Having passed on my trusty Tikka M595 243 rifle to my son as his first rifle, I soon decided to replace it. – Everybody should have a 6mm bang stick in the collection and there was a space in my cabinet to fill!
I thought long and hard about other 6mm chamberings (PPC, 6XC, Creedmoor etc), but in the end my decision was to go for another 243 for quite a few reasons and I’m happy with it.
As I live in the Highlands, and am subject to the 100 grain bullet weight minimum for larger deer ruling, I decided that I wanted a fast twist barrel to cope with the longer, heavier bullets. Also if (possibly when) we are forced to convert to lead free bullets, a fast twist barrel will be essential (hopefully someone will start to make 100 grain lead free hunting bullets for that scenario). To get the most out of the chambering I also wanted the barrel to be 24” long.
High quality factory rifles which meet my criteria are few and far between. They also cost far more than I was willing to pay. (Tight fisted, retired, Yorkshireman, living in Scotland syndrome).
As luck would have it, I saw here on SD that Ronin was selling a new 1 in 8” twist 6mm Sassen sporter profile barrel blank. Then I remembered that a RFD I know had a Sako 75 laminated varmint donor rifle for sale in 22-250 chambering. A plan hatched and I contacted Ronin, bought the barrel and he agreed to do the build for me. I bought the donor and had it shipped to him.
Ronin stripped the rifle, examined it & confirmed that its condition was fine for the work to be done. Having confidence that the result would be good, (Ronin’s reputation being excellent) I gave the go ahead.
A new magazine was bought as there was none with the donor.
The bolt face was cleaned up and a new extractor supplied and fitted.
The action and bolt lugs were lapped.
The barrel was chambered, the crown cut, screw cut both ends and an invisible thread protector fitted (M14 x 1).
After the metal was assembled, off it went to the proof house.
Whilst Ronin worked on the metal, I stripped the finish off the stock & refinished it.
I returned the stock to Ronin along with a scope and a set of Optilock rings and some dummy rounds so he could test the build.
I decided to get all the metalwork Creakoted with the Elite Jungle grade coating. and Ronin arranged for that to be done too.
With the rifle all back and together, Ronin put a box of Sako factory 90 grain bullets through it with acceptable groups & no pressure signs.
Confident that we have a good build Ronin shipped the rifle to me. I will do full load development for it when the weather permits.
I bought a Shultz & Larsen Ultradome 38MC 6mm moderator from Drews Lab for it and can thoroughly recommend it, It is very compact with excellent sound attenuation and cost less than the competition.
Just to get a bench mark for loading work up I bought a couple more boxes of ammo. Some Federal 100 grain softpoints and a box of Geko 105 grain softpoints.
The rifle really likes the Geko bullets giving me better than 1 MOA with no pressure signs. Over the chrono they run at 2960 ft/sec which is about right.
The Federal rounds shoot about 1.2 MOA into a similar target area but these exhibit very slight pressure signs and run at 3060 ft/sec which is a bit hot for my liking, especially as it is cold winter & they would certainly go over pressure in summer.
With these results I am very confident that I will improve the grouping when I do my load development. As it now stands the rifle shoots as well as I can, so more work would probably have diminished cost effectiveness.- Me being the weak link!
I still have the option of pillar and glass bedding the action in the stock. Ronin would be able to do that for me too.
In the meantime I now have a wonderfully well finished smooth shooting rifle, built to my own specification based on one of the best actions out there.
Excluding the moderator, rings and scope, this build cost just £1200 all in – Including all the shipping costs etc etc and a box of Sako bullets. What’s not to like. Many thanks to Ronin, a top riflesmith & gentleman to boot!
Ian (a very happy bunny!)
I thought long and hard about other 6mm chamberings (PPC, 6XC, Creedmoor etc), but in the end my decision was to go for another 243 for quite a few reasons and I’m happy with it.
As I live in the Highlands, and am subject to the 100 grain bullet weight minimum for larger deer ruling, I decided that I wanted a fast twist barrel to cope with the longer, heavier bullets. Also if (possibly when) we are forced to convert to lead free bullets, a fast twist barrel will be essential (hopefully someone will start to make 100 grain lead free hunting bullets for that scenario). To get the most out of the chambering I also wanted the barrel to be 24” long.
High quality factory rifles which meet my criteria are few and far between. They also cost far more than I was willing to pay. (Tight fisted, retired, Yorkshireman, living in Scotland syndrome).
As luck would have it, I saw here on SD that Ronin was selling a new 1 in 8” twist 6mm Sassen sporter profile barrel blank. Then I remembered that a RFD I know had a Sako 75 laminated varmint donor rifle for sale in 22-250 chambering. A plan hatched and I contacted Ronin, bought the barrel and he agreed to do the build for me. I bought the donor and had it shipped to him.
Ronin stripped the rifle, examined it & confirmed that its condition was fine for the work to be done. Having confidence that the result would be good, (Ronin’s reputation being excellent) I gave the go ahead.
A new magazine was bought as there was none with the donor.
The bolt face was cleaned up and a new extractor supplied and fitted.
The action and bolt lugs were lapped.
The barrel was chambered, the crown cut, screw cut both ends and an invisible thread protector fitted (M14 x 1).
After the metal was assembled, off it went to the proof house.
Whilst Ronin worked on the metal, I stripped the finish off the stock & refinished it.
I returned the stock to Ronin along with a scope and a set of Optilock rings and some dummy rounds so he could test the build.
I decided to get all the metalwork Creakoted with the Elite Jungle grade coating. and Ronin arranged for that to be done too.
With the rifle all back and together, Ronin put a box of Sako factory 90 grain bullets through it with acceptable groups & no pressure signs.
Confident that we have a good build Ronin shipped the rifle to me. I will do full load development for it when the weather permits.
I bought a Shultz & Larsen Ultradome 38MC 6mm moderator from Drews Lab for it and can thoroughly recommend it, It is very compact with excellent sound attenuation and cost less than the competition.
Just to get a bench mark for loading work up I bought a couple more boxes of ammo. Some Federal 100 grain softpoints and a box of Geko 105 grain softpoints.
The rifle really likes the Geko bullets giving me better than 1 MOA with no pressure signs. Over the chrono they run at 2960 ft/sec which is about right.
The Federal rounds shoot about 1.2 MOA into a similar target area but these exhibit very slight pressure signs and run at 3060 ft/sec which is a bit hot for my liking, especially as it is cold winter & they would certainly go over pressure in summer.
With these results I am very confident that I will improve the grouping when I do my load development. As it now stands the rifle shoots as well as I can, so more work would probably have diminished cost effectiveness.- Me being the weak link!
I still have the option of pillar and glass bedding the action in the stock. Ronin would be able to do that for me too.
In the meantime I now have a wonderfully well finished smooth shooting rifle, built to my own specification based on one of the best actions out there.
Excluding the moderator, rings and scope, this build cost just £1200 all in – Including all the shipping costs etc etc and a box of Sako bullets. What’s not to like. Many thanks to Ronin, a top riflesmith & gentleman to boot!
Ian (a very happy bunny!)
