I’m new here, this is my first post. I’m Canadian (Quebec). I’m looking for a rifle for backcountry hunting. I hunt moose. I hate large calibers with heavy recoil. I shoot at less than 300 yards. I want a short-barreled rifle with an 18- to 20-inch barrel, lightweight and with a short action.
I prefer to use copper bullets. I currently have a 7mm with a muzzle brake. I’m very comfortable with it, but it’s too heavy and too long for backcountry hunting. I like the .308 caliber. For my type of hunting, it’s good. But I’m not against the idea of changing calibers. I’d prefer to stick with the .308. I considered the 30-06, but I don’t like its recoil. Maybe with a muzzle brake, it would be okay. But it’s a long action rifle, and with a muzzle brake, the barrel would still be too long and heavy. My budget is around US$2,000 for the rifle and US$600 for the scope. Do you have any three suggestions?
I have a Tikka t3x wideland 308 with brake shooting copper that performs very well, and only weighs 10 to 11 ponds maybe, with a Leupold 3hd windplex scope . I believe it is like 1500 for rifle now and around 700 or so for scope, could also go with the TIkka ace Game 6.5 cm or 308 both are under 2k , There are others out there , I just know my tikka does well with copper. Took a boar at 270 yards with Winchester copper impact 150 gn , had great expansion and blew out both his lungs. went in left shoulder and almost exited right shoulder. I just plucked it out with fingers.
Sure sounds like you’re describing the .338 Federal. So I’ll help keep our guessing to a minimum. See Ron Spomer YouTube on it.
Or the 376 Steyr in the “Scout Rifle”
Should be able to build yourself a nice custom lightweight shooter in your budget. Or just rebarrel your 308 to a carbon fiber barrel to meet your standards
I also live in Quebec so I’m aware how much more difficult it is to access the variety of rifles, calibers and components than it is down south, particularly if you don’t hand load. Some of the interesting, more exotic, options are difficult to access here but 308 and 30/06 rifles and ammo are readily available. Either one shooting Barnes TSX or LRX bullets would be an excellent choice for moose hunting out to 300 yards, or even farther. Adding a brake to a 30/06 will make recoil more manageable but no moose will know the difference between being shot with a 308 vs a 30/06.
Backfire is so full of glowing reviews of Tikka rifles you’d think they were on the Beretta payroll but my experience with a handful of Tikkas agrees with them completely. They feed like butter and shoot great right out of the box. They’re readily available here and are in your price range. Most of the 308’s have 22.5” barrels but you can get the T3x Battue in 20“. Hope that helps.
This shows currently out of stock but this is my primary hunting gun I use. Sounds to be about what you are looking for. Its under your budget too so you got room for upgrades if you wish.
I like the 338 federal. I actually had one at one point but had to sell it. Finding Factory ammo for them is very difficult. I just did a quick search and there are only six availability loads on ammo seek right now. Only one of them is copper, and they aren’t cheap.
So you’re looking at needing to reload for certain. And if you look at Barnes load data since we’re looking at copper bullets, the 185 typically gets about 2650 to 2700 feet per second but that’s out of a 24 inch barrel. You cut it down to 18 in, and if you’ve got my typical hand loading luck, you won’t get super high velocities anyway so you’re probably in the mid 2500 range. That means the bullet breaks 2,000 ft per second right at 200 yards.
So it would be fine for up close and personal, but not good for longer range then 200 yd
And definitely not what I would call light recoiling.
If you’re going to stick with a copper bullet, and don’t like recoil, and are shooting under 300 yards, 308 is probably your best choice. I’m not sure how short of a barrel you could get away with and still keep the bullet over 2,000 FPS, but you’ll get that bigger wound channel from a .308 bullet mushroom.
If you’re open to other bullet options, I think it would open a lot of other options. 6 CM or 25CM with the right bullet would do pretty much everything you’re describing. Low recoil, shorter barrel length, short action. While moose are big, they’re not hard to kill. I think you could go with an ELD-X,/ELD-M, Nosler partition, or Sierra TMK and you’d have a nice backcountry setup to be hauling around.
About 2600 ft-lbs at the muzzle, 2k at 200 and 1700 at 300. Wouldn’t shoot anything past 350 because it drops below the 1800 fps Barnes recommendation for reliable expansion.
My CVA 300 win mag with a backfire buttpad and suppressor has negligble recoil feels like a 308 is my first choice.
My Ruger Guide gun in 375 ruger would be second choice.
My Tikka T3x superlight 6.5prc shooting 156g Berger EOL handloads 2840 fps sub half moa at 100 would be my third choice
