Best diameter bullet for long range?

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Ok, since those are your interests, I'd suggest .308 or 6.5X55 They'll make the reloading easy.

I'd suggest you have the rifle built with a clip guide and place for sights, for later. ;)
 
redneck2,
The 162 gr A-Max is supposed to be a great commercially available bullet for LR
Click to expand...

A friend of mine has had the 162gr AMAX's blow-up - that is, spin apart into dust - between 10 and 100 yards downrange when launching them somewhere around 3100-3200fps from his long range precision rifle. Hornady said, "Don't shoot them so fast." Strangely enough, when he called Berger they said they'd had several people call in with the same story, looking for a better bullet. The Berger 168gr is supposedly good to at least 3600fps, if I remember correctly.

-z
 
There are a couple of forums who continually beat up on the "dean" person who generally is out and about promoting the 408Cheyenne Tactical round.

Evidently there hasn't been a whole lot of outside testing done of the round by interested parties who want to try the thing first before they invest in the thing. It seems like it always winds up coming down to somebody linked with the round saying "buy my rifle, my balistics software, and blah blah blah" then go do your testing otherwise believe what we are telling you. Atleast that's where I left off in all of this, if somebody can point me to 3rd party evaluations of the 408CheyTac round I'd be much appreciative.

Some have suggested a bit of misrepresentation regarding the 408CheyTac round.

Hell if I know the real scoop, it's just interesting to see it come and go from time to time. I'm sure that the round has some real benefits and probably performs very well, but then who's to say that a 338Lapua with precision turned VLD copper solids wouldn't perform similarly?

Some of those Lost River Balistics copper solids are crazy on balistic coeffecient numbers, put those into just about any cartridge that can drive them fast enough and some rediculous retained velocity at range should be the result. Not neccesarily a new idea isolated to Lost River Balistics though, nor the 408CheyTac.


I don't know, for a non-50 long range rifle. For a big boomer 30cal. I'd go with something like a 30-378 or a 300RUM, can always do fun stuff like loading old M2 30-06 AP pulls into them :) For larger more authoratative "thump" I would say the 338Lapua. For long range killin of little furry vermin type critters, something like a 22-250 using HEAVY bullets or maybe even a 22/243 Cheetah using 80-90grn bullets in an appropriate twist rate.
 
I would say .338 .308 or 7 mag. If your looking to shoot from a rest and not do a lot of carrying I would highly recommend having a bull barrell on it also they improve accuracy a lot. I love my .308 with the bull barrell it has knockdown power and holds awesome groups. The 7 mag I have just kicks too much! But i'm sure if i had the heavy barrell and a heavier stock it wouldn't be nearly as bad.
 
A man I respected very much- also a common name in the shooting community for his performance with and manufacture of long range rifles- liked the .300 Winchester Magnum. I have a .300 WM.

If I were to pick my one long-range round without the benefit of Mr. MacMillan's advice, I might go with 7mm Mag.

It is a physical impossibility for a traditional shoulder-fired rifle to have knockdown power. I am certain recoilless rifles may, but then, I doubt most of us anticipate using missiles often.

John
 
I've seen the .300 Win Mag and 7mm Rem Mag work extremely well at 1,000 and 1,100 yd targets (farthest we have on our range). My dad, who is 72 and still loves shooting, owns the range and uses it frequently. He has used the new Rem Ultra Mags (300 and 7mm) but has since sold them and now uses a Remington in 260. Apparently the BC on these bullets is very good and he has had great results at the long ranges. The rifle is a stock M700 synthetic with only a trigger job done and he consistently shoots sub 1MOA at these ranges with it.
 
going back to the title of this thread, there is no BEST caliber. all have pros and cons. the 7mm with a 162 a-max, 175 SMK, or a 180 berger vld is a great caliber if your case is up to it. good cases are 7mm BOO BOO, 7mm wsm, 7mm-08 (not as powerful as the others but less recoil) and the standard 7mm mag. in 6.5 there are the big choices of the 6.5/284, .260 rem(6.5-08) and 6.5/300 wsm. :confused: another great caliber is the .243 wssm. with a bullet in the 105-115gr vld class, it outperforms the big 300's (mabye not the 30/378wby) with less reciol. there wont be so much energy, but that is the con. there are other 6mm cartdriges that will preform nearly sa well too. the .338 lapua is a great caliber but it has eccesive recoil for a normal person. what range do you consider long-range shooting? under 1,000-1,200yd the 6.5's, 7's and 30's rule. past that you need a larger, longer bullet and more case capacity.
some people said that the .50bmg has the best performance. That is no longer true. it was only better at ranges that normal match calibers couldnt reach. now there is the .408 cheytac, and even better(in my opinion) the .416 barret. these are both much more accurate than the 50 at super long range. at all other ranges too. if memory serves, the 50 record for 1,000yd is 5" (if this isn't correct please tell me). the 6.5/284 has the world record at 1.67" or so. (if it hasn't changed) one con of the 6.5/284 is short barrel life. i have heard of barrels only lasting 1,500 rounds or so. to me that is unacceptable, as i don't have money to blow on new barrels every other month or so.


Gvn
 
Extreme LD shooting

6.5-.284 and 6mmBR are great rounds for your purpose. The 6.5 would do better on putting down a sheep at extended distances and they certainly won't wreak the shoulder.
 
The .338 Lapua with a 250 grain HP has a muzzle velocity of about 2700 fps and drops to about 1800 fps at 500 yards. trajectory.-50 " @ 500 .

The .300 mag. with a 200 grain BTSP has a muzzle velocity of 2830 fps and at 500 yards it`s at 2110 fps. trajectory.-40 @ 500 yards

The .308 with a 180 grain BTSP carries about 2620 fps at the muzzle and holds to 1815 at 500 yards. trajectory.-51" @ 500

This should give you an idea. These are probably not exact but I`m sure that they`re close. Handloading should improve some of the figures.
 
interesting thing about that, jesse, is that in 6 years, not much has changed

of course, it wasn't MUCH different 60 years ago
 
Hey Zak, I just tried to find a few ballistics on a few calibers for him. I got that info from a ballistic chart at Guns and Ammo websight. Sorry if they`re wrong but I hope that G@A aren`t posting innaccurate info. That would be a little scary.
 
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It depends upon (a) how much energy do you need retained when the bullet gets to the target, to accomplish your intended task, and (b) what you mean by "ultra long range".

But without clarification it is VERY difficult (impossible) to beat 750 grain .510 Hornady A-Max .50 BMG bullet, with a BC over 1.0, from a shoulder fired long gun.

Short of a .50, the .338, 6.5mm, and 7mm cartridges have good BC bullets. The .30 cal is not too far behind. If your only purpose is to have enough energy to put down a lightly armored human (.mil application), not anti-materiel, and your range is less than 1,250 yards, then the sweet spot for that use is the 6.5mm family, with 7mm family nearly neck in neck.
 
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