600 yard rifle
- Thread starter bearhunter338-06
- Start date
- Location
- Prince Albert, Sk
.....guess you don't shoot much or dont play with your rife past 100 yds. Or maybe not hot with math, or maybe dont have ballistic calculators. Lots of cartridges are capable and are used past the distances the op is mentioning. No offence sunray.
Though I have never killed an animal past 250ish yards, I am comfortable with my 308 win past 500. And it does have the energy at that range to eliminate deer or bear at that range. Moose will need a step up to my 300wm or the 338WM mentioned by the OP.
The biggest thing when choosing a cartridge is to choose one you are comfortable with and can shoot well. If a .338wm has a little to much recoil, then......
Good luck and happy shooting
JPB
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Plinking gophers with a .223 leads to a real appreciation for those cartridges that drift a third as much, and using big game cartridges with drifts of approximately half that of a .308 or 30-06 has a comparable advantage. Its like free talent.
There's a reason why .223s and .308s don't have to shoot against the 6.5-284s and such.
I think you might be very surprised and your comment is obviously without foundation. The boys who shoot long range from a bench successfully have mastered all the skills and can quite easily transfer them to field conditions. These aren't one task monkeys we're talking about here, but human beings who are outstanding shots and quite proficiently transfer the skills they have learned, mastering bench shooting, to the field.
Jpbaker:
Your post is well recieved. Sunray doesnt seem to have allot of real world experience. He has TONS OF OPINIONS. And thats about it. As you get to know this site, you will see those who can give advice from experience, and level headed thinking. Sorry if that offends Sunray! But its important to know whos advise is both "safe AND sound".
Ar180shooter
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Ottawa, ON
I agree that you have to do that. I never said anything otherwise.
What I was emphasizing is the importance practicing and becoming proficient in controlled conditions before entering unknown variables in to the equation. There is no point in zeroing your rifle at 100 yards, then running out in to the bush and starting to wildly blast away at targets 600 yards away.
Likewise, only shooting at a range will leave you unprepared for conditions you will face in the field.
When you shoot a lot from the bench or prone, good habits are taken, full zen trigger control, controlled respiration, and so on, with a lot of practice, those reflexs become like a second nature, and will applied instinctivly to any hunting situation, a great shooter is not born this way, he made himself a great shot by practicing... JP.
Really? Where on earth did you get this little gem of knowledge from.......the internet or possibly sunray? I have put more than 10,000 rounds through one 243 and the same or more through a second, I have by my calculations something in the neighborhood of 4-5000 rounds through my 300 Wby.........the rifle I hunt the world over with. Hell, I've got over 2000 rounds through my .375 H&H............Only got a couple or 300 through my 50 so I can't say on that one yet, but I can't see why it will be any tougher on barrels than a 30-06, given case capacity to bore size, pressures and velocities.
My experience does not bear out the theory that a barrel in a hunting cartridge and rifle can be burnt out in as little as 1000 rounds..........it just ain't so. A barrel that shows a little throat erosion can still be a MOA rifle for another 5000 shots, you may have to adjust your seating depth and/or change bullets as I had to in my 243s and rework some loads but this is much cheaper than a new rifle. My first 243 evolved through 4 different bullet weights and about 6 seating depth changes but always came back to 1/2 - 3/4 MOA for another thousand rounds...........until it didn't, in a matter of a hundred or so shots it went from 1/2 MOA to 4 MOA and would not improve. I pulled the barrel and sectioned it.........that rifle was shot out. I just pulled the barrel off my 300 Wby and cleaned it thoroughly and inspected the leade, which is much easier with the barrel off, and found minimal if any throat wear after 4 or so thousand rounds. Don't believe everything you hear on the internet, and don't try to apply benchrest parameters to hunting rifles and barrels. It is POSSIBLE to burn out a bench barrel in a thousand rounds.......this means opening groups up from .123" to .157" and has zero meaning to a hunting barrel in a hunting cartridge, period !!!! I personally think it's high time people start to take responsibility for bad shooting and stop blaming it on shot out barrels. I have had guys tell me they missed X animal 'cause my barrel is shot out and I know for a fact those same guys haven't fired enough rounds of rimfire, pistol and CF rifle combined, in their lifetime to have shot out one CF barrel.....................
Great shooters are made, not born this way, anybody who practice a lot and gain the all the knowledge inheretely needed for top shooting, are bound to be on target, moose, elk, deer, bear or caribou 100% of the time when in their judgement, they decided to shoot... JP.
When you ride a fast motorcycle and you are near a steep curve, at high speed, your judgement will make you decided if you put yourself in an aggresive leaning position to go true that curve at high speed, if your judgement tell you to slow down because your experience is dictating you not to do it, you feel things are not right for such a move...
There is a big analogy between biking and shooting, you will take a decision based on your experience... JP.
There is a big analogy between biking and shooting, you will take a decision based on your experience... JP.
- Location
- AB foothills
Actually you can get several thousand rifles out of a 338 lm with a premium barrel. Todd hodnett get near 7000 rounds out of his lapua's. and even after that many rounds he is only losing 1/4 moa to 1/2 in accuracy. You should watch the magpul video art of the precision rifle they debunk a lot of myths in that video. It's the high velocity rounds that will burn out a barrel fast like the 264 win mag and 7mm stw and other wildcatted cartridges ( yes people I understand a 264 wm is not a wildcat lol)
I believe this gentlemen was meaning more in the area if fundamentals of shooting. I personally take everything I learn on the bench and directly transfer it to my long range shooting in the field. But no matter if your shooting bench, prone, or unconventional shooting positions including buddy supported shooting. It's the same fundamentals. If you have mastered them you should be able to do the ridiculous. You know 500 yard shots while hanging upside down from your tree stand
and some excellent practice is not even long range practice I use my 223 bolt gun to improve my shooting, yes the caliber can potentially be used for long range shooting perhaps not longe range hunting but.... Try this while out shooting next time sit at the 300 yard bench and shoot a clay pigeon. Then try something smaller like a golf ball. Then try and centre punch a quarter. Then for fun try it all again from traditional shooting positions like seated or kneeling. I garuntee you try this stuff off the bench then go to the field and play with the bigger guns at extended ranges your likely hood of hitting your targets will increase greatly.
