I don't wanna have to develop loads for multiple bullets unless it's necessary, so I just went with 175's out of the gate. Never bothered with the 168's.

I figured my short-ish barrel length would limit me to some extent with how heavy I could go. I don't expect that I've got enough barrel to stabilize the 200gr SMK's even with a 1:10 twist, but I was thinking about maybe trying the 190gr SMK's. You think maybe not even those would be wise with a 20" bbl though huh? Interesting. I was interested in going as heavy as possible to see if higher BC's could offset the lower velocities, but now that I take a closer look at it, the velocities drop a lot faster than the BC's rise, so the optimal solution has got to be in the middleground somewhere. But you're telling me I'm basically limited to 185....

At the velocities I'll be seeing, the 175 SMK's and the 180 SMK's have the same BCs, and their SDs don't even matter in my application so the 180 loses that advantage. The 175 holds its BC for longer than the 180 so it doesn't start losing performance until after the 180.
Looks like maybe where I started is where I should stay, huh? lol. I guess I'll just play with charge weights and find a good velocity then. I also use IMR-4064 and CCI primers, but Hornady brass. My LC brass gets saved for M1A use.

Stay safe out there man. Well, "safe" is relative, and nobody signs up with safety very high up on the list of priorities, but you get the point. :-P I got out of the Marines in 2011 and never even got deployed. Kinda bummed/kinda glad I never got sent. Mixed feelings on it. But yeah ok back on topic...

I use a 1-4X optic on this rifle and it works just fine out to about 600yds. 700 is doable in good light, but beyond 700, the dot in my reticle covers up a lot of the target and precision degrades rapidly. What kind of magnification would you, as a 1000yd shooter, recommend?