280 rem build question

[BrettSass844]

I am building a lightweight hunting rifle chambered in 280 remington. I am trying to get this done and have enough time for a good handload development by early november for deer season. I ordered my barrel from mcgowen on friday. Its stainless steel, 24", sporter contour, and standard shank. This is my first put together and I am wondering if standard shank was the right way to go? I plan to order a action from Jim at northland, but after doing some research will I be able to get a non target action in stainless steel? Thanks for the help.

[BillPa]

I am wondering if standard shank was the right way to go?


As far as?

I have both the 280 and the better version on small shank actions, all 24" sporters.

BTW, its an easy swap/build. Get all the parts (mag-follower,bolthead) for a 25-06/270 W or '06, they'll feed the longer 280 As-Is just fine.

Bill

[BrettSass844]

When I talked to the guy at mcgowen he said he thought the target and lightweight accutrigger actions had large shanks. When I look at jim's inventory and some other places I have not found or seen a stainless action that was not one of those 2. Is that true, or is the right size stainless action no problem to come by?

[BrettSass844]

I guess in a nutshell I was wondering how easy a stainless standard shank action in 30-06, 270, or 25-06 is to come by?

[BillPa]

What comes how I can't help you with, its one of the things I don't stay current on. Sorry.
The best bet, call Jim or shoot him an email.

Bill

[tammons]

The target actions are single feed and not milled for a mag box.

Stick with a small shank long action with a mag box.
Lighter than a target action anyway and put a SSS trigger on it.
Better than the Savage trigger IMO and cost $80.

The small shanks are easier to find barrels for too.

Midway carries quite a few barrel including a 280 Remington and 7mm-08.
Not stainless but most are in stock for about $140
The 7mm-08 barrel is on sale for $107 which is tempting.

You should be able to find stainless actions around, but if not look for a rifle and part it out.

If you hadn't already ordered a long action barrel, I would suggest getting a factory stainless
7mm-08 or a 7mm WSM short action, 1:9.5 twist, cut the barrel to 20" (or not) and load it up with some 162 gr amaxes
over RL17 or one of the power pro powders.

Short action is lighter. Put it on a factory tupperware stock with a light scope and rings and you are good to go.

My old 7mm-08 162 amax load gave me 2600+ fps with the 162 amax over H4895 with a 20" barrel.

Loaded over power pro LR 2000 you should get at least another 100-150 fps which would put you at
around 2750 fps. If you run the ballistics that will stay super sonic out to about 1400 yards and carries over 1000
FPE out to 800 yards.

The 162 gr amax is really a target bullet and it will probably shed its jacket, but it is cheap and has a SD of over .3 and it will blow through
mostly anything you shoot at.

At 2600 fps I shot a 250-300# boar hog at 300 yards and it blew through him like a freight train. DRT.

Still the 280 should get you another 150-200 fps, so just more of a good thing.

My current all around lightweight general hunter is a 308 short action stevens action, factory barrel cut to 19", tupperware stock, EGW base, Burris Extreme rings, and with a 2-7x leupold scope.

it weighs 7# 12oz dry. I could lose maybe another few oz with some work and more $ lighter rings, ultralight scope etc, but probably not worth it. Even more with a pencil barrel but I like it where it is.

Its sort of a down and dirty cheap woods to field gun. 2x and short barrel for the woods and short barrel for the truck,
7x for longer distance shots.

Short barrel is handy in a box stand too.

My current loads are the 208 amax over RL17 at around 2500 fps.
That is about like the 162 7mm amax. .65 BC and over .3 SD.
Read just yesterday about a guy that killed a 5X elk with that exact bullet in 308 and he got full penetration.
That load is supersonic out to about 1300 yards and carries 1000 fpe out to 800 yards as well.

My woods load is a 220gr round nose prohunter over RL17.
If I remember right I am getting about 2400-2440 with that bullet
and its very close to the same impact at 100 yards.

[rjtfroggy]

To answer your question, YES. Model 12 & 16 come in SS and I believe Northlander has both in stock.Just remember to buy the recoil lug and a trigger guard.

[BrettSass844]

Glad to hear that! Now I will need to find a stock off a GXP3 or GNS in long action and it will be ready to go when the barrel is done. How much will a savage factory stock run? Thanks for the help all!

[tammons]

Tupperware is about as light as it gets with a hockey puck for a recoil pad and cheap like maybe $15-25

Post a WTB ad in the for sale section and you will find one. Just get your action first, IE stagger feed and center feed are different.

A Bell and Carlson Duramax stock is a superb stock with an alum bedding block, and a great recoil pad, but
its heavy. I use the B+C at the range or if shooting really heavy recoil loads and when I get set up, I switch over to the tupperware
stock for hunting and take a few shots to confirm zero.

[BrettSass844]

Is the WTB section a paying members area only? I couldn't find it? I need to join anyways, maybe this will be my motivation

[tammons]

Yes

Correction to above.
The Duramax does not have an alum bedding block.
The choate stocks do,

[dwm]

The Savage Weather Warrior series are the stainless actions, model 16 is the short action, to get a stainless long action you need to find a model 116.

I have always found it strange Savage does not sell a stainless long action with anything but a sporter barrel!

No factory Savage, long action, stainless models with varmint or bull barrels, why is that?

I have conceeded to this and bought a couple Savage Stevens blued long actions, not what I wanted, but you can't argue with the price, ~$250 out the door for a new one.

[tammons]

They used to sell SS long action varmint barreled rifles.

I bought one of the last VLP, 25-06, SS varmint rifles.
Sold it for some crazy reason.

[BobT]

To answer your question, YES. Model 12 & 16 come in SS and I believe Northlander has both in stock.Just remember to buy the recoil lug and a trigger guard.


But neither of these will work with the .280 except as a single shot!

[rjtfroggy]

His add also says he has 112 SS for $375.

[Cycler]

If you hadn't already ordered a long action barrel, I would suggest getting a factory stainless
7mm-08 or a 7mm WSM short action, 1:9.5 twist......
Unfortunately the current factory 7mm-08 barrels, both stainless and blue, now have a 1:11.5" twist and will typically barely stabilize 140 gr bullets. Why did Savage do this? Nobody knows and Savage won't explain. There have been several threads puzzeling over this topic in the past year or so.

If you want the far more common 1:9" or 1:9.5" twist you will need an aftermarket barrel.

[tammons]

And that is a shame.

Well it was either a huge screw up where they made a sh%tload of
the wrong twist blanks or just an upper level management goofball decision.

I honestly don't think it was made by someone that knew what was going on in
the shooting world.

I don't think anybody there would intentionally design a 7mm rifle that could not shoot
the 162 gr amax, which is a superb bullet for long range target and hunting and its cheap but who knows.

You can still get an A+B barrel from midway for about $136 and they are 9.5 twist and in stock.