Common calibers for precision ?

[Wolfdog91]

Edit : So just to be clear I'm not talking about using factory ammo or what caliber has the best factory ammo and or using that for matches and the like . I handload about everything I shoot I just used the deal of being able to to find something at Walmart as an reference to what I meant when referring to this class of calibers/cartridges. Sorry for the confusion.

So hope this doesn't come off as a stupid question but was wondering something.
For you guys shooting benchrest ,f class or similar, if yall had to pick a "common" or " off the shelf" caliber for competition ( or just whatever in that level of precision I guess ), what would y'all pick and why? Now when I say common I mean stuff like .223 .243 ,.308 , 6.5 creed .308 ,7mm-08 stuff you can walk into Walmart or most gunshops and see on the shelf. Feeding it Handloads of course but again talking about stuff that if you mentioned them to the average guy they would know what your talking about ( like not many average joes have heard about something like a 6PPC or 284 Shehane lol )
Seems .243 or .7mm-08 would be good from every thing I'm seeing and learning ( preferred bullet weights , diameter and the like) but I've never shot at the level many of you do on the daily ( can't afford it right now anyway lol) so idk.
Anyhow ,just curious on what everyone thinks

 

[Bill Norris]

If I could have only one rifle it would be a .308 hands down. A good manufacturer of rifles will normally turn out a fairly accurate rig and the variety of bullets is wide spread or used to be anyway. But even better is a custom build.

 

[LHSmith]

So you are really asking what CHAMBERINGS tend to be the most accurate. Different competitions require vastly different criteria. However, I believe the 6 mm BR is hard to beat across the board.

 

[sdean]

So hope this doesn't come off as a stupid question but was wondering something.
For you guys shooting benchrest ,f class or similar, if yall had to pick a "common" or " off the shelf" caliber for competition ( or just whatever in that level of precision I guess ), what would y'all pick and why? Now when I say common I mean stuff like .223 .243 ,.308 , 6.5 creed .308 ,7mm-08 stuff you can walk into Walmart or most gunshops and see on the shelf. Hand loading of course but stuff if you mentioned them to the average guy they would know what your talking about ( like not many average joes have heard about something like a 6PPC or 284 Shehane lol )
Seems .243 or .7mm-08 would be good from every thing I'm seeing and learning ( preferred bullet weights , diameter and the like) but I've never shot at the level many of you do on the daily so idk.
Anyhow ,just curious

You probably on the right track. I like a 260. You probably need to define competition.

 

[Wolfdog91]

You probably on the right track. I like a 260. You probably need to define competition.

That's the thing , I'm pretty ignorant to alot of this stuff honestly I mean I find it all amazingly fascinating,love watching and listening to guys like Erik Cortina, F Class John and similar on YouTube ( can never seem to be able to just sit down and read always just have my earbuds in) but I'm pretty lost on a vast majority of most of this stuff. Like I know you have stuff like club competitions ,state competition and stuff like the nationals , 100yd bench rest 600yd FClass but past that well lost in the spaghetti sauce lol.

 

[sdean]

That's the thing , I'm pretty ignorant to alot of this stuff honestly I mean I find it all amazingly fascinating,love watching and listening to guys like Erik Cortina, F Class John and similar on YouTube ( can never seem to be able to just sit down and read always just have my earbuds in) but I'm pretty lost on a vast majority of most of this stuff. Like I know you have stuff like club competitions ,state competition and stuff like the nationals , 100yd bench rest 600yd FClass but past that well lost in the spaghetti sauce lol.

Ok. Not sure if any ranges real close to you. The closest I know of is in Bogalua,LA that has matches. 2 hours. Como,Ms is north of jackson probably further. If you want PM me your phone and I'll try and help some. This is all Fclass

 

[Dusty Stevens]

6.5 creedmoor. Its the one thats on every shelf

 

[LVLAaron]

6.5 creedmoor. Its the one thats on every shelf

Man bun jokes aside... if someone wanted an off the shelf rifle for midrange (and maybe long)... I'd say the same. Tons of good ammo available for it.

 

[Wolfdog91]

6.5 creedmoor. Its the one thats on every shelf

Man bun jokes aside... if someone wanted an off the shelf rifle for midrange (and maybe long)... I'd say the same. Tons of good ammo available for it.

I have to ask , is or has anyone really used the 6.5 creed alot for competition? I mean I hear people saying how " it was made for them long range paper punchers" all the time but I don't think I've ever heard of anyone actually using them in FClass or similar.

 

[dgeesaman]

So hope this doesn't come off as a stupid question but was wondering something.
For you guys shooting benchrest ,f class or similar, if yall had to pick a "common" or " off the shelf" caliber for competition ( or just whatever in that level of precision I guess ), what would y'all pick and why? Now when I say common I mean stuff like .223 .243 ,.308 , 6.5 creed .308 ,7mm-08 stuff you can walk into Walmart or most gunshops and see on the shelf. Hand loading of course but stuff if you mentioned them to the average guy they would know what your talking about ( like not many average joes have heard about something like a 6PPC or 284 Shehane lol )
Seems .243 or .7mm-08 would be good from every thing I'm seeing and learning ( preferred bullet weights , diameter and the like) but I've never shot at the level many of you do on the daily so idk.
Anyhow ,just curious

The thing that's hard to answer here is knowing the accuracy of off-the-Walmart-shelf ammo.

The shooters on this site overwhelmingly hand load and/or shoot premium rimfire ammo and that stuff isn't available at big box retail stores. Our supplies usually arrive by mail since retail stores do so little business in true precision shooting supplies.

I guess if I couldn't reload, I'd buy 6.5 Creedmoor, .308, .223, and 17HMR since there should be multiple varieties of each and I will have a better chance of finding a factory load that shoots well in my gun. But that's not really a measure of precision capability, it's more a matter of choosing ammo with the broadest selections.

 

[Bill K]

Off the shelf and pretty well available everywhere, would be the 6.5 Creedmoor and 308 Win. They both are fine long range/paper punching/steel cartridges. And are also easy to work with when you reload .

 

[Wolfdog91]

Ok. Not sure if any ranges real close to you. The closest I know of is in Bogalua,LA that has matches. 2 hours. Como,Ms is north of jackson probably further. If you want PM me your phone and I'll try and help some. This is all Fclass

Might have to take you up on that ! I don't shoot competition or anything yet , probably won't for a good while honestly ( mabye if I can snag this job I'm after I could afford to lol )but think attending and just watching a match would be a cool thing to do one of these days , especially if my car would stop breaking

 

[joshb]

These days, I shoot more 223 than 308. Both are great but I get a lot more loads out of a pound of powder with the 223. If I could only have one target rifle, it would be the 6br. Second (close) would be a 6.5x47. It’s not common but it’s a great cartridge.
The Creedmoor is a good one, too.
I stay away from most “barrel burners” like the .243. One exception is the 6.5x55. I love that old cartridge.

 

[LVLAaron]

I have to ask , is or has anyone really used the 6.5 creed alot for competition? I mean I hear people saying how " it was made for them long range paper punchers" all the time but I don't think I've ever heard of anyone actually using them in FClass or similar.

Sure. New guys show up with them all the time. It can shoot a clean at 600 just as easy as any of the big guns. Is anyone using them in big matches and winning? No.

 

[Wolfdog91]

The thing that's hard to answer here is knowing the accuracy of off-the-Walmart-shelf ammo.

The shooters on this site overwhelming hand load and/or shoot premium rimfire ammo and that stuff isn't available at big box retail stores.

I guess if I couldn't reload, I'd buy 6.5 Creedmoor, .308, .223, and 17HMR since there should be multiple varieties of each and I will have a better chance of finding a factory load that shoots well in my gun. But that's not really a measure of precision capability, it's more a matter of choosing ammo with the broadest selections.

Dang don't think I worked my lost right lol, I'm bad at that See I'm not talking about being able to just buy off the shelf ammo and going shooting. I was just using that as explanation to when I said "common calibers" . I've asked this to people before in similar questions and they'll go and say something like 257 Roberts , 280 or 6mm creedmore which ok fair their not a specialist rounds like say a .284 Shehane their not uncommon or super hard to get , but your still a little over the head of most and it's not really something like a .308 or .243.
Not sure what a better description would be though.. like what do you call those cartridges eveyone knows, that are everywhere, easy to get, ... Commercial mabye ? Everyday bullets ? Run of the mill cartridges ? Man I need to get my vocabulary up

 

[ronsatspokane]

I have to ask , is or has anyone really used the 6.5 creed alot for competition? I mean I hear people saying how " it was made for them long range paper punchers" all the time but I don't think I've ever heard of anyone actually using them in FClass or similar.

I have used it and have had good success at local matches from 600 to 1000 yards. Won a few, lost more than I've won but that is due more to the level of competition here in the Northwest than it is to the caliber. When you are going against people who have won US Nationals and traveled the world competing for the US, you feel like you've shot at a top level even when you come close to those folks. When I have won using it, it was often against 6 BRA's, 6 Dashers, 284's and other common competition calibers. I have never done well nationally with it but the first time I went to nationals was last year and I shot terrible. Worse than terrible. Handed myself my own ass kind of terrible. Thought my barrel gone. I was shooting a 6BRA and not the 6.5 so dedicated comp calibers are no guarantee of future performance, as they say in the investment world.

 

[ronsatspokane]

Man bun jokes aside... if someone wanted an off the shelf rifle for midrange (and maybe long)... I'd say the same. Tons of good ammo available for it.

Man bun jokes hell. I style my man bun and select my skinny jeans and my nipple rings to match my mighty creed.

 

[ebb]

Bill K is exactly right. others may be more accurate but with off the shelf ammo it would have to be
Federal Gold Medal Match for a 308 or some of the excellent Black Hills ammo, But both of those companies also match ammo for 223. But 6.5 Creedmoor was supposed to be match ammo from the get-go. Black Hills makes ammo for many calibers. I think what it boils down to is, will my factory rifle shoot any of the factory loaded ammo to a level of accuracy that is acceptable to me. The only way to know is to try. So you buy a rifle in the chambering you decide on and try ammo till you find one that is acceptable. Then you are cool till you run out of that lot of ammo, and maybe it will be the same with anew lot of ammo from the same place but who knows, It was in the back of my mind that a tuner could help keep a factory rifle with factory ammo in the black but Ive never heard of anyone but a hand loader using one. Wolfdog I think you need to pick a chambering and load for it to much of a chance to get e very accurate rifle. Then you may shoot a lot of bullets and powder combinations and then find it needs a match barrel installed by a good smith. Buy this time you will be rolling down the same hill the rest of us are , just further from the bottom. If you want real accuracy go to shooters corner and tell Bob White what you want to do and if he doesn't have a rifle wait till he does. this gets you way ahead of the curve and into a gun someone spent the money on and is not shooting anymore for one reason or another. Bobs route is maybe faster and cheaper than trying to make a factory rifle shoot.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Sure. New guys show up with them all the time. It can shoot a clean at 600 just as easy as any of the big guns. Is anyone using them in big matches and winning? No.

You reckon once they get good enough to win they have already entered the equipment race and are chasing the new thing?

 

[ckaberna]

Not sure what your looking to do but the Winchester 45 grain shoot great in my .223 factory Remington. Killed chipmunks at 240 yards, when they run out on my range.
Any particular rifle is going to “like” a particular load/round better than others. Key to it is finding which performs in your setup.
As for off the shelf I’d lean to .223, .308 and can’t believe I’m typing this but 6.5 CM