Friday Contemplation - Ideal short barreled forrest deer rifle and calibre?

Having had a look, a think and a play I am thinking that for giggles a L/A Win 30/30 is the winner, it's in the ball park and would make clever work if set up right.

For economy and as my wife's future rifle the Ruger Ranch in 6.5 Grendel has more flexibility and a bit more range potential as a all rounder for a short-arsed gal.
Qickload says I can make both calibers play the numbers game with good options for both.

That T3 is lovely but too close to my Lithgow which is much the much-ness on spec.

PL
 
CZ 527 in 6.5 Grendel. Bit tricky to find though.

David.
Correct! I have always opined that the Grendel would be the ideal UK hunting cartridge. I have killed large (mule) deer with mine and they went down like hit by something sporting a much larger case. Accuracy is outstanding.
CZ Grendels are a bit of a challenge to find but rebarreling a 7.62x39 model would work. Or getting a Ruger or a Howa? ~Muir
 
Or getting a Ruger or a Howa? ~Muir

The Howa Mini in 6.5 Grendel is a nice little beast. Howa is now listing them in 6mm ARC too which is probably an even more flexible number and should make deer-legal ME with handloading. (Basically, a necked-down 6.5G with a few other minor changes to stop the 6.5 version being chambered in a 6-ARC firearm.) Don't know if any are around yet in this chambering. CZ 'lost' the Grendel in the move to its single Cz600 model replacing the 527 and 550. It's reported on US forums that it (plus the ARC) will be reinstated in the new model 'sometime soon', but it means no CZ rifles have been made in this chambering for some time.
 
One of my current favourites to use,
Sako 75 with sasson barrel in 6.5, 18” barrel, overall length of 42” including freyr mod attached, suprisingly capable of decent groups at suprising ranges with the dot on
 

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Pfeifer SR2 26 inch barrel with an overall length of 28 inches so no compromising, pick your caliber and they come with faster twist rates. Nice compact moderator and a red dot sight sounds good. Mine is in 243 with 1:8 twist and delivers excellent precision.
 
The Howa Mini in 6.5 Grendel is a nice little beast. Howa is now listing them in 6mm ARC too which is probably an even more flexible number and should make deer-legal ME with handloading. (Basically, a necked-down 6.5G with a few other minor changes to stop the 6.5 version being chambered in a 6-ARC firearm.) Don't know if any are around yet in this chambering. CZ 'lost' the Grendel in the move to its single Cz600 model replacing the 527 and 550. It's reported on US forums that it (plus the ARC) will be reinstated in the new model 'sometime soon', but it means no CZ rifles have been made in this chambering for some time.
I have the Grendel Ruger as well. I loaned it, indefinitely, to a friend. It is very accurate but suffered from a junk magazine that caused difficult feeding. This was corrected by contacting Ruger and ordering the "bottom metal" for the Ruger 7.62x39 and then using steel Ruger Mini 30 magazines. No rattle and perfect feeding. The 5 round Mini 30 magazine is also more compact and better for hunting. My friend hasn't done any load development for it but Hornady black shoots just over an inch from it. He recently upgraded scopes to one with a finer reticle and says his grouping improved over that. It is a nice compact rifle with a good trigger. ~Muir

(I would add rifles in 7.62x39 to the list as well but, much of the ammo is loaded to anemic levels. Handloading would be a must to hit the 1800 ft/lb mark. I have done it easy with with Hornady 123 Grain Interlock and Nosler 123 Ballistic tips but the only factory ammo that comes close is Barnaul 125 grn SP at 2550 fps.)
 
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