I took the Sig Academy's "reach for a thousand" clinic and i was faced with a similar delima "which caliber ? ". I have a R700 Varmint in 308 and an R700 in .300 win mag. Ended up after much research going with my mag. My reason was because my 308 has a 26" 1-12" twist barrel. I handload and my barrel doesnt really shoot 175gr bullets well. At 1k your going to need to launch 175 gr bullets at a minimum 2600 fps to safely stay supersonic at 1k. I simply was not confident pusshing my barrel to this requirement. My 300 WM is far more consistisnt shooting 208 gr Amaxes at 2750 fps so the choice was clear.
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Interested in getting into the long range game.. Need advice
- Thread starter shmitty
- Start date
Worc said:Either or but, the cred will be a flatter shooter out a 1,000 yards.
"Flat shooting" in long range target shooting is about as relevant as nipples on a bull.
ALL that matters is the wind. Period.
And if you are good at reading the wind, you can do just fine without the newest-mostest-bestest caliber.
Nonsense. The .260 and 6.5 CM (or any other .264" caliber) advantage over the old .308 is high BC bullets.MarkCO said:The advice to start out with a .308Win used to be in vogue, but it is out-dated and invalid.
A higher BC bullet will not make you a better long range shooter, or help you better read the wind. What it will do is lessen the consequences caused by reading the wind (and compensating with hold or a sight adjustment) wrong.
Reading the wind is really all that matters in long range shooting, and all the big magnums or hot 6.5mm rounds will do for you is be a little more forgiving when you mess up your wind calls.
For example, shooting at 500 yards, when you call the wind is 60º at 8mph, but it is really 90º at 12, how bad do you miss?
At 500 yards with a 6.5 (140 SMK @ 2800) you are off by 1.5 MOA, which is just under 8 inches. A couple of extreme examples for comparison (which I have wind dope sheets worked up for) are the 30-06 150 FMJ, and .223 55gr FMJ. For the same error, the .30-06 will be off by 2.3 MOA (about a foot) and the .223 will be off by 3.1 MOA (~16").
Using the MR-65 500 yard target, if you held and broke a perfect shot, the 6.5 would still be in the 10 ring. The .30-06 would be in the 9 ring, and the .223 would be in the 8 ring.
If you get the wind right, the result is the same in any event, a hit.
A higher BC bullet will not make you a better long range shooter, or help you better read the wind. What it will do is lessen the consequences caused by reading the wind (and compensating with hold or a sight adjustment) wrong.
OK....
Even given the premise of your statement is correct, that does not make Mark's comment "nonsense".
Fact still remains, that given the OP handloads- why NOT take every advantage a high BC bullet provides, given that the cost of reloading is not significantly affected?
If one doesn't handload, then the expense of match factory ammo is THE major consideration IMO. Can't get the necessary experience without round count, no matter what the projectile. Range time is severely lacking for me...which is why my wind calls at 1K still need a lot of work.
When i shot the Sig 1k class most shooters had 308's . I had my 300wm and my shooting partner had a 6.5 creed. The breeze was not enough of a factor to worry about as my class was for first timer 1k shooters. The instructor did express the very basics of caculating wind dopes. The 308 guys were shooting well out to 800 yds then some shooters were experiencing some inconsistiant hits at 1k most likely due to subsonic instability. My 300wm and my buddys 6.5cm shot outstanding all the way out to 1k. Alls i did was caculate my elevation dope and my spin drift and never needed any wind caculations.