Free: Contests & Raffles.
It seems like you're building a long range-ish rifle, why .308? With other cartridges that perform a lot better, just can't help but wonder.I can tell you that hiking more than a couple miles sort of sucks with a ~13 pound rifle. My other rifle that is 9 pounds is a great hiking rifle. Just depends what you want to do with it...the right tool for the application.
Lots of cartridges have enough energy and velocity for elk at 450 yards. Lots of good factory ammo too. Is recoil a concern? That would whittle down the choices. I would look at and compare ballistics and take a look at what factory ammo is offered in high BC bullets. The more efficient the bullet, the less powder it will comparatively need to get the job done - and if that results in a short action, that will save you rifle weight.
Quote from: N7XW on November 09, 2017, 04:08:59 PMLots of cartridges have enough energy and velocity for elk at 450 yards. Lots of good factory ammo too. Is recoil a concern? That would whittle down the choices. I would look at and compare ballistics and take a look at what factory ammo is offered in high BC bullets. The more efficient the bullet, the less powder it will comparatively need to get the job done - and if that results in a short action, that will save you rifle weight.Yeah recoil is something I am considering. 30-06 is about the threshold, recoil wise, I would go.
Quote from: GlockGuy56 on November 09, 2017, 04:34:10 PMQuote from: N7XW on November 09, 2017, 04:08:59 PMLots of cartridges have enough energy and velocity for elk at 450 yards. Lots of good factory ammo too. Is recoil a concern? That would whittle down the choices. I would look at and compare ballistics and take a look at what factory ammo is offered in high BC bullets. The more efficient the bullet, the less powder it will comparatively need to get the job done - and if that results in a short action, that will save you rifle weight.Yeah recoil is something I am considering. 30-06 is about the threshold, recoil wise, I would go.That's a good limit in my opinion, about the same for me. Without looking over the ballistics, my quick list would be 25-06, 257 Weatherby Magnum, 6.5 Creedmoor, 7mm-08, 270 Winchester, 308 and 30-06.
What kind of budget do you have? How much shooting experience with large caliber rifles do you have? How much hunting experience do you have?There're a lot of rifles that'll reach out to 500 yards and can kill an elk at 300-400 yards. But the shooter (you), is the unknown here. When you get buck fever taking a 100-yard shot, you still have a really good chance of putting one in the boiler room. At 300 yards, not so much because that "shake" is going to triple your placement error. If the answers to questions B and C are "not much or none", I would suggest that you plan on hunting big game at a much closer range to begin with. Hitting steel and killing an animal are completely different.I would also suggest you find some rifles of different calibers and makes, and see how you like shooting them. Some of the forum members might shoot with you. Sometimes ranges have different guns they rent. You might find that recoil is a factor in your shooting enjoyment. The more comfortable a firearm is for you, the more apt you are to shoot it more frequently. If you go out whole hog and get a big gun and then don't like it, you'll leave it in the safe and when it comes time to shoot an animal, you'll be that much more apt to make an error.
