Interesting competition amongst friends

[DLrocket89]

My boss at work and one of our other coworkers (all three of us are engineers) get together to shoot every month or so. I recently started shooting a 6.5x284...awesome round, but the "barrel burner" nature of it had my head spinning. A new PacNor barrel for it (made up the way I want it) is about $600. People have been saying around 1200 rounds before the barrel starts to get less accurate....I didn't really realize that till now, but that's $0.50 a shot! Worse than the ammo I make for it!

My boss and I were kicking around whether or not we could come up with a way of analytically figuring out what caliber/gun has the best "ballistics per dollar" (I told you we're engineers!). Take into account reloading costs, use the barrel life calculator at accurateshooter.com, what kind of ballistics you get from it, etc, what caliber has the best "ballistics per operating dollar". Then his face lit up and he said "Let's make this a competition!!" So, we're going to have our own private competition: build a rifle, calculate out the cost per shot, and then take it to the range and do some shooting and find out who has the best accuracy per dollar spent.

Being engineers, we've come up with a ridiculously complicated set of rules, because we can without hating each other. Some highlights (and this is seriously about 25% of the things we've touched on):

1) Only ongoing operating costs will be considered (brass, bullets, powder, barrel life), not the cost of the receiver/stock/optics.
2) Shooting will be 100 yards standing, 200 yards prone, and 350 yards from a bench (it's the range we have available to us)
3) Must have 1000 ft pounds energy remaining at 350 yards
4) Expanding bullets must be used
5) Barrel life calculated using the barrel life calculator and chamber pressure calculated using quickload
6) Going to put some max weight on the gun, guessing in the ballpark of 13-15 pounds
7) Muzzle brakes allowed

If you get down to it, it's really "what is a good firearm for taking a whitetail out to 350 yards that is practical and as inexpensive to operate as possible".

So, my question is this: does anyone have any recommendations on caliber? This will be a custom build, likely a PacNor barrel on a Savage target action, so wildcats are fine (provided brass is available and not crazy expensive because cost of brass is one of the things to consider). He's eyeing up the 338 win mag, I'm considering the 35 Whelen or the 375 Ruger. Downloaded to be slower (and lower pressures) barrel life should be phenomenal. Our other friend is going to use his Kimber 30-06 (and probably kick our rears, lol).

Thanks in advance for any thoughts...interesting thought experiment at minimum.

Dustin

 

[Berger.Fan222]

With an 80 ELD, a long barreled .223 will have 1000 ft-lbs remaining out to 280 yards or so. Barrel life is awesome, and it is very cost effective to shoot. It's hard to get anywhere near the cost-effectiveness of this combo. You end up paying about 50% more for an increase in range of 25% that is really rarely used, or where the remaining energy would be "good enough." Having shot lots of deer with handgun bullets and various .223 bullets, this round would really be more than good enough. All the rounds with over 30 grains of powder and heavier bullets will burn barrels more quickly and also be much more expensive in components over the life of the barrel.

I tend to reject criteria that seem artificially "engineered" to exclude the .223.

 

[DLrocket89]

Interesting thought. We set the distance at 350 because we have a range (my mom's farm field) that has a big target setup at 350...it's a completely arbitrary distance, but that's fine. And yes, the criteria does push away from a .223, no denying that. Part of why we set up what we set up was to push us away from "common" calibers and make us explore what else is out there.

That said, I'm going to look hard at the .223 and also 25/45 sharps. Operating costs would be really low like you said, just neck up some used .223 brass for the 25/45.

The winner right now (and this after just an hour of digging) is a 358 winchester shooting a 225 grain Sierra gameking. Neck up cheap 308 brass, only need 2100fps at the muzzle, spreadsheet claims 16k+ barrel life. Low pressures with a big heavy bullet = not bad.

Related sidenote, something like a ruger gunsight scout converted over to 358 win would be one hell of a gun!!!

 

[Archie]

I do know temperature of the burning powder and expanding gases is directly related to pressure. As one goes up, so does the other. I also know higher temperatures is what erodes barrels; not rubbing copper jackets on the inside. (Copper fouling can be damaging to accuracy, but that's another problem.)

So a cartridge with a low operating pressure will contribute to longevity. The .358 Winchester with heavy bullet sounds like the right idea, or at least on the right track. The .338 Federal is a similar cartridge and does not have to loaded to the red line, either.

 

[Ru4real]

From one engineer to another, I think 358 Winchester is a good choice. The Sierra 225 is an excellent bullet for elk size game, I believe. I have experimented with the bullets below. Regarding accuracy, economics and terminal performance, the Hornady 200 gr spire point jacketed bullet cannot be beat for whitetail deer in my experience.

You can get 358 hard cast lead bullets for half the price of jacketed bullets, but you will have to experiment with your barrel to find a happy combination.

IMR-3031 powder works excellent in the 358 and you can always find it, even during the recent past powder shortage, because it is an old school powder that has ...ahem, "better" modern powder alternatives. You can hit your energy goal at 350 yards out of a 20 inch barrel BLR also.

View attachment 526190