New rifle for a rural shooter

[Dick Danger]

Hello all from extremely rural Montana.

Forgive me for another what should I buy thread, but I think I have a good reason.

First of all I'm not a gear guy, I've been filling deer tags since the late 80's with the same Ruger 25-06. Been through a few barrels in that time. Which is part of my concern for whatever becomes my new precision rifle. I'm leaning towards the RPR because it looks like a fairly simple process to swap the barrel.

My former "local" gunsmith was a 2 hour drive one way. Unfortunately he retired and his shop closed. Now someone I'd trust my rifle with is about a 5-6 hour drive away. I would like to be able to teach the grandkids how to take care of whatever I buy and for them to keep it shooting for decades after I'm gone.

The RPR, Tikka, Ashbury, and Bergara are all on my radar. Part of me thinks I should just go with the Ashbury and be done with it. However, after watching someone do a barrel swap on the RPR, and already owning all the tools, I feel like the RPR might be a better option.

How much would I be giving up going with the Ruger? Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Olen_4504]

all the barrel swaps are easy with a few basic tools.


savage prefit style- easy
barcloc styles - easy
shouldered prefits - easy

i wouldn't use that as your main criteria.

 

[spife7980]

Between those you mentioned I dont think youll be giving up performance with any of them compared to the other.

When you say you have the tools already do you mean an AR armors wrench? I wouldnt let that be the deciding factor if so.

That said you can swap barrels on the tikka and ashbury (rem700) just as easily via the remage style where you use a barrel nut in place of a cut shoulder, very similar to the ruger system. Bergara is a rem 700 foot print and threads but it has a coned bolt face that precludes the remage system from being used with bergaga.
The tikkas are a bit less common but they still exist https://criterionbarrels.com/product-category/prefits/

 

[Dick Danger]

Thank for the replys. By tools I mean the basics, barrel vise, wrenches, and whatnot. Nothing that requires electricity, I don't own a lathe and probably never will. I'm very familiar with swapping AR pattern barrels, but when I came to my bolt guns I dropped those off with the gunsmith and never gave it a second thought.

 

[chevy_man]

Depending where you're at I could recommend a few Smith's.

I'd go remage before rpr myself. Only because I've shot one and our weather isn't conducive to aluminum chassis (I'm Central MT). If it's a summer only gun then that changes.

I know a shop in Central MT that has some demo'd Bergara Ridgeback rifles, $1500 (200 rounds fired for a show demo). Right in the ballpark of the rpr but a better all around feeling action and stock.

 

[spife7980]

Thank for the replys. By tools I mean the basics, barrel vise, wrenches, and whatnot. Nothing that requires electricity, I don't own a lathe and probably never will. I'm very familiar with swapping AR pattern barrels, but when I came to my bolt guns I dropped those off with the gunsmith and never gave it a second thought.

In that case you should be more than capable of doing the barrel nut style set ups (savage/remage/rpr). Barrel comes to your door in the mail all chambered and threaded ready for you to thread it on until it hits a go gauge. Bergara will require smith work to cut that cone.

I would just pick whichever looks coolest to you. If you dont like the ar stylings then the rpr is out, beyond that its not a beans worth of difference in the end.

Starting around 3 minuets shows you a brief over view of the savage/remage barrel nut set ups, its sort of specific to proofs stuff with id rings etc but the underlying principles are the same.

 

[b6graham]

Between those you mentioned I dont think youll be giving up performance with any of them compared to the other.

When you say you have the tools already do you mean an AR armors wrench? I wouldnt let that be the deciding factor if so.

That said you can swap barrels on the tikka and ashbury (rem700) just as easily via the remage style where you use a barrel nut in place of a cut shoulder, very similar to the ruger system. Bergara is a rem 700 foot print and threads but it has a coned bolt face that precludes the remage system from being used with bergaga.
The tikkas are a bit less common but they still exist https://criterionbarrels.com/product-category/prefits/

even better is people offering shouldered Tikka prefits now

 

[brianf]

is there a total budget, do you have glass etc
depending on what you can spend, might be able to pick up something up the food chain from the firearms buy sell
just a though

 

[steve123]

I'd start with a Bighorn Origin action, a prefit barrel, M700 inlet stock + DBM, or chassis, TriggerTech trigger, this way you have a nice custom action from the start.

I put together my go-to custom rifle and am very happy I did this instead of buying a factory rifle! I bought all the components on sale and ended up with the ones I wanted all along.

 

[SonicBurlap]

I'd go with Ashbury, or Bergara.

 

[Rillhurst]

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