PLEASE HELP NERVOUS BREAKDOWN

[Ghansen]

If you can make your way to a range that shoots 500m Fly all your questions will be answered. I have seen some very nice .260 ' s that I am sure would be multi discipline capable.
Also look at www.500mflyshooter.com.au and re ask the question there for general answers. I think you'll be well looked after. Let them know your town so they can guide you in.

 

[Martin52]

A good local forum is www.ozfclass.com

Martin

 

[Liven The Dream]

For all around .308 Better Barrel Life More Bullets to choose from .

 

[Nude nut]

i didn't want to ask for help I thought I could do this on my own but as the title suggests I'm near having a nervous breakdown with cartridge selection. Iam in Australia and am looking to hunt and target shoot with more emphasis on target shooting. I come from a large family of hunters who all use the 270 calibre none target shoot. I was set on getting the 308 I will not be reloading but buying factory ammo hence choosing the 308 for ammo selection. I have been watching the sniper 101 series on YouTube by tibarosaurus Rex and his video on cartridge selection had made me rethink everything. His ballistic charts have me really looking at the 7mm08. From the charts he showed using I think a 162g amax left the 308 for dead in all departments. I think the 308 in his charts was figures using a 168g amax from memory. Anyway so I went to the hornady website and the amax seems to Be replaced with what's called an eld match round. The Hornsby ammo avail for the 7mm08 only seems to Ben hunting rounds and no match ammo? So does the 7mm08 get these awesome ballistics shown on sniper 101 using hunting rounds? There seems to be no match ammo for the 7mm08. The other issue I have is the 308 seems to have a eld 208g round?? Other sources I have seen say the 308 only goes up to 180-190g yet there is a 208g with a highish bc??? So what gives if you use the 308 with a 208g eld hornady round will this then hold its own against a 7mm08 using a 162g hunting round?? Sorry for the long post but this hobby is seriously the most technical and involved I've ever done I hadn't even looked at other factory ammo yet still trying to just compare with hornady ammo to keep interest apples vs apples please help I'm loosing the plot

Pipdog,
I suggest you go to a local club you will get all the help you need and you will end up rolling your own but if you insist on buying ammo a 308 win would be my choice plenty hunting ammo and also compititon legal ammo aswell and from what I have seen it pretty accurate and would be ok shooting f standard class until you get the dreaded bug.

Cheers Trev.

 

[KMart]

,
I suggest you go to a local club you will get all the help you need and you will end up rolling your own

Cheers Trev.

I agree. Going to the local club then rolling our own would certainly lower the chance of a nervous breakdown!

 

[Ringostar]

Since you've decided which rifle. I would look at which chambers it is offered in. Then look at what ammo is available to you in those cartridges.

 

[XTR]

What is available in Oz for ammo would be first question? If you are not going to reload and you are limited to off of the shelf a lot of the recommendations from US shooters are worthless (but at least they are free)

Iam in Australia and am looking to hunt and target shoot with more emphasis on target shooting.

What kind of target shooting? It matters, esp if you are talking about competition.

 

[perry42]

Go with the Swede 6.5x55. Accurate, great barrel life, and you say its available in Australia.
perry42

 

[loud_noise]

Relax and breath!
The 308 will serve you very well, for a long time in terms of barrel life, versatility of use, very good to excellent accuracy and ammo choice. The other suggestions of 6.5x55 is excellent as well but slightly worse selection of factory ammo availability. I'm in Australia as well and I have been shooting .308 in fullbore target rifle for five years now and it's significantly more capable as a round than I am as a shooter.
I think you will also come around to wanting to reload as well because factory will only take you so far mate.

PM me if you want to bounce anymore questions around. Welcome to the sport

 

[Pigdog]

Hey thanks again for everyone who has replied iam breathing a lot easier now lol. I think it is going to have to be a 308 due to the factory ammo situation. I have also realised a lot of articles on bullets and videos like the sniper 101 cartridge selection video is a bit misleading for new folk like me who don't know any better. I look at his ballistic chart and go oh wow the 7mm08 is far superior to the 308 which it is. But when you dig a bit deeper you realise that he fails to mention that the bullet he was quoting for the 7mm08 162g amax is only available for people who reload!!!!! When you go to hornady website and click on 7mm08 you can only get hunting ammo for it which is far poorer in terms of bc compared to the bullet he chose which is very deceiving and unless you dig deeper as a newbie you wouldn't know any different. Anyway this is why it is good to do your research I guess because people that have been doing something along time forget what it's like to be new and assume people will be reloading at the time they are making cartridge selection.

 

[hogpatrol]

Hey thanks again for everyone who has replied iam breathing a lot easier now lol. I think it is going to have to be a 308 due to the factory ammo situation. I have also realised a lot of articles on bullets and videos like the sniper 101 cartridge selection video is a bit misleading for new folk like me who don't know any better. I look at his ballistic chart and go oh wow the 7mm08 is far superior to the 308 which it is. But when you dig a bit deeper you realise that he fails to mention that the bullet he was quoting for the 7mm08 162g amax is only available for people who reload!!!!! When you go to hornady website and click on 7mm08 you can only get hunting ammo for it which is far poorer in terms of bc compared to the bullet he chose which is very deceiving and unless you dig deeper as a newbie you wouldn't know any different. Anyway this is why it is good to do your research I guess because people that have been doing something along time forget what it's like to be new and assume people will be reloading at the time they are making cartridge selection.

You seem to be on the right track, doing your research and learning the easy way. My 2 cents, I would prefer all of my newbie to firearms friends STOP WATCHING YOU TUBE VIDEOS!!!!! 99% are either fake, veiled advertisements for products, or edited for the desire results. The BEST way to learn is to get an experienced mentor, one who has made the mistakes, learned some things the hard way, preferably has shot or competed over many years and knows what he is doing. Going to a range or gun club can help but there again, you'll run in to "experts" that don't know what they don't know. My advice with them is look at their long range targets, not their 100 yard wallet groups. I'm not up on ammo availability in Oz but if it's anything like the U.S. the 308 seems a good choice for you.

 

[NCIowan]

Love my 6.5x55.

 

[loud_noise]

You seem to be on the right track, doing your research and learning the easy way. My 2 cents, I would prefer all of my newbie to firearms friends STOP WATCHING YOU TUBE VIDEOS!!!!! 99% are either fake, veiled advertisements for products, or edited for the desire results. The BEST way to learn is to get an experienced mentor, one who has made the mistakes, learned some things the hard way, preferably has shot or competed over many years and knows what he is doing. Going to a range or gun club can help but there again, you'll run in to "experts" that don't know what they don't know. My advice with them is look at their long range targets, not their 100 yard wallet groups. I'm not up on ammo availability in Oz but if it's anything like the U.S. the 308 seems a good choice for you.

With regards to ammo choices, availability etc the .308 is the safest by far followed by .223,270, 30-06 those popular hunting rounds out here. I have recently brought a .260Rem which I am building up as a PRS/F-open rifle and was looking for factory rounds to run the barrel in and what little I did find was going cost $80 AUD!

For anything that isn't one of the afore mentioned calibres, pretty much you will find at least 1 type of most calibres but seldom anything that will make competitive against a well developed hand load.

 

[wholman]

Why not learn to reload

 

[ebb]

You have shot yourself in the foot( maybe both feet ) if you buy a gun and plan to use factory ammo. If you have the ability to buy another gun in a year, go for it and get a 308. Or after you learn to reload you could rebarrel the 308 into something with better ballistics.

 

[Ringostar]

One more thing to check out. What are the twist rates of the factory barrels? Some chambers might be set for hunting bullets, not heavy target bullets. I have to agree with others that the 308 is your best route to start. A factory target load with 155 Palma or 168 target bullets will get you started and learning. In time you may decide to start reloading your own. After learning proper loading techniques you may even consider rebarreling it do a different cartridge.

 

[Zero333]

Why not learn to reload

One thing at a time. Let him get his gun, start shooting it and when he feels he has a need to reload it's when it's time for him to dive in.

And some folk just don't want to reload. each their own.

 

[Pigdog]

Hey guys so change of plans I might put up another topic after I've done more research but I've decided I'm going to get into handloading maybe not straight away but asap. The temptation to have so many different cartridge and ammo choices are too much. The tikka varmint stainless I'm looking at comes in 260rem, 7mm08, 6.5x55, 7mmrem mag. There is another tikka that now comes in 6.5 creedmoor but it's not avail in stainless so unless the creedmoor is far superior to the above cartridges I'd rather stick with stainless let the fun begin.....

 

[loud_noise]

Hey guys so change of plans I might put up another topic after I've done more research but I've decided I'm going to get into handloading maybe not straight away but asap. The temptation to have so many different cartridge and ammo choices are too much. The tikka varmint stainless I'm looking at comes in 260rem, 7mm08, 6.5x55, 7mmrem mag. There is another tikka that now comes in 6.5 creedmoor but it's not avail in stainless so unless the creedmoor is far superior to the above cartridges I'd rather stick with stainless let the fun begin.....

Very good move on going with the Varmint model.

 

[JasonT]

I'd go with the 7mm08 and learn to reload so you can use the Berger 195gr eol bullet. That combo should get you an amazing hunting setup.

But the 6.5x55 is undeniably good.