Most Effective Ultra-Long Range Caliber

[Precision]

My personal opinion is the .375 Cheytac. Though I've never used it, I've heard things about it that would've been legendary not 30 years ago. Basically CheyTac took what they'd learned from the .408 and implemented it into a faster, lower recoil civilian cartridge with a higher ballistic coefficient than any production caliber. Unlike the .408, it certainly shouldn't be considered as a designated anti-material round, but in its defense it has significantly better groupings at 2500+ yards than basically any other caliber in existence.

What about you guys? Any experience with ultra-long range? I know they're hard to come by.

 

[MachIVshooter]

203mm

 

[unwise11]

.338 Lapua Mag for me, because the others will never be a popular civilian round, and they sell .338 at most good gun stores.

 

[db_tanker]

I would say either the 338 Lapua or 416 Barret.

They use standardized bullets, and are relatively inexpensive in comparison to the others at least as I have managed price them.

I figure also you could add in the Remington 338 Ultra Mag and 416 Mag...

Some folks just like having that oooh-ahhh factor with certain calibers...I am guilty of that with my 416 Taylor due to it being rather uncommon.

 

[Afy]

155mm

 

[Gordon]

Nothing is effective for "hunting" much over 1000 yards which would be unsportsmanmlike even then. The .50 BMG has the weight and bullet diameter to be ANTI Person at that range BUT a hit would be more luck than skill.

 

[Leaky Waders]

45-70 at 2 miles anyone?

http://www.researchpress.co.uk/longrange/sandyhook.htm

 

[Dreamcast270mhz]

I would say 20mm is pretty good, My uncle was riding in a HMV below a cobra during training and the cobra took out a target with its vulcan out 2000m.

 

[Robert]

14 or 16" main gun on a battleship.

 

[Cop Bob]

I'm with Gus McCrae.... 16" 38Cal MKIII mounted on the Iowa Class, hits within a 200 ft circle at 26 miles... and all it takes is 2600 lb projectile and 110 Lbs of Canon Grade BP and 330 LBs of Smokeless.. and a 10Ga Alcan Primer... All from a pitching deck... GO NAVY!!!!

I would like to see this new Chey-Tac Round sounds interesting....

One wildcat I have wanted to build and try is a 6mm Rem necked down to .223, they say with the 75-80gr bullets, that it is capable of some pretty scary long range hits...

 

[Gordon]

yeah get real , I have seen 800 yard Pronghorn kills with the .264 Winchester mag and almost as far with the .300 super mags but humane hunting on big game should be outlawed over this. I know guys who put up benchrests on ridgelines and hunt elk with BMG .50s and claim kills to 1200 yards- humanely, but any farther and you are not a sportsman in my book and should be reported to Fish and Game who would prolly laugh as you wouldn't hit anything anyway! This is lunacy IMHO.

 

[MachIVshooter]

14 or 16" main gun on a battleship.

I thought about that, but decided against it since they're dedicated naval guns (some coastal battery use of the 14's) and have been out of service for some time. They also require several men and massive machinery to load and fire.

As an aside, the Japs had 18" guns on the Yamato class

But 203mm is the largest self propelled gun (not on rails), and the biggest a person could ever use by himself (probably take 10 minutes to load solo, though). And since "effective" includes range, accuracy and damage capability, the 8" M106 shell's payload puts it above non-guided 155 mm munitions, which have about the same max range and accuracy.

The 155 is actually capable of better accuracy at longer ranges today due to Excalibur, but the M110 has a more intimidating presence than the Paladin, IMO. And still able to drop a shell on the enemy's position with astounding precision from ranges of more than 15 miles. Besides, not like we lowly civilians can get our hands on a Paladin/M777 or excalibur munitions, which are in current use.

Now I'm wondering how accurate Little David was..........

 

[Dr T]

I agree with Gus and Cop Bob. The 16 in. is another good, old fashioned black powder round. I don't think one can be fired from the shoulder, however...

 

[MachIVshooter]

The 16 in. is another good, old fashioned black powder round.

Those white bags aren't full of sulfer, salt peter and charcoal compositions.........

 

[bobbo]

Probably something bigger, like a howitzer.

What would you want to shoot at a mile and a half, anyway? An animal? Wow, you suck at stalking . A person? Yeah... you probably shouldn't mention that on the Internet... Target shooting? How many ranges are there for a mile and a half in the US?

 

[helotaxi]

Most all of the Southwest is a range out to as far as you care to shoot.

As far as the ethical considerations...a casual shooter has no business taking a shot at a game animal at more than 150-200yds. Plenty of "hunters" wound or miss animals at considerably shorter ranges. For the casual shooter, yes, long range hunting would be entirely unethical. Fortunately, these are not the type of people hunting at the kind of range we're discussing. The people actually hunting at these ranges also TRAIN to shoot at those ranges. A trained and practiced marksman CAN and DOES make lethal shots at extreme range and does so often enough that it can't be chalked up to luck.

 

[kingcheese]

20mm, they do make sniper rifles for the caliber, and there are some older anti tank rifles to

if you wanted to stay away from the shoulder-removing rifles, id say an M2 would be good, heard they are good for two miles

 

[SpeedAKL]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwerer_Gustav

The Germans came up with this solution for ultra-long-range projectile delivery. They found issues with portability though; you may not want to hump it over a mountain or keep it in a deer stand.

On a more serious note, the .375CT has the highest absolute performance of all the cartridges you mentioned but unless you're a very experienced long-range shooter you might as well get .338LM or .50 BMG and save yourself convenience and cash.

 

[Maverick223]

I second the 16in., the Jap. 18s didn't have the best reputation for accuracy (though that was credited to their inferior sighting system IIRC). For something a bit more portable you could always opt for a 105x208mm...it's hard to beat 200+ [strike]grains[/strike]oz. of powder.

On the slightly more serious side there is always the 14.5x114mmRussian (or the wee little 14.5JDJ for a non-DD), or the .375CT (which has few available acceptable components ATM, which could make finding a good load difficult).

 

[blackops]

Currently the most precise round at "ultra" long range is the 408. 416 edges ballistically, but precision goes to the 408.

 

[Murphy4570]

2,500 yard target for 16" naval cannon is point blank range.


I'd say light artillery would be sufficient. 75-105mm howitzers, or 60-81mm mortars.

 

[Frogomatik]

ICBM? ya only really need to be like minute of continent accurate to get it done

 

[helotaxi]

I'm a big fan of the AGM-114 myself. The ability to put one in a guy's chest from the other side of the planet has to be seen to be fully appreciated.

10,700m range from release point to target, laser verified. Close to 10,000km from the shooter to the target.

 

[Dr T]

MachIV,

Please forgive a possibly faulty memory:

I seem to recall that when the turret holding the 16 inchers blew up back in the 80's or 90's, it was attributed to one of the white bags of black powder being improperly positioned as it was rammed home (Based on my memory of an analysis of the accident in International Defense Review). Of course the powder granules were a bit large (over an inch in diameter and several inches long).

For some reason, I always think about this accident when I take one of my muzzleloaders out (and I do not use the REAL black powder for this reason).

But, no matter what the powder, it is had to argue with a 200 ft accuracy at 27 miles (even with the ancient analog computers providing the sighting).

 

[kyle1974]

why are people getting so bent out of shape for someone asking what the best long range carttridge is?

get a grip....

have you guys ever heard of target shooting? varmit hunting? "stalking" isn't really the main purpose of plunking prarie dogs.