[Jeff Higgins]

Very nice rifle, David. I really appreciate PMR's for what they represent - the ultimate development of the modern long-range rifle. One of these days I'm going to have to explore them. I'll have to admit, up until very recently, they have actually kind of turned me off - I'm a traditional blued steel and walnut kind of a guy - but these have really been growing on me lately. It's one of the very few shooting niches I have yet to pursue. When I do head down this path, I will probably start with something "out of the box", like the Savage or Ruger chassis rifles. Just going to stick a toe in the waters before I dive headlong into this.

So, one question - why .308? The various newfangled 6.5's seem to be all the rage these days. It's kind of tough to get a heavy, high ballistic coefficient .308 diameter bullet properly up to speed with the small-ish .308 case behind it. Most long range .30's these days are .300 Winchester or Norma magnums. Granted, there are proven bullets that will hold sufficient velocity from the .308 all the way to 1,000 yards, like the Sierra "Palma Match" bullet (and I'm sure plenty of others), but most guys are looking for a bit more powder capacity to drive heavier bullets.

And, yes, finding a place to shoot at those kinds of ranges is getting ever more difficult. Up until about 10-15 years ago, we had access to a 1,000 yard range at Fort Lewis, where I shot a lot of black powder cartridge rifle matches (and even managed to win many of them). Civilian access has, alas, been closed down. There are a few ranges in my area that still host 600 yard matches, but even those are maybe once or twice per year. And no access to the long range firing line except during matches. So, yeah, it's getting tough to play this game, which is one of the reasons I'm a bit hesitant to start putting together a rifle.