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The Range
Rifle & Shotgun Discussion
Thoughts on AR's for long range
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<blockquote data-quote="Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow" data-source="post: 1457061" data-attributes="member: 7123"><p>OK, here it is: The answer is not A or B - the answer is C - one that you didn't mention.</p><p></p><p>You're in the wrong ballpark; the wrong *family* of chamberings.</p><p></p><p>The answer starts off like your 'B' choice - sell one to raise funds - but does not end up with your last part of "to buy a 24" bull barrel in one of 3 calibers 223, 5.45 or 204 ruger."</p><p></p><p>Substitute pretty much anything of a bigger caliber than .22 for your chambering choices, and you'll have a winner: .243 Win, 6mm, .25-06, .257 Robts, etc. If you're intent on staying with AR15 platform, then get it in 6.8 spc, 6.5 grendel, .243 WSSM, .25 WSSM, something like that (Yes, you can get these). Even 6x45mm wouldn't be terrible.</p><p></p><p>.204 Ruger is like a laser to around 400 but it then peters out due to very poor BCs. And you said 500, not 400. You need to have better BCs if you're truly wanting to do what you say you are - shoot at 500 and beyond, and not be frustrated in the wind. <em><strong>Sure the others will get there</strong></em> (and a .17 mach too will kill a deer, yada yada), but it's a lot <em>easier to get there with minimal wind drift estimation error </em>with a 6mm or larger bullet. Take a good look at a turnbolt in .243 Win or 6mm Rem. 75, 80, and 85 gr bullets hit the sweet spot between MV and BC for laserlike trajectory, for this general range. Believe it or not, a turnbolt works fine for coyotes and such, is lighter, and typically has better accuracy than a semi-auto (of same cost/ ceteris paribus).</p><p></p><p>If you DO stick with 5.56/.223, then look at a 1 in 7 twist gun, with a long barrel (26"), so that you can shoot heavies (77-80 grains and up) with good BCs at a fairly good clip. [Again, turnbolt beats semi here, since they may not feed through the mag/magwell of an AR15.] They're gonna buck the wind better, even better than a "standard" .22-250 once you get past 400 yards. But, if you're willing to go to a turnbolt, and don't mind a heavy gun, and if you MUST stick with a .22 cal, then you'll want to take a hard look at the Savage Precision Target Rifle - it's offerred (or was at least) in .22-250 in <strong>two twist rates </strong>- the standard 1 in 12, but also 1 in 9. Get the 1 in 9 - Pushing out some 68s-70s with BCs over .35, with that 1 in 9 with -250 powder capacity should make for some excellent "medium" range (out to 500) ballistics with essentially no recoil. Not to mention THE most important part - the extreme accuracy of the Savage that you'll need to make hits consistently at that range.</p><p></p><p>If you want a lighter weight gun, it's hard to beat a turnbolt like the one I have "dedicated" as my long-range yote & varminter - it's a T/C Icon Classic in .243 Win with a 1 in 12 twist and standard sporter weight barrel. It's very accurate, and it's optimized at that twist for the 70s-80s or 85s - which is the sweet spot out to any reasonable hunting range (say, 500). But nothing wrong with a .243 with a 1 in 10 either; they'll git er done. And all of these 6mms will do so a lot better in the wind than anything you mention. You don't need a heavy barrel with yotes - all that matters is a cold barrel (1st shot) hit, and thin barrels can do this just fine, of quality make. Prairie dogs or such could be a different story, if you really get into them.</p><p></p><p>Also, don't rule out 6mm BR - good long range varmint round.</p><p></p><p>Another thing about platform type. Suppose you do go against my advice and decide that you just HAVE to have a .204 ruger or .22-250 let's say, which have similar trajectories and recoil impulses (with .204 Ruger being *slightly* superior on balance) - in that event, there's yet *another* advantage of getting a turnbolt or single shot, over a semi-auto. In a fairly heavy gun, these rounds are so light on the recoil that you can see the hit actually occur through your scope oftentimes, even at long ranges - at least you can with a turnbolt, single shot, etc. But you <strong><em>cannot</em></strong> do so (most of the time) with a semi, particularly a piston gun, because the movement of the bolt and BC tends to put a torque on the rifle that is not straight back and messes up your sight picture before you can see the hit. A lot of varminter guys have ditched their .204 ARs and similar for their old trusty turnbolts for this reason. This can be important for yotes - let's say that you shoot and you can't see if you hit or not.... then you walk 300 yards and start looking, but it all looks the same, so you're not sure exactly where the yote was standing. If you SAW the hit and the yote go down, you'll keep looking until you find it, as well you should (well if you keep the fur or want to take pics that is). If you didn't see it, you may have missed but only think you hit, and look for an hour for a yote that is alive and well (and far away), just due to optical illusions in the field.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow, post: 1457061, member: 7123"] OK, here it is: The answer is not A or B - the answer is C - one that you didn't mention. You're in the wrong ballpark; the wrong *family* of chamberings. The answer starts off like your 'B' choice - sell one to raise funds - but does not end up with your last part of "to buy a 24" bull barrel in one of 3 calibers 223, 5.45 or 204 ruger." Substitute pretty much anything of a bigger caliber than .22 for your chambering choices, and you'll have a winner: .243 Win, 6mm, .25-06, .257 Robts, etc. If you're intent on staying with AR15 platform, then get it in 6.8 spc, 6.5 grendel, .243 WSSM, .25 WSSM, something like that (Yes, you can get these). Even 6x45mm wouldn't be terrible. .204 Ruger is like a laser to around 400 but it then peters out due to very poor BCs. And you said 500, not 400. You need to have better BCs if you're truly wanting to do what you say you are - shoot at 500 and beyond, and not be frustrated in the wind. [I][B]Sure the others will get there[/B][/I] (and a .17 mach too will kill a deer, yada yada), but it's a lot [I]easier to get there with minimal wind drift estimation error [/I]with a 6mm or larger bullet. Take a good look at a turnbolt in .243 Win or 6mm Rem. 75, 80, and 85 gr bullets hit the sweet spot between MV and BC for laserlike trajectory, for this general range. Believe it or not, a turnbolt works fine for coyotes and such, is lighter, and typically has better accuracy than a semi-auto (of same cost/ ceteris paribus). If you DO stick with 5.56/.223, then look at a 1 in 7 twist gun, with a long barrel (26"), so that you can shoot heavies (77-80 grains and up) with good BCs at a fairly good clip. [Again, turnbolt beats semi here, since they may not feed through the mag/magwell of an AR15.] They're gonna buck the wind better, even better than a "standard" .22-250 once you get past 400 yards. But, if you're willing to go to a turnbolt, and don't mind a heavy gun, and if you MUST stick with a .22 cal, then you'll want to take a hard look at the Savage Precision Target Rifle - it's offerred (or was at least) in .22-250 in [B]two twist rates [/B]- the standard 1 in 12, but also 1 in 9. Get the 1 in 9 - Pushing out some 68s-70s with BCs over .35, with that 1 in 9 with -250 powder capacity should make for some excellent "medium" range (out to 500) ballistics with essentially no recoil. Not to mention THE most important part - the extreme accuracy of the Savage that you'll need to make hits consistently at that range. If you want a lighter weight gun, it's hard to beat a turnbolt like the one I have "dedicated" as my long-range yote & varminter - it's a T/C Icon Classic in .243 Win with a 1 in 12 twist and standard sporter weight barrel. It's very accurate, and it's optimized at that twist for the 70s-80s or 85s - which is the sweet spot out to any reasonable hunting range (say, 500). But nothing wrong with a .243 with a 1 in 10 either; they'll git er done. And all of these 6mms will do so a lot better in the wind than anything you mention. You don't need a heavy barrel with yotes - all that matters is a cold barrel (1st shot) hit, and thin barrels can do this just fine, of quality make. Prairie dogs or such could be a different story, if you really get into them. Also, don't rule out 6mm BR - good long range varmint round. Another thing about platform type. Suppose you do go against my advice and decide that you just HAVE to have a .204 ruger or .22-250 let's say, which have similar trajectories and recoil impulses (with .204 Ruger being *slightly* superior on balance) - in that event, there's yet *another* advantage of getting a turnbolt or single shot, over a semi-auto. In a fairly heavy gun, these rounds are so light on the recoil that you can see the hit actually occur through your scope oftentimes, even at long ranges - at least you can with a turnbolt, single shot, etc. But you [B][I]cannot[/I][/B] do so (most of the time) with a semi, particularly a piston gun, because the movement of the bolt and BC tends to put a torque on the rifle that is not straight back and messes up your sight picture before you can see the hit. A lot of varminter guys have ditched their .204 ARs and similar for their old trusty turnbolts for this reason. This can be important for yotes - let's say that you shoot and you can't see if you hit or not.... then you walk 300 yards and start looking, but it all looks the same, so you're not sure exactly where the yote was standing. If you SAW the hit and the yote go down, you'll keep looking until you find it, as well you should (well if you keep the fur or want to take pics that is). If you didn't see it, you may have missed but only think you hit, and look for an hour for a yote that is alive and well (and far away), just due to optical illusions in the field. [/QUOTE]
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