I waited to comment to see all the posts. I'm glad to see some of the comments!

IMO, a 16" bolt gun in 308 Win (or 300 blk out) suppressed is about as good as it gets. I have 2 identical Rem 700 SPS, bull barrel rifles suppressed, one in 308 Win and one in 300 Blk Out, that I have rotated in use for about 10 years now. I won a Rem 700 SPS in 300 blk out in a shooting competition at Rifles Only many years ago. I used it for MANY years as my main rifle. The 300 blk out shooting a 125 grain SST, Ballistic Tip, Speer TNT, or Seirra SP, full power load about 2350 fps will perform great on deer and pigs.
We were sitting around the camp fire in hunting camp one night, and one of the new hunters on our lease found out what I do. He said that I must shoot some kind of big wiz bang magnum round then. I reached into my pocket and pulled out an extra round I had and showed him a little 300 blk out round. He was shocked I shot something so small. And my comment was, I didn't need a big magnum round to shoot deer and pigs. With good shot placement, the blk out is a near perfect round for basic hunting. Do I like having a little extra juice with the 308 Win, of course (and who doesn't). But I often keep coming back to the blk out for a basic round for hunting. It is still my primary round for my thermal night hunting AR-15 rifle.

I think class III machining charges like $75 to chop and thread a barrel now.

I’m really shocked at the lack of 16” suppressor ready factory options. Every manufacturer should put out at least one 16” threaded 6.5 lb or under model in 308 and 6.5 Creedmoor.

We must over estimate suppressor usage.

If i could have any rifle and any load combo built for me it would be a fast twist .338 federal, 16” barrel, otherwise similar to the Christensen ridgeline scout. A lighter .338 bullet similar to the 110 grain .308 barnes tac-tx, probably 150-160 grains or for a bullet that actually exists, a 200 grain speer jsp. And that new ultralight, all titanium silencerco but in a .338.

They should have named .338 federal the .338 blackout and gave it a fast twist barrel.

Or maybe a .338 wsm otherwise the same

it was very reasonable.. Morgan at Class 3 machining did it.
Only guy I trust. Fast turnaround too. Impeccable work.

https://class3machining.com/#services

338 Federal has a 1-10 twist which is fast enough for just about any bullet you can stuff in the 338 Federal case. Unless your are trying to go subsonic, it doesn’t need a faster twist. The practical top end on a 338 Federal is 225 grains and it easily handles them with a 1-10 twist. The larger the bore diameter the less twist you need.

The faster twist is so it will reliably expand with a typical .338 bullet. Poor bullet performance is one reason it never caught on. That is also one reason why they made the 8.6 blackout with a rediculous twist rate.

There are a few .338 bullets that will work. I just want it in a 1 in 7 or 1 in 8 twist. I want to spin a 200 grain cup and core .338 hard enough to blow it up at 2200 fps impact velocity. Whatever twist it takes to do that in a .338 federal will probably work good with the rest of the .338 offerings.

You have the Extreme Hunter or the Ridge Special Purpose? Similar rifles but the Ridge SP is about 2lbs heavier and has a hindged floor plate.

Shoots amazing but it weighs 11 pounds before optic and suppressor. Then with a 22” barrel plus a can it’s awfully long to hang out of a box stand.

Doing some soul searching if my focus really needs to be on 1000 yard capable or shift to strictly hunting as that is what I do 90% of the time.

That's a work out if you have to pack it in.

Sig Cross 16" .308 ~ 9.75 lbs as shown with NF ATACR & Q Full Nelson Silencer.

I’ve owned one for 13 years and killed half a dozen animals with it. It works great with any 180-200 grain bullet. It didn’t catch on because it came out right when the industry was moving to long range hunting. Candidly, it kills like 308. I’ve never seen a difference but I’ve only used it on hog, deer and deer sized exotics. I now hunt mostly with 308 because I have a 30 caliber suppressor. I’ve known several guys on different forums that own them as we shared load data. All of them that used it on game raved about it. I’ve never heard anyone complain about poor bullet performance.

You convinced me. Someone buy my Bergara so I can pick one up.

a buddy bough a Sig Cross 6.5 2 years ago.. very nice gun.. was very accurate with his preferred ammo, Barnes 120 TTSX. 1" group at 300 out of the box.

Some don't like the 2 stage trigger. The only miss in my opinion for the Cross is they should've figured out a way to adopt the 700 trigger...then we could've had whatever we wanted.

That's a lot of rifle for the money. I have one I rebarreled to a 6 Gaymoor, I've had two people try and by it from me...my only regret, I should've went with a lighter profile barrel because mine is heavy like The Dude's...his because he added an anchor up top and one out front...mine because I did a #4 Shilen profile so I could thread it at 20".

I loved everything about the cross, except the trigger. If I could of put a single stage triggertech in it, then it would have been golden.

Well then blame the gun writers. There is a lot out there about poor expansion with .338 federal, maybe it is all based on heavier bullets. But that is one reason why the 8.6 blackout has like a 1:3 or 1:4 twist rate, to make the heavier .338 bullets expand at much lower velocities.

I still want one (.338 federal). Still want to shoot 180-200 grains with it. Apparently Barnes *Does* make a 160 grain .338 that is popular in the .338 federal.

Not that I don’t believe you about the performance. I trust your input, I have read a lot of your posts not just in this forum, doing my google searches about it and daydreaming through the years. But on deer, pigs, etc how much deader/faster can you kill them than with a .308?

Inside 300-400 yards that .338 Federal is laying the absolute smackdown on paper, with less muzzle blast than anything near it’s power level other than a truly big bore cartridge, that does not have the range. I have always, always wanted one. I don’t know much about the ballistic coefficients of flat nose or round nose .338 bullets but I bet you could cram a heavier flat base Hawk custom bullet, designed for the .33 winchester, without hurting powder capacity and really get the most out of it.

Also I have read a few things about building long action rifles for short action cartridges, in order to load longer bullets. You could start with a 30-06 or something, put a 1:7 or 1:8 twist 16” .338 barrel on there chambered for 338 federal and screw around with longer, heavier, and tougher .338 bullets.

I know there are people that do stuff like this all the time with other cartridges for different reasons.

338 federal/8.6 blk isn’t an option unless I drill out my suppressor.

308 hits just a little harder than 6.5 sub 300 yards right?

Looks like by the Shot Show feeds I've seen this week...appears the manufacturers are listening on the shorter barrels and threaded call for help. I'm not that interested in factory rifles so I didn't compile a list but you might want to wait a few weeks and re-evaluate based upon the new released stuff. Shot is huge and it'll take time before everything comes out.

That's good to hear. I haven't been in several years but we used to hammer manufacturers to make them.. Got Weatherby to do a couple of prototypes, one we sent immediately back as it was so badly cut out of alignment I wouldn't shoot it.

How’s just announced a sub 5 pound rifle. 308 or 6.5C and 16.5 inch barrel.

Daaaaang. It is listed at 4 pounds 7 oz in .308 and 6.5 creedmore, has Stocky’s carbon fiber stock. I wonder if there is enough meat leftover in the barrel to have it bored over to .338 Federal (or AI) by JES

So our SIG 716 in 308 is a bad choice ????