Question about Calibers...Help

[M14rifleman]

I am not a stranger to long distance shooting. My experience has been limited to Military only and we just used the .308. Getting into civilian long range competitions, I am seeing different calibers.

The question is, which may just be opinions, is what is the best caliber to use for F-class shooting?

6 BR
6.5 Grendal
6.5-284
6.5 x 47 Lapua


Which caliber to go with???? I'm confused. help!

 

[Forum Boss]

Answer is, "it depends".

The F-TR,Target Rifle) class is limited to .223 Remington and .308 Winchester. Most of the .308 guys are running a Palma-type set up, with long barrels and 150-155 grain bullets. If you're a .308 fan, no reason not to stick with this chambering.

Many club-level high-power matches are conducted on shortened courses because no 1000-yard range is available. Find out where you'll be shooting and what the maximum distance is. Out to 600, a 6BR is pretty hard to beat, all things considered. But a 6.5x47 and a 6.5-284 will be very, very competitive at that distance.

If you will be shooting at 700, 800, 900 and 1000 yards, most of the top F-Class shooters are running a 6.5-284 or bigger caliber. Many guys are experimenting with 7mm bullets using the 300 WSM or 270 WSM brass. Alan Warner finished 2nd at the Nationals with a 270 WSM necked up to 7mm--and he was in first place until the final relay.

Right now I would say there's a LOT of interest in the 7s but the 6.5-284 is still the round to beat.

If you want to tinker, one possibility that hasn't really been tapped yet is an improved, short-neck .284 win. Think of this as a Dasher on steroids. If you can get another 3.5 grains of capacity out of that case, it looks like it would be possible to get the 175gr bullets up to 2950 fps. Of course if you go straight to the WSM case you have plenty of capacity out of the gate.

 

[M14rifleman]

Thank you for the reply and info. I appreciate it.

I'll be doing 600 to 1000 yard shoots. I currently have a .300 Win Mag Remington m700 and believe it's too big for these kind of matches. The recoil is what gets ya'.

So, based on this type of range, what caliber would you recommend me to go with? There's just so much out there that I'm scratching my head wondering which caliber is best.

 

[Forum Boss]

With your current set-up,I'm assuming a factory-type stock), I'd seriously consider long-barreled .308 and shooting off bipod in the F-TR division, running the 155gr match bullets. Run that for a season, and then decide if you want/need to build an open classer. I think the top choices in Open Class now are 6.5-284 and a 7mm using WSM brass.,Note: in some matches, the directors allow F-TR to use a pedestal front rest, but increasingly, this class has been limited to bipod/rucksack only).

But as noted, I think there's untapped potential in a .284 Improved, allowing you to use Lapua brass.

You should read our article on the 2006 F-Class Nationals. You'll find a discussion of caliber selection: http://www.6mmbr.com/fclass06.html

 

[M14rifleman]

F-TR Class...yep, that's what I did in the military. US Army - National Guard. Competited in that class but for military and we used rucksacks. Few Harris Bipods. Leupold Mk 4 24x


What options do I have with this .300 win mag remington 700 on a Sendora Stock? Change the barrels? Trigger work? rechamber the barrel? Krieger barrel? McMillan Stock with action pillar proper bedding?

If I do that would it be still considered a target rifle and not an open class style?

Thanks for all your help.

 

[Asa_Yam]

Anything not chambered in .223 Remington or .308 Winchester,or military equivalents thereof), and not shot off a bipod is an "Open" class rifle. .300 WinMag off a bipod = Open class rifle. .308 Winchester fired off a benchrest = Open class rifle. .223 Or .308 fired off a bipod = "F-T/R",Target Rifle).

To reduce recoil, you could rechamber your rifle to a 7mm magnum with less case capacity than the .300 Magnum,i.e., 7mm Rem Mag, 7mm WSM, 7mm RSAUM). Or you could rechamber to a 6.5-243 WSSM wildcat. Or sell the rifle, and buy something in a smaller caliber. There are many possibilities.

 

[okie]

check out robert whitley's article in the april 07 issue of precision shooting. It will really help you. good luck