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6mm vs. 243 vs. 6.5x284 vs. 6mm br

Appears 6mm dasher is the most common with some 6.5x47 and 300wsm sprinkled in

............. but that's for Bench Rest competition which as I explained earlier is a very different animal from gravel belly (prone) disciplines.

Going back to your original post:

Looking for options for target shooting out to 1000 yards. The local range only goes out to 100, but there's a range about an hour from my cottage that goes to 1000. Turns out a buddy of mine goes there frequently, and I believe that I'm going to start going with him

it's apparent you don't know yet what they shoot there. So your first step has to be to visit the range and see what disciplines / comps are on offer, or for that matter whether it's great bunch of good ole boys who shoot at steel plates for fun and have never heard of BR, Palma, F-Class disciplines. Vitally, it lets you see what calibres people use and what you might like doing there. Any decisions made in haste 'on spec' are likely to see you waste time and money and invite frustration. That's unless you want to buy a particular rifle anyway whether you're going to use it on this range or not.

The other golden rule in this situation is that until you have your feet on the ground and some experience and good advice is to start out with whatever you currently own unless you find it's completely unsuitable.
 
Here's a link to a video tour:

Appears to be a prone style shooting at steel targets after talking to my buddy, with targets at the 1k yard line.

As far as using what I currently have I believe both 243/6mm calibers I have are 1-10 twist so probably won't stabilize the heavier bullets that I'd like to shoot. I'm not against buying another rifle, any excuse to do so is good enough for me.
 
As far as using what I currently have I believe both 243/6mm calibers I have are 1-10 twist so probably won't stabilize the heavier bullets that I'd like to shoot.

You'd be surprised what 243 Win will do with a decent factory varmint rifle and handloads at 1,000 yards especially somewhere warm (which your range appears to be) and high (what's its altitude?). There's a load of You Tube videos from an Australian couple called Mark and Sam Afterwork shooting the 243 at 1,000 yards including IIRC a factory 24-inch Howa Varmint. (Looks high and hot venues that lets you get away with considerably slower twists.)

MarkandSam afterwork

@urbanrifleman IIRC pointed me their way and you have a 243 aficionado / expert in him here on this forum.

Most anywhere that doesn't need wearing ski or jet ski suits, 10" twist will stabilise the 90gn Berger Target BT, 88gn Berger HBC FB, 85gn Sierra HPBT and similar 87gn Hornady HPBT, 87gn Berger Hunting VLD. These bullets will all get you to 1,000 still supersonic there in 'standard conditions' - sea level + 59-deg F- from 3,100 fps MV and at considerably higher retained speeds at this distance in hotter, higher altitude locations. Plenty good enough to get started.

If your 6mm Ruger is in 6mm Remington, that should have a 9" twist and a little higher performance that gives you still more latitude to get started and see what you enjoy / really want.
 
Elevation appears to be about 1250ft, and temperatures in the summer range around 65-90 degrees on average.

I'll have to dig the 6mm out of the back of the safe and verify twist. It's stamped 6mm on the barrel.
 
The 6br is fine for deer with the right bullets and the right shot...using the 85 grain Partition I was able to get just over 3200 fps from a 22 inch barrel using AAC2520, The 6.5 x 284 is a great cartridge. but its intent was to get the biggest powder capacity possible in a short length action. And it does that fine, but to fill that powder capacity it takes lots of slow burning powder and it loves heavy bullets driven to the max so that they fly as far as possible and stay over supersonic. The buffetting that happens when a bullet falls from supersonic to subsonic does nasty things to accuracy. and driving 155 grain Palma bullets are just the point of the cartridge. If you really want a fun combo in that encore, try a 6.5 swede. easy to load down to a near popper load, and you can almost come up to 6.5 by 284 levels. Brass will be much less costly, and most of it is extremely durable.
 
MTC hosts steel matches, as well as F-class matches, pretty sure they dont do Benchrest (never seen benches) When we shoot there everything from a 7-06AI to a 6br gets used.

Depending on where you live Cody there are 600 yard F-class matches in Yipsi, Midland, Oscoda, Cadilac. A 550 yard range south of GR lots of midrange options too
 
So how about buying a 6br and getting it rechambered in 6mm dasher. Simple as running a reamer in?
Cody, that would be fine but hard to find. Lots of old short range guys with PPCs and a limited market wanting them. Look on here and on Benchrest Central classifieds. If there are any gunsmith in your area ck with them, they often know who no longer shoots looking to sell. For the price of less then some of the custom actions you can have a competitive rifle. A friend of mine last month picked up a beautiful PPC built by Kelbys at a gun show. Barrel shows no wear, he shot with rounds loaded for his other PPC, shot in high ones and low twos. Price 1495.00. Over 2000.00 less than a new one.
 

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