Target rifle 30-06/270/243?

243 would be easier on the shoulder if shooting alot. Lots of good 6mm bullets out there.

Oh that's easy... the .30-06!

I'd go 30-06. Vast choice of components available. The 270 may shoot a bit flatter but I've never seen one prepped as a "target rifle".

I know one guy who uses a 243 as a target rifle. He is a shooter from Georgia and he changes his barrel out at least once per season. I think the accuracy life of a .243 barrel is under 1000 rounds.

If you are serious about shooting this as a target rifle there are a lot more cartridges that are better choices.

Both the 30-06 and 270 are going to kick hard.

While the 308 is obsolescent, your barrel life will be close to 4000 rounds.

Any of the 6.5 mm rounds have better ballistics than a 270 or 30 caliber bullet. Expect barrel life to be about 1500 rounds.

Bullet drop is not a "big" issue with target shooting. (Except for Black powder. At a long range black match, never ever park behind the target butts. One hole in your truck will make you a believer) You simply shoot from fixed distances, 200, 300, 500, 600 yards and dial in the same elevation you used before.

270 groups much tighter- i use a savage 110 with a 3-9... Sub inch group all shots touching from a bench at 100 yards

For target shooting, .308 is probably going to be more common. Another option is .223 but you will want to pay close attention to barrel twist rates if you want to shoot past about 200 yards.

Here's the scoop. There are alot of high BC 6mm bullets out there; only problem is, they are generally too heavy for a factory .243 rifle's twist to stabilize. There a very few quality, high BC .277" bullets available, so the .270 would be the worst choice of the three. There are many high BC .308" match bullets out there, and the .30-06's 1-10" twist will easily stabilize these 190gr to 210gr bullets. You take it from here.

Don

Any of the top target shooters I have seen shoot 6mm bullets - granted, it's in a 6mm BR version of some sort, but they put all their shots in one ragged hole

Mine is a Savage 12 FV in .243. But you need to handload to really get good match grade ammo, I have loads with the 85 gr. Sierra, 68 gr. Berger and 105, as far as I know no one loads factory match ammo for it. If you handload you can build loads with better ballistics than the '06 and a lot less recoil, and recoil does matter. The standard Savage twist for .243 will stabilize just about everything up to 108 gr. although if you try to use VLD bullets they generally become a single shot proposition as they have to be loaded too long to fit in the magazine.



As onounceload mentioned, all the long range shooters are winning with 6mm and 6.5 bullets.

.308 would be a wise choice, if you need one find licensed dealer they can order for you anything you like from savage or what else is out there… I would recommend to go with SUB MOA guaranteed riffles like Weatherby Vanguard or TC ICON or TC Venture line, I just got TC ICON PH in ,308 this thing shoots 0.26 MOA, at 300 yards it groups 0.985”.

USSR said:

Here's the scoop. There are alot of high BC 6mm bullets out there; only problem is, they are generally too heavy for a factory .243 rifle's twist to stabilize. There a very few quality, high BC .277" bullets available, so the .270 would be the worst choice of the three. There are many high BC .308" match bullets out there, and the .30-06's 1-10" twist will easily stabilize these 190gr to 210gr bullets. You take it from here.

Don

Click to expand...

Since he is looking at the Savage which has a 1 in 9.25" twist he should be good to go with all but the heaviest Bergers. I have seen a couple of comments on the Midway site on the 105gr A-max where folks specify the Savage as their rifle and are getting good results. My second time out with my used (new to me) Savage .243 I got a real nice sub 3/4" group using 100gr cheapo Federal at 13.99 box. I am excited to see what this rifle will do with handloads!

Without a doubt, the .243 Win out to 300 or 400 yards, really even out to 600 or so if you want to push it. Better trajectory (less wind drift), AND less recoil and ammo expense. What's not to like? A medium-BC, "mid-weight" .243 bullet (80-85 grains) will get to the target so much faster than a higher BC 175-210 .30 cal that the velocity easily trumps the better BC of the .30 cals, for anything under 400 yards. And you don't need any special twist for that - 1 in 10 or 1 in 12 is fine.

This question is what's known in technical parlance as a no-brainer.

well my savage 243 is really accurate it hits the same bullet hole alot at 100 yards. but 243 barrels wear out fast due to the excessive pressure i heard. it does have light recoil though that's a big plus for target shooting. like most will tell you just go with the 30-06 though.

I too would go with .243 provided your not going to try to take big game.

Get the 243, then save some cash up and rebarrel it in 6.5x284. Then you would have the basic building bocks for 1000 yard rifle.

243; better selection of high grade 6mm bullets, plus there is a factory bullet out there, made byHS munitions , that uses a vld bullet, and these are 25 bucks a box, not bad really, but handloading would be the way to go. And considering if the twist is 1/9.5, that is perfect.

http://www.thehuntingshack.com/index.html

matter of fact, I highly recommend these peeps for all your shooting needs.

Since you are looking at Savage rifles you might want to check out their Heavy barrel rifles models with 1 in 8 twist. In the 6mm Norma BR or 6.5 x 284 NORMA. Even the 6mm Norma BR with a 1 in 8 twist barrel using long bullets is capable of extremely good accuracy at 600 yards. The 6.5 x 284 NORMA would have less drop though.

I would say the .243 also just because it will be easier on the shoulder. If you want to do a lot of hunting with it I'm a 30-06 fan.

As USSR said above, there is no good target bullets (match grade with a BC over 0.500) available for the .270 that I am aware of. The .30-06 is a great choice, but will kick a little harder, it is not a common target cartridge but who said that is a bad thing? The .243 is likely to be the most inherently accurate cartridge, but barrel life will be shorter than a slower round. If you aren't really attached to common cartridges I would choose the .260Rem., it offers better BC bullets (and more choice in general) than the .243, greater accuracy, more barrel life, more power/energy (if you should choose to hunt with the rifle), longer effective range than any of the aforementioned cartridges, and just slightly more recoil than the .243...it is a clear winner if you choose to reload (though there is factory support, cartridges are hard to find and there is little choice of loadings).

IMO all these rounds can be very accurate. Your rifle and optics are going to dictate how accurate you can really be. If you to talk BC the 270 and 243 are going to give you better BC's. All three calibers offer a wide variety of bullets. The 270 and 30-06 are going to kick a little harder, but for me personally I can shoot my 270 all day long. I use Sierra 135gr MatchKings for paper and let me tell you they are very accurate. Not a lot of people use the 270 as a true target round, but I would love someone to make a true target rifle out of it. I bet it would be more than expected.