Precision rifle course rifle pick?

Thanks for all the advice, I have not reached out to the course instructors yet (I will), I thought I would run this past CGN first. If the course instructors are good with 223 I will stick with that, I have all the components for cartridges at home ready to be built up, I was planning on building up a faster load as my calculator showed at 2550fps I would drop below the speed of sound before 1000yds and I understand that this will make things extra goofy. I will math it out with the Nikon and see if I need a -20 MOA rail or if I have enough turret adjustment plus reticle markings. If 223 will not suffice, I do have some other rifles I may be able to use but the rest of the fleet is in the hunting rifle realm.
During these courses, how fast and sustained is the rifle fire. For example my 300 mag will be rather warm after a five shot group and I typically let it cool to ambient before shooting another string. My 223 on the other hand with it's bull barrel and wee cartridge barely heats up at all. Is there time to allow the rifle to cool or would I be losing trigger time letting things cool?
Thanks
Windy

You switch back and forth with your spotter and let your rifle cool.
 
Hopefully I'm in the correct forum for this question. I have booked into a beginner precision rifle course for this spring that will teach the fundamentals of long range shooting. The course outline states that we will be shooting a couple hundred rounds up to 1000yds. Do I bring a Savage model 12 FV in 223 shooting a 75gn ELD-M @ 2550fps, for glass it has a Nikon black FX 1000 or a Christensen arms Mesa in 300 win mag shooting Hornady 200 gn ELD-X @ 2900 fps with a Leupold vx3HD 4.5x14 with duplex reticle, this scope will only give me about 13.5 moa of up which won't get me to 1000yds. Both rifles group great, the 300 mag is a bit more of a pig to feed and heats up quick. Any advice will be appreciated.
Thanks
Windy

Have you shot your .223 at 1K yet? If you can hold 1MOA out there you will be fine.
In have not taken Rob's course ( irons shooter here ) but have many friends who have , and they all enjoyed it and learned from it. Several had not done a lot of 1K shooting before and were able to make consistant hits at 1k on the second day, with 308's. if you can hit 1MOA at 1K with your set up you will be fine.
Most of the people I know used 6.5 CM, 308's ,338 Lapuas, and a few 300's .
Cat
 
Hi Iron Cat, I have not shot out to 1K yet, our local ranges only go out to 300yds, I am surrounded by crown land and hopefully can find a safe spot to try my luck out that far. The furthest I have shot the 223 is 450yds and I was extremely new at longer shots then and did not record the results. Once I'm off shift I will head out for a longer shoot. Hopefully this cold snap will keep the winds to a minimum.
Windy
 
Hi Iron Cat, I have not shot out to 1K yet, our local ranges only go out to 300yds, I am surrounded by crown land and hopefully can find a safe spot to try my luck out that far. The furthest I have shot the 223 is 450yds and I was extremely new at longer shots then and did not record the results. Once I'm off shift I will head out for a longer shoot. Hopefully this cold snap will keep the winds to a minimum.
Windy
Well. I know that they have had some shooters there that had never fired a rifle before and were making hits af 1K after instruction and wind coaching but that was with the rental 308's.
Check your 233 out as far as you can and if you feel comfortable, take it with you. You can always grab one of the rental rifles if you start having issues " out there ":cool:
Cat
 
1MOA at 1k? You'd be winning F-Class with accuracy like that. I'd bet no rifle at a PRS match meets that.
"Capable of 1MOA" does not mean " shoot 1 MOA at every distance . The steel they shoot at is far bigger than 1MOA, but they suggest that the rifle be capable of that .

However , a shooter that shoots 1MOA in an Fclass match is not automatically going to win the match .
The V bull is, after all only 1/2 MOA, and as you likely realize Fclass is not a single distance discipline and scores win the match not hits.
Cat
 
1MOA at 1k? You'd be winning F-Class with accuracy like that. I'd bet no rifle at a PRS match meets that.

A rifle that can shoot 1 MOA at 100 yards can shoot it at 1,000 yards.

What happens at 1,000 yards is that there's 1,000 yards full of external influences that is effecting the projectile on its flight path.
 
I’ve done the course. As per Jerry above I wouldn’t recommend a 223. As for the 300 WM - when was the last time you fired 200 rounds out of it? Many people don’t realize the punishment 200 rounds in a short period will put your body through.

308 and 6.5 are both popular for this course. The guys that brought their 338’s found out that 200 rounds is a lot to shoot out of these rifles. I used one of my 308’s.

Very first tactical rifle course I ever did was with a borrowed 300 Win Mag. I'm not recoil sensitive (or rather, wasn't then, it was about 30 years back or so, and arthritis is changing that). Made for a long day. Have to a agree, a 308, 7mm-08, 260 (or it's other 6.5 relatives) will all make for a better choice. Your 223 with 75's will reach 1k, but if the wind picks up you will have a tough time. FWIW - dan
 
I had my course with RFMA this last weekend, took the 223. Had a lot of fun and learned a lot. The 223 did ok, my issues with it were seeing hits and misses past 500m. With mirage it was hard to see the hit marks on the plates. My shooting spot buddy was using a 300 win mag and it was really easy to see his hits. At 800, 900 and 1000m they had hit indicator lights on the plates which was the only way to tell I was hitting the target. The crew with RFMA was top notch and went out of their way to help me out.
 
I had my course with RFMA this last weekend, took the 223. Had a lot of fun and learned a lot. The 223 did ok, my issues with it were seeing hits and misses past 500m. With mirage it was hard to see the hit marks on the plates. My shooting spot buddy was using a 300 win mag and it was really easy to see his hits. At 800, 900 and 1000m they had hit indicator lights on the plates which was the only way to tell I was hitting the target. The crew with RFMA was top notch and went out of their way to help me out.

How many rounds did you end up going through?
 
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