Short Barrel Truck Gun Opinions

So Ray is getting some pretty good input on his thread, so I'm gonna give this a shot on my own thread. So I have an action laying around with no dedicated purpose, it's a Surgeon Short Action 591 repeater with a .308 bolt face. I want to build a dedicated truck gun, short barrel 18" at most. Primary use will be 800yds and in, critter getter and possibly deer. I know my options on .308 already and it may be the way it goes, but looking for some other input on different calibers, folding stocks, etc. Not in a rush to build it, but I'm ready to gather the rest of the parts. So fire away guys, opinions, photo examples of shit you like, weight will be a concern but not a set point. Here is a pic of the action to be used..............

http://i581.photobucket.com/albums/s...ps64513b0d.jpg

Hard to go wrong with .270

Dang, and here I was thinking lever gun or something upon reading the title. Was going to recommend a 16" 30/30 or similar lol. I got nothing for the bolt gun, but whatever you decide, I'm sure it will be sweet.

For short barrels, it's hard to beat a 308 for efficiency, I personally am not a fan of the cartridge for long range work, but there's no doubt it is more efficient in a short barrel than it's 6mm, 6.5mm brethren. Haven't looked into 7mm-08 in shortys personally, but it might be a good choice as well.

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Originally Posted by bobbyfairbanks

Hard to go wrong with .270

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Except that it's a long action caliber, and a 591 is a short action.[Coffee]

.308 is a good "general purpose" caliber, IMO.

I know all the benefits of a .308 in short barrels and I agree they are hard to beat, I run a 16.5" GAP 10 in .308 and its a hammer. I reload and was kind of looking for something different. 7-08 has me interested, also saw someone running a .243 at 18" hitting 3000fps with 75gr amax, but thats to light for deer. A lever would be cool, I could sell this and probably cover the cost of a lever, Surgeons are not cheap, but I'm a big fan of the bolt! Keep it coming, anybody run anything with a folder other than a KRG W3, I've had that, excellent stock.

.243 is not too small for deer...

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Originally Posted by mcantar18c

.243 is not too small for deer...

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You are correct, I was thinking more along the lines of the weight, I thought there was a minimum weight requirement for the bullet itself outside of caliber and energy.

Gotcha. Eh, I'd confidently take the shot with a 75gr. Just make damn sure of your shot placement for a clean/humane kill.