bigiron

I would stick with the 300 winne if you want factory ammo. Put a lilja, or douglas barrel on it. As for stock I would go with a mcmillan. You could go with a7mm stwitwouldmake a good reach out and touch'em deer rifle. I would personaly stray away from 7rum not much for ammo selection and they like to eat the throat out of your barrels were the stwwill bea little easier on the barrelandwinchester makes a good load for it and the difference is hardly noticable from the rum. But if I were going to build a rifle like this I would seriously think about reloading then your options are unlimited.Try that black hills ammo for the winne good stuff and good luck

Pighunter56

I would stick with the .300 Win Mag, as well, ammo is everywhere, is a fine, long range cartridge, and won't burn barrels like thw RUM line of cartridges

Rammer

I'd go with the 300 Win or the 7mm Rem Mag since you want to be able to still shoot factory fodder out of it. Both will definately reach out an touch what you are shooting at.

48thguns

Ditto.....barrel not as wit.....just build it, they will die. Regards, Rick.

Baleful Scout

Mcmillan Stock

I highly recommend you rethink reloading.
If you are going to make this rifle personal then why notmake the ammunition personally.

Solitary Man

First of all, do you know what cartridgethis action was originally chambered for? If it was a cartridge based on the .30-06 case then bumping up to a magnum will require altering the bolt face since the head diameter of a magnum cartridge is larger than that of the .30-06 family of cartidges. The bolt facething is not a huge deal, but you may also run into having to do other alterations to the action and magazine if you want to go to a cartridge the action was not originally designed for. So think about that. Personally, I'd stay with a cartridge within the same family as the original sothat alterations to the action would not be necessary,but that's just me.

BTW, I had my Sako 75 rebarreled last year by Hill CountryRifles in Texas. They put a Lilja on it and it shoots great.It was originally a .300 Wby, but the new barrel is chamberedin .300 Win. Since both are based on the same parent case, no alterations to the action or bolt were necessary. I'm very pleased with the way things turned out.

CAJUNBOWHNTR

I don't have my hands on the action yet so i'm not sure what the original chambering is.That could very well have an impact on the final deciscion.As of now I'm leaning towards a 7mm rem mag or 300 win mag.A little more umph than the o6 but nought too much for the local deer population either.Thanks for the replies and advice.I have noticed that several of the barrle makers use button rifling and just a few(krieger) use a cut rifling process.Is either process better? It does seem that a button rifled hand lapped barrel takes less break in.

Thanks

48thguns

[quote]ORIGINAL: Solitary Man

First of all, do you know what cartridgethis action was originally chambered for? If it was a cartridge based on the .30-06 case then bumping up to a magnum will require altering the bolt face since the head diameter of a magnum cartridge is larger than that of the .30-06 family of cartidges.

Hello SM. To the best of my knowledge, the L61R Sako action and bolt were identical in all calibers from '06 to 338 Win Mag. Regards, Rick.

okgobbler

montana rifle makes excellent barrels as well. As far stocks go, you check out Boyds, Richards Microfit, elk ridge. They all have web sites. My favorite is a Boyds JRS. Good Luck and enjoy the building process. I am working on a 35 whelen right now and it seems that finding the components you want and getting them to work together is as much fun as the end result--shooting and hunting.