Planning building a railgun

bigHUN

bigHUN

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Aurora/ON
This will be my winter project, hoping to finish before the next year season start.
Currently I am shooting airguns only in two calibres .22 and .25, target rings, BR 50 and 100 meter, in a gunclub (SGC). My two airguns both are customized for most possible precision, and I am very anal with tuning. Last winter I built myself a one-piece rest, because I am not satisfied shooting from bags or bipods.

In my gunclub we have a 200 and 300 meters range these are mostly empty whenever I visit at least two times a week.
I am planning investing into a dedicated gun for 300 meter rings.
Because I don't hunt, I would build a railgun, and I have access to friends CNC machine shops. Also I am a mechanical designer (semi retired), just looking at online railgun pictures I can do that.

My memories faded about shooting a firearm, and based on conversations I had, I cannot decide between 223 and 308. Reloading? I understand the value but probably not interested in a near future.

As a side note, I spoke to some guys offering me guns, but I don't need a whole gun to throw away the furniture parts, I "just" need the metal.
I have no source for parts, prefer to save some money on cosmetics but not scarifying the quality.

My mind is open to suggestions.
 
6ppc if serious about accuracy for short range benchrest 6br for anything over 300 meters with a tighter twist barrel
6ppc dominates short range benchrest
6br is the go to for 600
30 br is the one for score not group
 
I agree with alot of you. 6ppc is king for short range group and is no slouch for score.
30br for short range for score.
6br a great all around cartridge
284 is a great long range cartridge from what I've seen from the fclass guys across the border.
 
I saw suggestions about 6br and 6ppc. I suggest OP dismiss that considering the cost and scarcity of the ammos if he doesn't do reloading.
You will be better off sticking to your original plan which is building a 22lr. :)
 
JQIAN said:
...You will be better off sticking to your original plan which is building a 22lr.
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I abandoned the 22LR idea because of ... cannot really expect great and consistent accuracy and precision from a rimfire casted bullet @ 200 and 300,
and considering the initial cost for parts not much offset for a hardware alone. Reloading is an extra hobby that may come along the line later if a necessity.
I know what you saying, I have no win-win in front of me.
 
JQIAN said:
I saw suggestions about 6br and 6ppc. I suggest OP dismiss that considering the cost and scarcity of the ammos if he doesn't do reloading.
You will be better off sticking to your original plan which is building a 22lr. :)
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He should stick with air rifles and put the effort into slug design. Especially since as I read it he doesn't intend to reload so there is LITERALLY zero point in this build to shoot factory ammo.
 
Grantmac said:
He should stick with air rifles and put the effort into slug design. Especially since as I read it he doesn't intend to reload so there is LITERALLY zero point in this build to shoot factory ammo.
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Yup. Without reloading you'll never get the kind of accuracy one would want from a rail gun. Might as well just buy a 6.5cm in a chassis if factory ammo is in the equation...
 
Suther said:
Yup. Without reloading you'll never get the kind of accuracy one would want from a rail gun. Might as well just buy a 6.5cm in a chassis if factory ammo is in the equation...
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I think his mentality is that air rifle is not regarded as a real gun, and from time to time it was looked down by some snobs at the range even though the looking-down part was subtile and implicit.
He needs something that has the powder to explode in order to drive a projectile, instead of using compressed air to push a lead pellet.
Gun powder explosion makes him feel included in this bigger family at the range. Carrying an air tank/cylinder makes he look like a kid playing toys.

So naturally first option he was looking into was 22lr because it was the closest resemblance of air rifle. But he abandoned the plan dismissing 22lr is inaccurate and inconsistent.
Then he turned to centre-fire and now faced a dilemma of the balance between cost and accuracy.

As for 6.5 creedmoor, I agree this is probably the closest thing he can get to achieve his "accuracy" and "consistency" without considering reloading.
But again, what's the point? you can get the same results by using air rifle, with a fraction of cost for each bullet. But again and again, that's all about feeling included in the bigger family.

To be honest, I am still puzzled by his definition of accuracy and consistency. So I stop making suggestions now.
 
JQIAN said:
I think his mentality is that air rifle is not regarded as a real gun, and from time to time it was looked down by some snobs at the range even though the looking-down part was subtile and implicit.
He needs something that has the powder to explode in order to drive a projectile, instead of using compressed air to push a lead pellet.
Gun powder explosion makes him feel included in this bigger family at the range. Carrying an air tank/cylinder makes he look like a kid playing toys.

So naturally first option he was looking into was 22lr because it was the closest resemblance of air rifle. But he abandoned the plan dismissing 22lr is inaccurate and inconsistent.
Then he turned to centre-fire and now faced a dilemma of the balance between cost and accuracy.

As for 6.5 creedmoor, I agree this is probably the closest thing he can get to achieve his "accuracy" and "consistency" without considering reloading.
But again, what's the point? you can get the same results by using air rifle, with a fraction of cost for each bullet. But again and again, that's all about feeling included in the bigger family.

To be honest, I am still puzzled by his definition of accuracy and consistency. So I stop making suggestions now.
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The way I see it, he wants to play on the 300yd range and doesn't feel that his air rifles or a 22lr would be good enough for that, and I can understand that. 300yds with a 22lr is intimidating especially if you haven't done it before, whereas 300yds with a rail gun (or any reasonably accurate centerfire rifle really) is a chip shot.

If the OP wants to build a rail gun for the sake of building a rail gun, cool. Have fun. Dont forget to post pics! But I can't help but feel like handloading is required to get any idea of the true potential of such a beast, and at 20-30lb I feel like it would get old fast carrying it from the car to the bench. And they're such a niche thing, both from a use standpoint (from a bench only?) and a resale standpoint.
 
Suther said:
The way I see it, he wants to play on the 300yd range and doesn't feel that his air rifles or a 22lr would be good enough for that, and I can understand that. 300yds with a 22lr is intimidating especially if you haven't done it before, whereas 300yds with a rail gun (or any reasonably accurate centerfire rifle really) is a chip shot.

If the OP wants to build a rail gun for the sake of building a rail gun, cool. Have fun. Dont forget to post pics! But I can't help but feel like handloading is required to get any idea of the true potential of such a beast, and at 20-30lb I feel like it would get old fast carrying it from the car to the bench. And they're such a niche thing, both from a use standpoint (from a bench only?) and a resale standpoint.
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if 300 yards is part of the picture for him to consider the accuracy and consistency, there is a wide variety choices he has without considering reloading.
308 winchester, 6.5cm, 6.5PRC, or even smaller thing like 223 rem can easily achieve what he desires. All those cartridge can hit a 6" plate easily every single time from 300 meters away, no matter what stock/chassis they are seated.
And they are widely available and some such as 223 rem is relatively cheap.

I still don't get the idea of rail gun, what's the point? he wants to build a furniture instead of a gun?
I think he should have a clear objective and value proposition first.
 
A rail gun, whatever its caliber, will need a very solid concrete or concrete-like bench -- something utterly and completely immune to any unrelated vibration or outside interference.
 
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