CaseyJohnson
Inactive
I have a HOWA 1500 .308 Long Range rifle. I am ready to start shooting past my normal 500 yards (the maximum range for my scope now is 500 yards) Want kind of scope should I buy in order to shoot 1000 yards?
HShack said:Can you expound on that? I, too am building my first long range rifle. I was going to do it in.260 Rem., but the reciever I got came with a nice 26' heavy barrel in .308. Do not know what the twist is yet. Figured I would save $500 or so, at least for now. Had planned on using the 168 gr. FGM.
It is generally accepted that the .308 with a 168 grain bullet hits the trans-sonic barrier somewhere between 800-1000 yards. This varies, of course, with your load, your rifle, your shooting conditions, temperature, altitude, etc,, etc, but generally, the bullet drops below the speed of sound somewhere between 800-1000 yards. In broad, general terms, when your bullet passes through that barrier, it wobbles. When it wobbles, you don't know where it's going.
There are plenty of cartridges that will make it out past 1000 yards without going subsonic. Think high BC bullets like the various 6.5mm, 7mm, even longer .308 bullets like the 173 grain class. Load those same .308 bullets in the .30-06 or the .300 Win Mag and they'll make it past 100 yards supersonic.
1000 yards is a long, long way to shoot a bullet, and while many folks do it successfully, it's a difficult task. Probably the most important task you'll face is learning to read wind, which will influence your bullet much more than the trans-sonic barrier. Higher BC bullets buck wind better and fly farther before they hit that sound barrier.