What calibre would you suggest for shooting out to 600-700m?

Draezin

Draezin

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I am going to start building a longer range rifle, and am interested in what you all think of good calibres for a 700 Remington to shoot accurately out to 700ish m. I was always under the impression that the .308 is the round of choice, but someone I know and trust with all my shooting questions says the .308 isnt an efficient long range cartridge.

Any help would be nice. Thanks in advance :)
 
308 Winchester is a very capable cartridge and is widely used in competitions out to 900 meters when using eithier premium factory loaded match ammunition or custom handloaded ammunition
 
my best suggestion would be to look at your DROP tables in the back of your reloading manual, and then go from there- 700 yards is about double what i'd be comfortable with, but i'm not you
 
Draezin said:
but someone I know and trust with all my shooting questions says the .308 isnt an efficient long range cartridge.

Any help would be nice. Thanks in advance :)
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Maybe it isn't efficient compared to other calibers but I just got back from Bisley where about 1500+ competitors shot .308 out to 1000 yards and before that some were shooting Match Rifle with a .308 out to 1200 yards.

The ammo used was Ruag .308 loaded with 155 SMK's.
 
hehe The gentleman that I was refering to has been to Bisley numerous times, and I am pretty sure he and his partner have won a few medals on thier journeys.The only thing I can think of is his idea of long range is much, much further then my idea of long range! I am thinking 800-1000 is a long range, but as he has been shooting for a long, long time, that he might consider this just a medium range. Love those mis-communications! :)

And thank you all for your answers! I was leaning towards the .308 myself allready, so now the only way I am not going with it is if I can get .338 Lapua for the same price as .22 LR! Which I know wont ever happen!
 
hey Draezin, I'm was looking for the same as you. I bought a 700 in .223 and I'm accurate out to 200 yrds so far. This is my first bolt gun and I have no complaints. I chose the .223 as a stepping stone and to learn the basics.

I would suggest you look at Mystic Precisions site, lots of info on long range with .223.
peace...

ps. anyone know where to find a 400 yd range in lower mainland B.C. ?
 
223 = 308 ballistically in factory rifles. Both work just fine way the heck out there. Neither is particularly good at beating the winds. Many cartridges/bullets with much better LR wind drift but that comes at a cost of either or including - cost, reduced bore life.

If you haven't bought your rifle yet, I would lean you towards a 223 9 twist Savage or 8 twist Tikka. Load up some 75gr or 80gr Amax or Bergers depending on twist and have at it.

Just did my first test groups with a Savage VLP from a board member and cranked off a 3/8" 3rds group at 200yds. Looking forward to putting down more groups to confirm but it certainly will be sub MOA at LR.

I was shooting the 75gr Amax and know I can reach 1 mile with this bullet.

Far enough :)

If you are going to build up a rifle with a 308 bolt face, the 6BR is one of LR shootings gem - 8 twist, 105, 108, 107gr VLD and you are good for a very very long ways.

From there you can reduce your wind drift but at a cost.

I have shot ALOT of 308 enough to cause some shoulder damage. No more recoil for me. The 223 has replaced it and I am having a wonderful time with the new bullets available.

Jerry
 
You can shoot anything out to 600 - 700 yards. How accurately you can do that depends on factors beyond simple caliber choice. Gun quality, bedding, barrels, ammunition consistency, bullet type, seating depth, ALL affect how ACCURATE you will be. That is assuming that the pilot is skilled at long range shooting.

precision long range shooting requires a good barrel, a good gun, a good well-fitting stock, a proper system of support, properly tuned ammo, an accurate sighting system and lots of practice.

Approach it from the angle of simply having fun. Get the gun you want to work with and play.
 
That sounds like one of the best suggestions I've heard in long time.

Start with something decent (aka - doesnt have to be a top shelf custom) and spend your time behind the rifle.

Im just getting into some longer range shooting as well and have just finished putting together a very value based rifle with a couple decent components that will server as the building blocks of a custom rifle in the future.

Other than my rings, everything else came off the EE (gun, stock, scope).
 
Obtunded said:
You can shoot anything out to 600 - 700 yards.
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Ditto.

Also, getting a 223, 6BR or 308 means that you can easily copy from the experience of countless others' load development, and with very little effort be shooting quite well. Other roads-less-travelled can also be gotten to work too, but perhaps with more effort.
 
noneck180 said:
.223,.243,.264,.284,.308,.338.............
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i would say 25-06 befor .243 and 7mm befor 308 or 338 or even 300 wsm just about any i dont think you have looked at many ballistics charts look at 243 wssm or 270 wsm some of the calibers you mentioned are older than dirt
 
dieseldog502 said:
i would say 25-06 befor .243 and 7mm befor 308 or 338 or even 300 wsm just about any i dont think you have looked at many ballistics charts look at 243 wssm or 270 wsm some of the calibers you mentioned are older than dirt
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For true precison long range, a 25-06 is a bad choice. Poor bullet selection, terrible barrel life and more recoil than you need. It is an inefficient, overbore cartridge. The High BC 243 (6mm) bullets such as the Berger 115 are far superior to the best bullets in 25 and 27 caliber; a 243 with one of these bullets would far outperform a 25-06 at 1000 yards.

243 wssm looks good on paper, but they were very ddificult to make work well. 270 WSM, very poor bullet choices and like the 257 cal bullets, poor ballistic coefficients, but when necked up to 284, it is a great cartridge, albeit one with a sub 1000 round barrel life.

Age is no deterrent to accuracy. the 125 year old 6.5X55 Swedish Mauser still is one of the most accurate long-range cartridges; so is the 107 year old 30-06.
 
700 yards

thers lots of calibres for 700 y. i usemy 308 to 1100 yards. and it is a really efficient cartridge. its like the happy medium of rifle calibres i feel , the best all round,. best group at 600 y was 1.212 " with rest, and full value wind(dont know what strength. it really depends on your optics too, get a target turret/tactical mil dot thing and youll be laughing either from 6mm/243 to 30-06 . eventually im gonna rebarrel my target gun in .260 rem and try 142 smks at a thousand.
 
wolf 300H&H, where are you located, would like to meet you?

As to topic, depending on discipline, Ian(Obtunded) offers good advice.

Regards,

Peter
 
wolf300H&H, if in a registered IBS BR match last year, you would have set the world record, as it stood at 1.363"@ 600 yards. The latest record I found, set this year witht 6BR derivative, is 1.071", a little smaller than yours.
 
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