AusVarmint

My safe is lacking in a lightweight mountain rifle so Ive decided to build one off a BSA 308 that I have. The problem is that I cant decide what cal to have it in. It'll be used for everything from the occasional varmint right up to pigs and goats. Id prefer something a little different than the more "popular" cals. So far Ive come up with a few from the 257roberts to the .284 Winchester (is it fits the BSA mag). So I'm open to any suggestions for the cal????

22-243,25 souper,260Rem,270-308 or 7mm-08

though about the 25 souper but Wiz is already doing one and I wouldnt want my cheap bsa outshooting his remmy!!!

Been thinking about the 257 Roberts improved as well.

7mm08 isnt that "popular" and it works well.

If you want to it to be legal on deer in Vic I'd suggest the 7mm08 or 284W. If not the the 260Rem would suit. If you want to bugger around with the bolt face you could also look at the 7mmWSM.

Scott

Bidgee wrote:If you want to it to be legal on deer in Vic I'd suggest the 7mm08 or 284W. If not the the 260Rem would suit. If you want to bugger around with the bolt face you could also look at the 7mmWSM.

Scott

Well we're only worrying about Sambar if we're after min cal requirements or just deer hunting in Vic!

.270 Redding fits the bill, not at all common, but pretty darned good, good variety of suitable bullets, easy to load, and easy to make. It's a .308 Improved, necked to .270 caliber. Dies are easy to get from Redding, and it can use virtually any .308 case reformed.

Lowndsie

When I wear the barrel out on my .243, I will probably look at re-barrelling to either 6-250 or 7mm-08. The 7-08 is apparently equivalent to the 270 Winchester (only about 500fps slower...) and is apparently very capable.

Be careful what cartridge you decide on with that short action. A case in point is my short action S&W 1500(Howa1500) that I rebarreled to 257Roberts AI. I have a 1-10 twist and it shoots everything to 100 grains well but when you start using the 120 grain bullets the longer bullet takes up to much powder space. That coupled with the short action and I don't get the velocity that I want.

The second problem I had was when I seated the bullet to just fit in the rifles Magazine (trying to get more powder room) I had problems with it jamming rather frequently. As long as you stay with factory over all length with the heavier projectiles your okay. When you want to seat the bullets out to get more powder room is when you can run into problems.

I think if you go for a high performance wildcat like the Ackley Improved you may not get the performance from the heavier bullets you want. If your content with midweight for caliber bullets it's a great round. Initially I was getting about 3300fps with 100grainer in the 257AI. I have since backed off to 3150fps as I had to be generating higher than SAMMI pressure limits at the higher velocity.

One of my hunting partners uses a 7-08 with 160grain Nosler partition on deer, elk and bear(not grizzly). He swares by it for big game.
Good hunting, Walt

You'll need to check but I think that the BSA is likely to be a long action that has been modified to handle shorter cases. In which case it should be possible to open it up to handle longer '06 length cartridges. If this is the case this would open up the calibre options considerably.

I know this may sound like a boring option but a stock 270 Win fits your criteria perfectly. For lefties we used to have limited calibre choices so in my earlier years I had no choice but to make my 270 work as a varminter, pig rifle and deer rifle.

With 90 grain Sierras I had two loads, one at approx 3100 fps (duplicating 222 trajectory) and another at around 3600 fps. The lower velocity was plenty and I actually shot a few pigs with that load too. Stepping up the weight range there are plenty of good 130 grainers for goats & pigs however the 130 Remy CL works well and are reasonably priced. I have two loads for the 130 gr bullets too, one at full power and the other loaded to around 2700 fps which is close to 7X57 factory loads. For bigger stuff the 150 Nosler turns the 270 into a decent thumper. Bear in mind that in Vic 270 is a min caliber for most larger deer.

With the new 6.8 SPC (basically this is the old 30 Rem case, shortened and necked to 270) will eventually yield an even wider range of bullets. This will provide more loading flexibility for the old 270.

These days I have a few other choices for small game but the 270 is still one of the best choices as an all rounder in Oz.

Joe

Agree with JFE . You should be able to open up the action to take .30/06 length cartridges . Obvious choices would then be .280 , .270 , .25/06 , 6.5 x55 or maybe 6.5/06 if you want something a little different .

.. considering what you have: the mag, the bolt face and your other requirements, my vote is definitely with the 260 Rem. It'll be corker in that old Beeza!!

Many of the other options suggested will cost you an arm and a leg and you will still have an old Beeza (as good as they are) that is way OVER CAPITALISED .. and the 260 rem is just ssooooooo good.

Yep ... I have one on a Mauser 98 (so i too did not want to spend heaps on a Mauser 98!!)

Good luck

PS: AND look at the READILY available range of bullets for the 6.5!