re: Question regarding rifle specs and Ammo

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People busting balls about possibly spending UP TO 5-7k on a gun

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I'm not busting balls, I just didn't get the range part of your requirement. It's not as if you can build a gun for $5k that can't handle 100 yards. If you want a $5k suppressed gun with a shorter barrel that makes sense to me.

With that budget I'd build something pretty and at least a little unusual.

*Chamber? .257 Bob
Barrel and over all length? 20", or 18" with a mannlicher stock
Brand (custom or local hunting store brand)? Custom, with a custom wood stock and your favorite CRF action
Bolt, lever action, semi or on an AR platform?
Scope? something decent with a good #4 reticle and not too much size. swaro, S&B come to mind.

No suppressor?

Semi custom fly-weight 308. Kimber Montana with a 16” barrel. Rebarrel if you must.

I wanted something similar, but not near that price range. Looked very hard at the Browning X-Bolt Speed SR, it has an 18" barrel. Ended up buying the Bergara B14 Squared Crest in 308 with a 20" barrel. Just got my Silencerco Omega 300 (took 11 months). You could also look at an AR-10 with a 16" barrel, like the Ruger SFAR which is basically as light as an AR-15 but chambered in 308

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P.S. let’s try to keep it in the 5-7k range, if possible.

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I have a 10% off code for jp rifle

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I am wanting to put a suppressor on it and that means the barrel needs to be short. 16” tops and overall length, with roughly a 6” suppressor, would preferably be shorter than 40”.

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There’s not a whole lot of off the shelf bolt options for what you’ve laid out, at least not to get under the 40” overall suppressed. A lot more if that suppressor is a little shorter or you could stand 44” overall. Look at the Witt Machine SME, it is not a true suppressor and doesn’t require a tax stamp, but reduces recoil and directs sound out in front to reduce what you hear, which is typically a shitload in a shorter barrel.

At 16” barrel length the cartridge selection gets narrowed down a decent bit. You need fast burning powder in a short case to make use of it, so that means 300blk, 308, 7mm-08, or 6.5CM. If you want to handload that opens up the door to short magnums like the SAUMs and WSMs, but it’s gonna get sketchy fast on stabilization and velocity loss unless you do your homework on the load. Any custom bolt gun with a carbon wrapped 16” barrel can be made to do what you want in the 308/7-08 though. A chassis gun could weigh next to nothing and would be under 40”.

I don’t know near as much about 300blk as others but the numbers don’t suggest it would be a reliable deer killer at 150 yards with subsonic ammo. I could be wrong, but the only real benefit of 300blk supersonic over 308 is you can fit it in a lighter ar-15 over a heavier ar-10. With your budget there are ar-10s that will come close on weight.

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Just go to Walmart or Academy and buy whatever 30-06, 7mm-08, 308, or 270 they have in stock. Put a quality scope on it. It will do this all day with good ammo.

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This right here.

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Good luck finding one, along with ammo.

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Simmons has the gun in stock and ammoseek has plenty listed. There are way harder things to find.

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100-120 yards max

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Marlin 336 in 30-30 has been killing deer for a long time and is perfect for this range. The ability to mount a scope close to the bore axis will give you +/- 1/2" trajectory when zeroed with a maximum point-blank range of 125 yards. Something that is hard to obtain with an AR style rifle with a high sight over bore axis. Ammo is readily available and fairly inexpensive.

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try to keep it in the 5-7k range

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Use the other 5k for something else.

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I am wanting to put a suppressor on it and that means the barrel needs to be short. 16” tops and overall length, with roughly a 6” suppressor, would preferably be shorter than 40”.

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If it needed to be off the shelf and i had 5k to spend with those requirements, I'd probably get a sig cross in 16" .308, a cgs hyperion k, and a trijicon ten mile 3-18x44, and id use the rest of the cash to shoot while im waiting on the form 4.

Not off the shelf, id probably get some tikka t3x in .308 and get it chopped down or get the barrel swapped, and put it in a Bravo or a folding chassis like an XLR.

Sub 200 yards and handy, I might use an AR-15. It would be a 300 HAM'R or 350 legend and not a 300 blackout. Id probably try to buy a wilson combat ultralight hunter in 300 hamr and put a trijicon 3-9x40 accupoint on it. Id prioritize letting the OB know if its awesome or not and use the rest of the cash on a suppressor and ammo.