What brand action would you choose?

[JJ1179]

I’m kicking around the idea of building a 6.5 PRC, but can’t decide on what action to use. Also, should I go SA or LA? Any suggestions and advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[ID_Matt]

Factory ammo or handloads? What bullet?

Medium or long will squeeze the most performance for some bullets like the 156 berger. Short works fine for most.

I like Lone peak but Tikka's are the ideal length for prc/saum/wsm cartridges.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Call @Unknown Munitions and have them build you one with a Tikka action, in their new Tikka Rokstock. Then use the money savings over a full custom that won't shoot/perform any better, and buy a whole bunch of ammo. They can even do load development on the rifle for you before it leaves.

 

[JJ1179]

Either ammo. I do reload, but haven’t decided on ammo yet.

I will check out the Lone Peak.

 

[SDHNTR]

Get a medium length action like the Defiance XM. Perfect for 6.5 prc.

 

[ODB]

1935 Brazilian Mauser

 

[Shortschaf]

If I started over, I'd just go Tikka for that cartridge.

Maybe it's this site, or maybe its the fact that Tikka's are already a pseudo medium-long action, and I really can't imagine wanting a Medium length r700 action.

 

[tkhuntsman]

I’m kicking around the idea of building a 6.5 PRC, but can’t decide on what action to use. Also, should I go SA or LA? Any suggestions and advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Tikka or Remington is a good start if you want a more custom option defiance or bighorn is a good bet.

 

[JJ1179]

Tikka or Remington is a good start if you want a more custom option defiance or bighorn is a good bet.

Thank you! What are your thoughts on this new ARC Coup De Graće?

 

[tkhuntsman]

Thank you! What are your thoughts on this new ARC Coup De Graće?

I don't really have any yet I haven't seen it in action personally and I haven't researched it much. I have heard a few things and it all seems interesting and promising.

 

[SDHNTR]

Thank you! What are your thoughts on this new ARC Coup De Graće?

They are designed to use aiaw magazines, if that’s what you want, probably a good choice.

 

[ElPollo]

I don’t understand the draw of custom Remington 700 clones. The drop safe issues are well documented, but also see this thread for reliability in cold, wet conditions:

Ice/snow comparison between rifles

I have been asked by multiple people to do an ice and snow reliability eval between rifles/actions/triggers. Tthis is not a “test”, it is just a view at what generally happens. Doing a legitimate test requires more rifles and consistent conditions than I have. So… The rifles: 1). Tikka T3...

rokslide.com

I think the reason Tikkas do so well on these tests is that there are less opening for the ingress of moisture and debris than the other actions.

I’ve used Remington, Savage, Howa, Winchester, and Tikka. My choice is the latter. The actions are smooth, the feeding and operation is reliable in pretty much all conditions, the factory triggers are spectacular, and the drop safety is there. The only reason not to use one is if you want a long action magnum, so 99.9% of your needs should be covered by this action. If you really want a big magnum, look at the Sako S20. If you want a short action cartridge, I don’t know of a true short action where the downsides overcome the benefits of the longer Tikka action.

 

[hereinaz]

Thank you! What are your thoughts on this new ARC Coup De Graće?

I haven't seen the Coup De Grace in person, but Ted is a mad scientist sort of engineer. I have run his Nucleus since the beginning, meaning I have a single digit serial number. I enjoy everything about it. I ran the Archimedes when first released, and it pretty cool, but I couldn't give up my first Nuke. If I were to build a new rifle, I'd probably give the CDG a try. I like the pivoting bolt handle and extraction of the Archimedes, and with the CDG you can choose between lever extraction or cam. ARC has always been good to me and I like the features he includes, like the control round feed, which hasn't needed tuning in most of the ones I have seen. The extractor is enormous compared to others. I also like mechanical ejection.

It's really all preference and personal taste, IMO. I've had Savages, Rem 700, and Howa. How the bolt feels in the gun store isn't relevant to how you run it in the field. It can depend on how you personally grab the bolt handle or whether you sweep the bolt. Me, I run the bolt hard and learned how to run it so I avoid the possibility of binding. But, you won't have that problem with an ARC action.

If you go PRC, you can go short action, but you will be choosing the shorter bullets with lower BC but higher velocity. So, it depends upon how far you want to shoot. Velocity trumps BC out to 500ish...

 

[V35B]

Terminus Kratos or Kratos light in long.

As for the Coup De Grace, I have one, it is nice, well built, and fully featured at a good price. I will probably buy more of them.

 

[wind gypsy]

Tikka.

If going m700, lone peak, kelbly nanook, BAT vesper are all interesting to me. With the price of a m700 clone i'd ask yourself if what you're building is different enough from a seekins havak to justify building a custom.

 

[redneckbmxer24]

Yep it’s hard to beat a Havak, you custom quality rifle for a little over $1500, you just don’t get to pick everything about it unless you go through their custom shop which will make you anything you want.

If you’re building my favorite is Impact but ARC CDG, and Bighorn Origin are great actions too for like $500 less. I would build a 6.5 PRC on a SA but that’s me. I don’t want to settle for the limited chassis availability on a medium action.

 

[B23]

For the money a Tikka build would be hard to beat and probably my first choice. The only downside for the Tikka that I can think of would be there aren't as many stocks available particularly if you're looking for a clean used one but that's getting better all the time.

If you want to go with a custom action the BAT Igniter is reasonably priced, for a custom action, and BAT's reputation for awesome actions speaks for itself. Their Igniter is a Rem 700 footprint action so the list of parts and pieces that'll fit them is nearly endless.

Personally, if I didn't do a Tikka build I'd go with a short action of some sort and have a 3.100 Baney mag box installed. Even with the Berger 156's using a Baney box will give you plenty of OAL to seat the bullet/s where you want.

Also, unless you are looking for something specific in a rifle maybe just consider buying a off the shelf Tikka in 6.5 PRC and shoot it as is. If you decide the 6.5 PRC is your huckleberry you can always swap out the stock for something you like/want later and it'll give you a good platform to build on down the road. Cost wise that would probably be your best option.

 

[wind gypsy]

Yeah, going with a factory havak or a tikka and then throwing it in something like a rokstok would be hard to beat IMO for the $.

 

[TaperPin]

I’m kicking around the idea of building a 6.5 PRC, but can’t decide on what action to use. Also, should I go SA or LA? Any suggestions and advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

The prc is pretty long - really maxes out a short action, so I’m glad mine is in a long action. There are some feeding issues with the fat prc case if they are put together with factory belted mag magazines. I don’t know which magazines do or don’t feed. Wyatt makes PRC specific internal magazines and followers.

 

[mitchparker1980]

I wish Seekins would release a Havak for us left handed folk.