put 20 rounds down the barrel?
There's bee plenty of 270s in competition that hold their own. The main drawback I think is reported' barrel life, until last few years high bc heavy for cal bullets were limited (not now), and it kicks more then the 6.5s. I've never fired a 6.5 but my 270 blows my shoulder back enough to where I'd get upset with it after a day shooting (not hurt but irritating for follow through concentration because when I do it right for a split second it feels like it's coming back and hitting me). I'll have to look into the 6.5X55 a bit more because it seems to have a lot of the qualities I like in the 270 and in some cases even pronounced. So if some one had one of those, theres a bit more of a reason to AI your 270 win. Plus back to the 280/270 thing, the cases look identical to the untrained eye so I have no idea why AI to one is more popular then AI to the other. I'm going to do it, and now that I know what is needed (thank you again GooseBrown -shoutout as they say) it's only a matter of time lol
Barrel length?
Normal lengths are 24" for Tikka, but a 29" is the old standard! The new fast twists get you to a shorter 22" with out loosing any thing, and that's right there where it needs to be!
With some of the Ackleys, the gains are too little to be worth the trouble.
I honestly do miss the guy!
I would love to rattle Taku's brain on this, I know he was pretty big into the A.I. and I know he would be willing to share!
The one thing often overlooked on the 6.5X55 is the throat, and lead, it's quite generous, leaving plenty of chamber bearing surface for setting the bullets further out, and with the combo of the blown out case taper and pushed shoulder should really stretch the possibilities! Now imagine the smaller bullets set nice and far out in that chamber and all that wonderful powder sitting there to drive it hard, you have an almost perfect environment for efficiecy! While the potential dosnt really show it's true colors in the smaller bullets, it's the area under the curve where the magic really happens!
But it needs a long action.
