Help me pick my new rifle

[Terry]

Savage .300 WinMag

[whakm]

One with a bow string on it

[Mike D]

Help me pick my new rifle

One with a bow string on it

You must be lost.

The bowhunting forum is that way.

[HoustonR6ryda]

Remington 700 SPS .308

[Mike D]

The thing that handicaps the .25 and .277 calibers is the lack of widely available high BC bullets.

The 6.5mm and 7mm calibers are better choices with 6.5mm being my preferred.

You can get some ridiculously high BC bullets in 7mm and .30 cal but you have to get Bullet weight pretty high to do so which means you need more powder to push em and more muzzle blast and recoil.

A 6.5-284 shooting 140 grain bullets is virtually ballistically identical in terms of trajectory as a 300 win mag shooting 180 grain bullets. But it uses significantly less powder therefore less recoil and muzzle blast.

It's best built on a long action but can work on a short action with either a detachable mag system or a Wyatts extended internal mag box. The Wyatts box will require some modification to your receiver though.

[mrduxs]

[QUOTE=Mike D;10848307]The thing that handicaps the .25 and .277 calibers is the lack of widely available high BC bullets.


Just a FYI
per Hornady website the .277 SST 140g/BC@ .495 & SST 150g/BC@.525.

per Sierra Ballistic Coefficients and Velocity Ranges
0.277 150 .279 .483 @ 2800 fps and above .476 between 2800 and 2200 fps
.462 between 2200 and 1800 fps .435 @ 1800 fps and below

Not bad BC for the .277

0.264 140 .287 .495 @ 2800 fps and above .490 between 2800 and 2000 fps
.480 @ 2000 fps and below

[snipermedic]

With 25 cal. Highest bc is 110gr accubond @ .418 and the Berger 115vld @ .483.

And the .277 long range accubond 150gr. .625

The 25's in 25-06 and 257 weatherby are fast but there comes a point in distance you are going to want the bc. So unless you are using the bergers in 25cal not sure why this is even a long range consideration.

[medicmike]

.30-.378 wby mag. Great to around 1400yds. Pricey to shoot at about $7.50 per shot though.

[LWD]

If you're not going to use it on anything bigger than deer, just work up some loads with high BC hunting bullets in one of your existing rifles. If you want to shoot bigger than deer critters I'd suggest moving up to a .338.

LWD

[Truckman]

Your glass is liable to cost more than your rifle

This is very true. With my 300WSM I'm very confident between 300-400 yards. Around 500 my leupold vx3 doesn't have the magnification I need.

[Mike D]

Help me pick my new rifle

This is very true. With my 300WSM I'm very confident between 300-400 yards. Around 500 my leupold vx3 doesn't have the magnification I need.

Unless you are target shooting tiny spots, high magnification is not needed. I shoot well past 500 yards at 10x magnification.

Higher magnification scope force you into higher quality glass to be used effectively.

[2Lazy2P]

Unless you are target shooting tiny spots, high magnification is not needed. I shoot well past 500 yards at 10x magnification.

Higher magnification scope force you into higher quality glass to be used effectively.

[Thewarrior]

There's a Kimber Sonora in the classifieds. 7mm mag

[mcfactory7]

I use the Berger website to see what BC a certain bore diameter is capable of.

I'm always bemused by people touting "flat shooting" over high bc bullets when it comes to long range. Within reason, distance can be relatively easily measured and accounted for. Wind is much more tricky, and higher bc bullets buck the wind better than lower bc bullets, even if the velocity favors the lower bc projectile.

I was going back and forth on what I'm eventually going to buy between a .270 win and .260 remington. I started running data reloading data from nosler and bullet info from berger through the vortex lrbc caluculator to compare 150 gr .270 to 140 gr .260, both using berger VLD hunting bullets. Things were really in favor of the .260 when you looked at wind. It made my mind up right quick.