Quote:
Originally Posted by snowman
I am new to the 1000 yard game. What about the Palma guys that shoot 155gr bullets? I understand they do pretty good. And then theres the 6.5x284 using 142gr bullets that claim to do even better? The load analysis shows the 155gr bullet fired at 2950fps with a ballistic coefficient of 0.52 remaining supersonic at well beyond 1000 yards.
I do want to know more. I talked to a guy that claimed he used 190gr bullets, seated 0.010 INTO the lands with his 308. I wouldn't recommend this as the seated into the lands will certainly overpressure the gun. As to getting the initial velocity of 2950 fps with this weight bullet, again don't try it. I did. It blew the primer right out of the pocket. A 30" heavy barrel helps, but I don't see any way with a 308 to go beyond 168gr bullets. But then again how do the Palma people do it?
My 45-70 with a Hornady synthetic tipped bullet will launch a 300 gr bullet at over 2000 FPS, but I doubt it will do as well as the 308 at 1000 yards.
Do you have any web sites for reference info?
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The biggest difference in the Palma matches is that everyone has to use the same stuff. Yes, a 155 grain Palma match bullet will hold well enough to 1,000 yards for these guys to compete against one another. First guy that shows up with a 220 grain Match King in a .300 mag will mop the floor with them. Kinda like showing up in your 997 Cup car at a vintage race; they all have fun racing each other, but pale in comparison to the latest and greatest. That, and as you have found, achieving the velocities they do is no easy task. Most are dangerously over-loaded. I think many use the .308 match brass made with the small rifle primer pocket in an effort to strengthen that web area. I've seen the same mindset at silhouette matches, with .243's and 6mm Remingtons loaded to the gills for the 500 meter rams. You didn't even want to stand next to these guys when they lit one off. Just plain dangerous.
Your best resource for information regarding this kind of shooting would be
Precision Shooting magazine. It caters to the bench rest, hipower, and long range crowd. As far as I know, there is nothing that compares to it on the web. That, and
Varmint Hunter magazine, although it caters more to the prairie dog blasters, has a great deal of information on precision long range shooting. You can get it by joining the VHA, Varmint Hunters' Association. There are a plethora of internet BBS's dealing with this, but they are a minefield of missinformation espoused by the missinformed. More so than most other topics on the web, they are best avoided if you need real information. Some of the better long range shooters have published books on the topic as well, like Tubbs. Check with Wolfe Publishing, the folks who put out
Rifle and
Handloader magazines (both excellent as well, by the way; just not much long range specific stuff).
Heavy bullets are your friend. That 300 grain .45 is a very light for caliber bullet. My long range match bullets are the RCBS .45-500 BPS, which comes out about 510 grains from my mold. That is my "light" bullet for short range out to 200 yards. My two long range bullets are a variation of Paul Jone's "Creedmoor" bullet at 540 grains and a Hoch 550 grain from one of their nose pour molds. Velocities run about 1250 fps from the .45-2.6, or just about 1100 fps from the .45-70.
Anyway, you can have a lot of fun with the .308 / 168 grain Match King at 1,000 yards. It's just not ideal, and will lack the precision you are after. It's not like they won't go that far... But, at realistic presures, it will be difficult to drive that bullet fast enough to keep it supersonic at 1,000 yards. Some will actually tumble in extreme cases. If you are just out to have fun, so what? If you want to do relatively as well as you have at 100 yards, you will simply need more gun.
The other thing to consider is the logistics of shooting at 1,000 yards. It's a three man operation. It is essential to have a guy in the pits pulling and marking targets, and a guy on the firing line spotting for you. Especially going in cold with no 1,000 yard sight or scope settings. Even with these three man teams, I have actually seen newcomers at the matches use up all of their ammo (and not get to shoot the match) just trying to get on paper.
And speaking of that scope... most don't have enough internal elevation to come up far enough for 1,000 yards. You might have to shim the bases with some tapered shims to get the rear of the scope high enough. There are some "ma & pa" manufacturers of these base shims that advertise in both of the above mentioned magazines. I would subscribe to both, stock up on some books, and start reading; there are a miriad of little details like this that need to be considered.