Learning 1,000 Yard +

[Taidog1]

Long, long time shooter - my first hands-on training / learning experience shooting beyond 500 yards.

Spent this past Friday and Saturday at Bang Steel in VA - long range shooting school. H-E-A-V-Y winds and frigid temps made it interesting.

Learned a TON. Dan and son Forrest know what they are doing. Patient and highly skilled. Teaching philosophy? KISS. Absolutely Loved it!!!

My Savage Low Profile Varminter in .243 Win exceeded all expectations. Handloaded 90 gr Accubonds may not have been the best LR bullet but it's what I could find in stock locally. Bullet weight up - decent BC. Did everything I asked from 500 to 1,000. When the shooter got it right - distance and wind calculations - accuracy was flat-out excellent. All to say - each and every piece of my very carefully assembled gear out performed the shooter.

All the way home, I was contemplating a heavier bullet with my 1:9.25 twist. Can't get Savage to espond to my email questions so - here goes...

Based on this week-end's training / learning experiences:

1. What is the heaviest TARGET oriented bullet I can shoot with this twist - reliably??

2. NOT interested in the 6mm Creedmoor. AM considering a 6.5 Creedmoor for all the commonly known LR target advantages. Your thoughts??

Thank you.

Cheers

[charlie b]

Short answer, go to each bullet mfg web site. Some will list the min twist for each of their bullets. EG, Berger shows their 6mm 95gn Hybrid to work with 1:9. Their 105gn says 1:8 twist is minimum.

Long answer.

The mfg rating is not the final word. For example, my 1:9 twist .223 barrel did just fine with 77gn SMK's even though the box clearly stated that a 1:8 twist was required.

Bullet stability is a multi-faceted issue. Bullet design, length, tip, and weight all combine with the rifles twist rate and muzzle velocity to determine if it will be stable or not. External affects can also apply. A combination that works on a hot summer day may not work on a cold winter day since the air density is different.

Typically a shorter bullet will have better stability, but, then the drag will be higher than a longer bullet at the same weight.

The only way to know for sure is to try some.

As for caliber choice, I went with a 6BR for informal range shooting out to 1000yd. It has a 1:8 twist barrel and typical muzzle vel is 2800-2900fps. 103gn Vapor Trail and 105gn Bergers both work well. 108gn Hornady do not. Yep, that little bit of difference is important. Whatever you choose make sure the barrel will stabilize the bullets you want to use. Recently the bullet mfgs have been making heavier bullets in calibers so a barrel made for something like the 6.5CM might come with a twist made for bullets like the 140gn, and not stabilize the new 153gn Hornady or 156gn Bergers.

[Fuj']

1. What is the heaviest TARGET oriented bullet I can shoot with this twist - reliably??

2. NOT interested in the 6mm Creedmoor. AM considering a 6.5 Creedmoor for all the commonly known LR target advantages. Your thoughts??

Thank you.

Cheers

Item #1 can not be answered reliably by anyone however.....Get on the JBM calculators web site
and it is free. You will find a page where you can look up most bullets by company and their lengths
Length is what is important......Towards the bottom of the site, you will see a section for "Stability"
It is easy and pretty straight forward. Plug in your numbers, and it will calculate a number for your
current twist rate......Your looking to be over 1.3 and will show in green. I usually try for 1.4 and
above.

Nothing magical about the 6.5 Creedmoor. I'd recommend the 6.5x47 with 130 class bullets over it.
But actually.....Just go .284/7mm like most top shooters are using in the long games.

[Taidog1]

Charlie & Fuj'...thanks. I've been behind a trigger for a very long time but now...baby steps into LR shooting. Came cloase to freezing to death on that mountain in VA but hung in and so glad i did.

I use JBM ALL the time for trajectory and terminal ft lbs numbers but never ventured out into twist rates. Will look for "stability" and proceed.

Used the Berger site to find what you pointed out. Yes on the 95 gr - no on the 105 for 9.25 twist.

.284/7mm? Long time fan for hunting...almost as good as my .270 Roy. Didn't know the 7mm was being used by the LR crowd. Shows how little I currently know.

Will look into the 6.5x47. Brass and bullets availability always a concern nowadays. Why I am considering the 6.5 Creed. LR for me? KISS please.

Thank you again for sharing gentlemen.

Cheers.

[charlie b]

YW

https://www.6mmbr.com/7mm284.html

I've gotten some good infor from this site for my other cartridges and when I was shopping for a new one.

[J.Baker]

6mm, 6.5mm or 7mm are all about equal at this point. All three offer excellent bullet selections, and there are so many different cartridge options in each now that you can pretty much pick a case size to match the velocity range you want to achieve with a given bullet. Biggest thing I look at is who makes brass for a given cartridge. If I can't get Lapua or Norma brass (though I'm here Peterson brass is pretty good as well) I won't consider it for long-range work. The other thing to consider if you're going to be shooting in matches is that a larger caliber bullet is beneficial if they're using best edge scoring.

The .257 caliber is another you could throw in there as some high BC bullets have finally become available for it in recent years, but the selection still pretty slim at this point and some can be quite a bit more expensive. It's a "happy medium" between the 6mm and 6.5mm.

[Taidog1]

Play money is limited right now - prioritizing my purchase options. Have made 2 decisions for the rest of this year:

1. Keeping my Low Profile Varmint rifle in .243 Win. Simply LIKE this rifle and have a LOT of confidence in its proven accuracy. GREAT trigger and rifle weight is helping me follow thru and see bullet impacts. Am stocked with brass, some bullets and Redding Dies working nicely.

2. With LR shooting coming on board - letting go of 2 scopes, both SFP. Looking hard at the NF NX8 FFP 4x32x50. If I can find one.

Thank you for your replies.

Cheers.