OzFclass

Hello ladies and Gents,

I'm brand new to the forum, thank you for the add.

I'm looking for some advice and opinions on a few idea's I've been having lately and would appreciate your input.

I live on the West Coast in Perth and have a situation I'm trying to find an optimum solution for.

A little back ground for context:
I recently tried to license another 28 Nosler, which was rejected by WAPOL for falling into the new Very Powerful Firearm laws. Even though I already had one licensed several months before hand, no dice... Unfortunately at the time of planning the build and waiting for Bat Machine to cut my action, the laws were changed.

During the ordering of components for the build, I ordered three HV 8.5 twist barrels from Krieger, one 5R (currently Chambered as 28 Nos) and 2 x 4 groove un-chambered. Currently my smith holds the 28 Nolser 5R barrel and I have had no luck in selling it.

I am looking at chambering options for the barrel which is already cut as a 28 Nosler, and subsequent barrels, to be used for the 500m Fly and F-Open comps.
Ultimately I'd like to salvage as much of the barrel as possible so as not to cut off the behemoth chamber and tenon, reducing the barrel to a 24" stub.

I have a Bench/F-Class rifle built on Bat MB action with a standard bolt face chambered up in 6x47 Lapua, the rifle is amazing and I got to thinking about various options..

I also hunt with the 284 Win in another rifle, from a tooling point of view, I'm ready to go with this cartridge.. I have a very good stock of Peterson 284 Brass and a hearty supply of 183 SMK's, 168 VLD's and various other 7mm projectiles from my previous 28 Nolser project and 284 rifle. So going to a 284 Win would be a piece of cake for the two barrels which are not chambered..

However, I'd like to salvage the 28 Nosler barrel without cutting it down too much in order to clean up the chamber..

I have grown to like the idea of playing with a new cartridge and have researched a little with the 7mm SAUM's, 7mm Blaser Magnum, Weatherby 7mm RPM etc..

Going with the SAUM/Blaser cartridges looks as though it will salvage more of the Nosler barrel without having to cut it down much shorter than 26".

Looking at the shoulder dimensions, heading down the 284Win/7mm RPM route might have the barrel cut down to 24" to cut a clean chamber...

Given the circumstances above, what would be your course of action?

Which cartridges would you be leaning towards - bare in mind, I shot a 28 Nosler for 3 years prior, so the barrel consumption only get's better from here..

At this point I'm not really considering purchasing another action for a new build as an option, I'd like to use my MB.
As far as the finance side is concerned, jumping to a new cartridge doesn't bother me so much as I think it'd be a fun project...
Performs and accuracy is the name of the game, so balancing those attributes along with my my options has been difficult as I have no real world experience with the SAUM/Blaser cases.
If anyone has a 7mm SAUM or 7mm Blaser Mag reamer print they'd be happy to post, I'd be very grateful.

Cheers
Dan

That sucks ! Rightly or wrongly in Vic all my actions are registered as 308 as that's the biggest caliber barrel they will have on. That said which barrel they are wearing at any given time depends on the day of the week and the mood of my wife We also don't have a problem with genuine need for any target calibre that we feel like as long as it fits with the type of shooting you are partaking in.

Sorry I can't actually help with your dilemma other than to say the our 7mm SAUM is running a 32" barrel which pretty much seems to be the goto for this cartridge

James

7mm SAUM is the default option IMO provided you can obtain brass.
I would hazard a guess that the majority of Queens winners in the last few years have won using either a SAUM or a 284win.

IMO opinion it is much more suited to 500m fly and F-open than the 28Nosler, far easier on barrels, easy to tune and keep in tune and very accurate.
If you have a 308 bolt face you could do a 284win but I imagine you will lose a lot more of your chamber than with the SAUM due to how skinny the 284 is.

If being used as a comp gun? Have you tried licensing with club support?
Or do you want the freedom of having it on a open license?

Hi Dan
I think the SAUM would be your best option, at best you would lose about an inch of barrel depending on how much wear in the barrel and how long the tenon thread is and if your smith is happy to "pick up" the existing thread if required. Depending on the length of the thread I'd suggest cutting off the whole tenon and starting again.
Matt P

If someone could tell me how, I’d post pics of the 2 prints, however I’d say if you were willing to lose an inch the saum would clean it up nicely with a new neck, it has approx .007” larger shoulder 2.6” to 2.045” however 35’ to 30’ shoulder and I’d happily sacrifice .300 for a new neck, I think you would have to lose 2” to come back to 284

Thanks for the replies legends... I pretty much sat up all night procrastinating over the SAUM and decided it'll be the way to go. From the info I gleaned out this forum and the plethora of information on Accurate Shooter, it appears to be a no brainer from the performance stand point - Very flexible chambering.

The original 28 Nolser wasn't a competition rifle, well, not in the F-Class sense. The SSAA Precision ELR meets are starting to get pretty good in size here in WA, so the intention was to use it in the SSAA format comps, specifically for shooting the 183 and 197 SMK's at silly speeds for targets 1000m and beyond.
My first attempt at the 28 Nolser was built on a Peirce LA Remington clone in 2016/2017, the magazine would only permit 3.715" long COAL, I was running around the 3.760" COAL with the 183gn SMK's and wanted to be able to repeat the cartridge through the action as opposed to single feeding them.

So I sold the original rifle and ordered a Bat HR 3.850" CIP length mag inlet so I could run a .330" throat. between ordering the action and receiving it, the cops decided the 28 Nolser was a VPF.. So, it's now chambered as a 30-28 Nosler...
Still incredibly accurate with huge nodes and gets the 230gn Hybrids moving faster than my 300NM did.. So win/win really.

The original 28 Nolser barrel is still sitting at the smiths, he has advised he'll only re-chamber the barrel if I agree to cut the entire tenon and chamber off so as to prevent chattering when trying to clean up the chamber with the SAUM reamer... But won't be able to do so until he's allowed to manufacture firearms again.
I guess I'll have a few months to sort a reamer, dies, and a swag of powder.

From what I'm reading, the powders the cartridge likes is in the AR2209/AR2213SC/AR2217 range... I guess the first barrel will need to be an experimental barrel until I find which powder works the best. In my experience AR2213SC is incredibly clean burning, but my expertise here is limited. I'll scour the pages a little more and see what the general concensus is for powder selection.

He's a pic of the now 30-28 Nolser and future SAUM for those interested in this sort of thing..




Cheers again lads
Dan

Save yourself some time and go with 2209 for 180’s, if it won’t shoot with 2209 it probably won’t shoot with any other powder.

ben_g wrote:Save yourself some time and go with 2209 for 180’s, if it won’t shoot with 2209 it probably won’t shoot with any other powder.

That's quite handy, I use 2209 in a couple of cartridges already. I've got a reasonable amount of time to get components sorted before smithy can get to my job... Hopefully ADI can get their act together and finalising commissioning their new production methods and supply us with powder again.

284win and 180H with 2209. Easy to shoot, very very accurate and easy to get components for. Do that first before a SAUM. Getting SAUM stuff is going to be hard now.

Quick wrote:284win and 180H with 2209. Easy to shoot, very very accurate and easy to get components for. Do that first before a SAUM. Getting SAUM stuff is going to be hard now.

G'day Quick,
I have a 284 Win chambered in to a Proof Research barrel and agree, it is a very accurate cartridge and although mines a hunting rifle, I do tend to do quite a lot of recreational shooting with it because of those attributes.

I haven't found it overly difficult to get 7mm SAUM components so far, I'm not in a super hurry to get this over the line, so I've ordered decent quantity's of brass, got two reamers on the go and sourced dies over the last two nights. I'll be pleased when it all arrives and I can get started. Hopefully ADG's brass lives up to it's reputation..

Watch this space..
Cheers
Dan

Quick wrote:284win and 180H with 2209. Easy to shoot, very very accurate and easy to get components for. Do that first before a SAUM. Getting SAUM stuff is going to be hard now.

G'day Quick,
I have a 284 Win chambered in to a Proof Research barrel and agree, it is a very accurate cartridge and although mines a hunting rifle, I do tend to do quite a lot of recreational shooting with it because of those attributes.

I haven't found it overly difficult to get 7mm SAUM components so far, I'm not in a super hurry to get this over the line, so I've ordered decent quantity's of brass, got two reamers on the go and sourced dies over the last two nights. I'll be pleased when it all arrives and I can get started. Hopefully ADG's brass lives up to it's reputation..

Watch this space..
Cheers
Dan