"Palma" is simply a style of firing. It's a .308 Winchester, built for Palma-style shooting.
The Palma match is a long range team match. It's fired every four years (last time was in Ottawa in 2007; next one is 2011 in Brisbane, Australia). Teams of sixteen shooters (and four coaches, etc), fire two sighters and 15 rounds on score at 800 yards, 900 yards and 1000 yards (or the metric equivalent 700m, 800m, 900m) using iron-sighted rifles in .308 Win, with bullets weighing no more than 156 grains, from the prone position, with slings and shooting jackets. (2ss15 @ 800,900, 1000 is called the "Pama Course of Fire").
A "Palma Rifle" might have:
- typically a 30"-ish barrel; both for a little bit of extra velocity, as will as to allow the front sight to be mounted further forward, to improve the target/front-sigh picture
- a chamber adapted for the various 155-grain target bullets. One reamer often used is the "Warner 95 Palma", which has quite a short throat; it was made to fit the ammo made in 1995 by New Zealand, which had a Sierra 155 seated to 2.785" COAL. There is also a "Bisley 150" chamber, which has a fairly long throat, which many Canadian shooters use. My rifles use "JGS .308 Obermayer". All of these chambers work well.
- a slow-ish twist; most common is 1-13", though 1-13.5", 1-14", 1-12.5" are also seen (and they all shoot well)
It is quite straightforward to make good ammo. Standard practice is to use good brass (Winchester or Lapua), good primer (Fed 210M by default, but others work well too), one of the 155 grain target bullets (Berger 155.5, Sierra #2156 New Palma, Sierra #2155 Old Palma, Lapua 155 Scenar), and a good hot load of powder (Varget is used by the vast majority of the shooters; N140 also works great, and H4895 has recently shown some good promise).
What will work in just about any Palma rifle: Sierra #2155 seated to 2.800", Winchester brass, Fed 210M primer, 46.0 Varget.
Will you be shooting your rifle with a scope, or with iron sights?
Bring it out to CFB Gagetown this summer and shoot it with us... ;-)
