Long range affordable rifle caliber?

[Slayer_MN1]

@farmerj, My dad is way stronger than your dad though...

@grousemaster, the only big game animal I ever lost was a fairly big bodied whitetail buck shot by a 308win with 150gr cheap powershock I found him two weeks later while pheasant hunting and the bullet failed when it hit the shoulder blade. nothing worse than that feeling.

[Erud]

The exchange between you and slayer.

The OP wants to know what would be a decent medium range rifle for a disabled person limited to a 4Wheeler.

There are several non-magnum rounds in the 6 and 7 mm (.24 to .28 Cal) class that do the job. I'm spent plenty of time in woods tracking deer and not finding them from poor shots with 300 and 338 winmags. Practice at distance and keep a good log of what you are doing. Learn what temps, wind and elevation will do as we'll. But just get something you'll enjoy shooting.

Pulling a " dad will beat up your dad " on ballistics is childish.

Ok, but I think that in a discussion about rifles and cartridges, ballistics are a fair point of discussion. I can't help it that some rounds perform better than others at specific tasks. All rounds were not created equal. We are not talking about each other's mothers here.

Or dads.

[farmerj]

Something I learned years ago......


Consider your target audience....The OP......

[farmerj]

Something I learned years ago......


Consider your target audience....The OP......

[Slayer_MN1]

I believe the op got many good suggestions from this and may have also learned something about exterior ballistics? Did you even read the posts sir?

[farmerj]

Yes, I did read them........


It turned into a competitors pissin match about who's set up was better.

I would be more than willing to take a day and bring both of my bolt guns to her and let her try them out. One is a 243, the other a .30-06.

I have done it before and I'll make the offer again to a shooter.

[Erud]

Slayer_MN1,
Keep an eye on the link I posted for F-Class events. The 2014 schedule will be put up at some point not too far down the road. The meeting to decide next year's schedule is happening this weekend. I don't shoot F-Class myself, but could direct you to some hard-core F-ers with good info if you are interested in finding out more. Your rifle looks pretty sweet, I'm sure you will be pleased when you get a chance to stretch it's legs a little...

[Erud]

Yes, I did read them........


It turned into a competitors pissin match about who's set up was better.

I can't find that in any of the posts. Slayer was talking about stuff he knew about, then some other people said he was wrong. He posted #'s to back up his claims, and some people disagreed. I stated that the .243 had superior ballistics to the .308(it does) when comparing bullets designed for similar jobs. Then you got mad about something and declared an end to the thread. I remember a thread a year or two ago where you did almost the same thing you are doing here. It was weird then, and it's weird now.

[Slayer_MN1]

Im no competitor, Im a shooter and a hunter. The only pissing has been coming from you farmer and this will be my last acknowledgment of your whining. No one else seemed to have a problem with our discussion.

And please do let the op try out a couple of your rifles, that is a nice gesture. I would offer the same if I had more factory rifles that fit their needs.

Out.

[farmerj]

Whatever....

And you've spent the last two pages derailing the conversation to your rifles and wanting to shoot F-class.




Op, send me a private message if you'd like to try a couple different rifles out.


Hope you can find something that works....

[Slayer_MN1]

Thanks Erud I'll keep an eye on that for sure.

Meanwhile if any of you are interested in learning a little about shooting at ranges up to 500yds shoot me a pm. There are fun matches held in Princeton every third Sunday throughout the winter months that are very beginner friendly. You will shoot on 100yd increments from 100-500 yards for score on both bullseye and animal targets. Id even be willing to loan out a rifle if need be.

Steve

[highwarden]

One of the problems finding an acceptable factory hunting rifle for long range is that of finding a barrel of sufficiently fast twist ( 1:7 to 1:9) depending on caliber to stabilize the high b.c long heavy bullets that perform the best at long range( over 600 yds for target and 400 yards for hunting). A .270 winchester would be a great rifle for long range if you could ever find a fast twist barrel. The only hunting rifles that come from the factory with a proper twist rate are the 6.5s. This is because the 6.5 Krags and 6.5 Swedes were originally designed to use a 160gr bullet.

[shooter115]

Up until a couple years ago I had a Ruger M77 MarkII Target in .243 with a 9 twist barrel. It shot both 87gr V-max's and 90gr SST's very well, but it would not stabilize 107 SMK's. 9 twist is borderline for anything above 95gr IMHO. It's kinda like shooting 69gr+ bullets in a 1-9 twist .223. Might work....might not, but I aint gonna bet money on it. Now the 1-8 twist barrel on my 6BR is a different story, all I've ever shot out of it is 105gr+ bullets.

Don't get me wrong...I love the .243 Win. caliber. That Ruger of mine has taken antelope at over 600 yards, but I would never recommend anyone taking game shots at that distance without lots of range time and many rounds downrange shooting those distances in real life. Hunting is not the time to find out if the ballistics chart you ran on the computer with estimated figures is correct or not. Nor would I take that shot, with that rifle on full size whitetail. Antelope are very light skinned, thin boned game and pretty much tip over if you throw a rock at them. Deer are a lot tougher, elk and moose are off the chart in comparison. Like others have said here range time is far more important than caliber selection for taking long range shots on game. I've always liked the paper plate rule.....if you can't put 5 rounds in a row in an 9" paper plate shooting X yards from field positions you shouldn't be taking the shot on game. Cuz if ya can't hit in on the range it's highly unlikely you will hit it in rugged terrain, at altitude with your chest pounding and your adrenaline surging.

Personally, knowing that the OP is planning on shooting factory ammunition through a factory rifle I would suggest something a little bigger than .243 if you have high hopes of dropping an elk at 500+ yards. One I haven't seen mentioned yet is the 6.5 Creedmoore which is a fantastic cartridge and being offered by many of the major manufacturers these days. That's about the minimum that I could recommend. Next would be the .280, 7mm-08 or .308. I don't really have much love for the 30-06, since the .308 can pretty much keep pace with it in a short action. If you feel the need to go bigger you might as well jump to 7mm Mag or .300 Mag.

My personal tool of choice for big game hunting is a custom 7mm Rem Mag. shooting Berger 168gr VLD's. Rifles are like people, everyone's idea of the perfect specimen will vary per the individual. Here's my ultimate hunting rifle, keep in mind most my shooting is done from 400-700 yards out west....... so this is not what I would pick for hunting the thick woods of northern MN. This rifle easily shoots 4" groups at 600 yards if I do my part.

7mm Reminton Mag
Squared and blueprinted Remington action
Jewell trigger
26" 1-9 twist Kreiger barrel in a custom heavy sporter contour
Holland recoil lug
HS Precision thumbhole stock/ action bedded with Devcon
Leupold VXIIILR 6.5-20x50mm scope with target dot
Leupold Mark4 steel rings

[MaryB]

I reload so if I have the time I will be developing my own round next spring.

Tikka is not what I call affordable for someone on social security lol my gun dealer has several at $1200+.

Settled on 308 in a Savage Axis or maybe step up to the 11/111 trophy hunter xp for the accutrigger, this leaves me money to buy not only factory ammo but to play with my own reloads. Yes the Axis is a cheaper rifle but my Axis 223 is very accurate to 500 yards and I love the light weight and recoil is not a huge issue. When I shoot at the range I have a limb saver shoulder pad I use with the Mosin Nagant and while hunting I can deal with a bruise or two.

My nephew shoots 308 also so it makes things simpler ammo wise too. Less to carry and if my ammo gets lost en route I can borrow his. I plan on buying some of the same factory ammo he shoots and running a couple hundred rounds through the rifle before hunting.

[FJ540]

The cheaper savages have a good gun over a crappy stock. You can easily fix that with a boyds or even a savage stock someone else has upgraded.

I'd save pennies for the accutrigger, but I'm still impressed with how accurate the axis .243 was without it. I wasn't a believer until I handled one, now I'm a accutrigger Kool-Aid drinking mo-fo.