The Ultimate calibre for LR Varmints?

[acloco]

This is easy...

6.5x55 on a modern action. 26-28" barrel, 1:9 twist.

Why? 6.5 bullets have the best BC and SD of any caliber.

I would not recommend the 284 case because of the rebated rim and the cost of brass. 6.5x284 and the 6.5x55 is nearly identical cases.

Push the 140 AMax in the 3100/3200 fps range and you have a 1000 yard rifle.

 

[Inukshuk]

This may not be the best for long range, but it's what I'm getting soon.
Tikka t3 camo stainless in .223, 1:8 twist. Have my gunsmith fill the stock with foam, add a picatinny rail, trigger to 3 lbs, maybe a Holand muzzle brake, fine tune it, then add a 6-24mm scope with mildot for ranging. I don't use a lazer RF.
Now why?
Factory ammo from 40-80gr lots of options there, plus you can get it in bulk of 500 rounds a case. Longer barrel life.
Once I burn out the barrel I'll put one a bit longer and a 1-2 size bigger unless I'm happy with the present set-up that's coming.
With the .223 like this you can get out to 1,000 yrds no problem, as for a kill well probably 500-700 yrds. with a heavy bullet.
Oh and ammo is very inexpensive which is good especially if you like to shoot a lot like myself. It can vary from $8.00-$25.00 a box.

 

[wildcat]

The ultimate long range varminting caliber in my opinion; the 6x284.
The 6x284 is the ultimate long range varmint caliber if your looking for velocity and accuracy. There are other excellent long range varmint calibers like the 243, 6mm Remington, 243AI and 6mmAI. However, the 6x284, IMO, is the king of the 6mm calibers.

The 6x284 is a very low recoiling caliber in a semi heavy rig. This makes it awesome to shoot. It's very fast, accurate and devastating on varmints. It's only draw back is that it's hard on barrels.

I think one of the best long range bullets for long range varminting is the 87grn V-Max. I know the VLD bullets have better BC, however, the 87grn V-Max combines excellent BC with awesome killing power when driven out of the 6x284. In my last 6x284, I was able to drive the 87grn V-max, out of a 30" barrel at a velocity of 3730fps. It was devastating and accurate on varmints out to 1000yards. I am currently in the process of building a new 6x284.

Here is the ultimate set up for long range varminting. This is also the specs on my long range varmint rig;

1. 6x284 .272 tightneck
2. Nesika Model L, 1.70 diameter Action.
3. Krieger 30", 1-8.5 twist, 1.450 Straight taper barrel.
4. McMillan Tooley MBR, 5 pounds lead added to rear, front stud for bi-pod.
5. Jewel 2oz trigger.
6. Vias Muzzle brake.
7. Davidson 20MOA scope base.
8. Kelby 30mm rings.
9. Nightforce 12x42x56mm NXS with NP-R2 Reticle.
10. Weight of rifle, 32 pounds with scope.

This is a heavy set up, but it's for long range varminting.


Equipment opinions;

1. The best actions you can get for a long range varminting rig would be a custom action like a Nesika or BAT. However, a Remington 700 action, trued and squared, is pretty close to a custom.

2. The barrel should be either a Krieger, Hart, Lilja, ect. I've had really good success with Kriegers in 6mm caliber. The diameter should be at least a Light to Heavy varmint diameter, or heavier. The barrel should be between 28" to 30"s.

3. The twist rate should be between a 1-8 to 1-10 twist barrel. These twist rates will allow you to shoot 6mm bullets between 80 to 107grns.

4. The trigger should be a Jewel, Shelin, Rifle Basix or a Remington trigger worked on. However, the Jewel or Shelin would be the best choice.

5. Stock choices are plentiful, however, I would highly recommend the following for long range varminting; The McMillan Tooley MBR or The Shehan Tracker.

6. Muzzle brake choice, if you shoot of the ground, I would look at the Holland brake. If you shoot of a bench, I would highly recommend the Vias.

7. Weight of rifle should be at least 12 pounds. The heavier the better, however, you don't want the rifle to be to heavy. IMO, 35 pounds is heavy enough.

8. Choices for optics are plentiful too. The Nightforce NXS scopes are awesome, however, Leupolds are great too. If $$$ is not a problem, get the Nightforce NXS.

9. Brass choices, use Lapua or Norma.

10. Bullet choices; if your shooting for long range varminting and using a 6mmx284, the 87grn V-Max is the ultimate long range bullet. The 105grn and the 107grn bullets are better ballisticly, however, they don't kill as well as the 87grn V-Max. The great thing about choosing the 6mm for varminting, is there are plenty of bullets to choose from.

11. If you buy a factory rifle, The new Savage Model 12 Long Range Precision is very nice and affordable. The Remington 700 VSSF II is a great choice too.

Definitely go with one of the 6mm's for long range varminting. However, if you want the ultimate long range caliber for varmining, the 6x284 is definitely the king of the 6mm's if you want velocity and accuracy.

Good luck with your caliber hunt. Let us know what you decided on.

Wildcat

 

[Tyler Kemp]

How about a 22-378 Weatherby? Wildcats 117 grainers near 4000 fps. 400 rounds if you're lucky.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h190/tykempster/22power22-378.jpg

 

[Stonewall2]

Simple - Phone Kelblys Welcome to Kelbly's precision benchrest firearms Stolle rifle actions Custom fiberglass rifle stocks Scope rings Reamers Parts and accessories Firearms Industry Super Shoot and have them build you a tight neck .240 Weatherby for example . Talk to them about your requirements and then just sit back and relax .
You will just have to shoot it .......
Glenn

 

[Flybuster]

22-378 weatherby huh... That can't be for real. Quite the novelty though.

 

[BountyHunter]

Here are two rifles that fit the bill.

Richard Franking strongly recommends the 6mm Rem AI with 87 gr Vmax and the 300 WSM with 110-125 Btips.

Man, a 125 Btip at 3600-3800 fps smacking them will make'em do cat flips. Watch is short video links on this.


Richards Custom Rifles

Good article on www.6mmbr.com on a guy with the 6-6.6-47 with the 87 Vmax making an ultimate LR varmint rig. Varmints For Fun

BH

 

[wildcat]

Bountyhunter, I was going to build the exact same 300 WSM to shoot the 125grn Ballistic Tip. I talked to Richard Franklin about his 300 WSM project. It is an awesome varmint set up. Richards claims the 300 WSM will shoot the 125 Ballistic Tip at 4000fps, however, other gunsmiths on this sit said there is no way it can push the 125grn BT at 4000fps. The other smiths said the 300 WSM will push the 125grn BT at around 3700 to 3800fps.

After doing a little more research, and taking the advice from others on this site, I decided to go with 6x284 instead. The 6x284 will shoot the 87grn V-Max (BC .400) at 3730fps. This bullet and cartridge combination ends up being a better long range varmint set up than the 300 WSM with the 125grn Ballistic tip. The 6x284 will also shoot the 105grn Lapua Scenar (.530 BC) at 3500fps. Plus the 6x284 has less recoil and the 6mm's have a much better bullet selection.

However, the 300 WSM, with the 125grn Ballistic tip, is an awesome varmint set up. I have one of Richards videos and it shows what the 300 WSM can do to a groundhog, it's pretty impressive. But, the 6x284 is still the ultimate long range varmint caliber when you consider velocity, accuracy, recoil, bullet selection. Sure, there is better long range calibers, however, when it comes to pure varmint hunting the 6x284 is king.

Wildcat

 

[BountyHunter]

other gunsmiths on this sit said there is no way it can push the 125grn BT at 4000fps. The other smiths said the 300 WSM will push the 125grn BT at around 3700 to 3800fps.

Pretty sure some of their ancestors said the world was flat too!!

For sure the 6-284 will go 3730 with 87s OR 3500 with 105s but not normally the same twist barrel.

The 6-284 is a known barrel burner, that there is no question on. The 300 WSM for some reason is not a barrel burner particularily compared to other magnums. We have guys right now in the 1k BR game shooting barrels in 300 WSM with 3300 rounds threw them in the 1k BR game, and the gun is still winning. Guess I am not a fan of a barrel burner cartridge. If you are happy with 800-1000 rounds for a barrel, great, I know those gunsmiths are!

If Richard Franklin says the 300 WSM like he sets up will do 4000, then I would not want to bet against him, regardless of who says what here. My bet is that they have not tried a 300 WSM with a 15 twist barrel, so that means that at best they were only guessing.

Most people and most gunsmiths say that a 300 WSM will not run a 210 over 2900 fps, but I know that it will run them up to 3050 also with the right set up and not be overpressure for that setup.

Guess I would not be worried about recoil in a LR varmint gun shooting those weight bullets in that weight guns, but a $500-600 barrel every yr or less does concern me. However, each to their own and those are the considerations that all of us have to make and what is important to each.

BH

 

[Boyd Heaton]

I have run them at 4200fps from a 300 Rum.....Some made it and some didn't...The ones that did made a mess

 

[HOGGHEAD]

Rifle

I have spent the last six months asking myself the same question. Here is what I came up with. Or should I say this is what I am in the middle of putting together right now.

I purchased a LH Remington 700VSF in 22-250. I then purchased a 28" Krieger barrel. I am having the action blue-printed. I am also having a Vias port put on the barrel. The twist is 1 in 8 to shoot the 75 grain A-Max.

The scope will be an IOR straight 16X scope. From what I have been able to find out this scope is the best tracking scope you can buy for under $900. If you come across a better one let me know!! Tom.

 

[Wild_Bill]

6x47 Lapua

Hi in the last 12 months we have built 10 6x47 Lapua's 8 were target rifles the other 2 dedicated long range hunters. the target shooters are using 107gr Sierra's and hunters 105gr A Max's. they have a great barrel life with plenty off energy to take ferals past 1000 yards. we are building the hunters wiyh Rem Sendaro profile Lawton 8 twist barrels and they just shoot.

I believe it has the best balance between retained bullet energy, light recoil and barrel life. The 6x47 lapua is now starting to gain a large acceptance in long range shooting and it equils factory 243Win ballistics with better barrel life and accuracy as well as flat enough for the job at hand.

You can make anything feasable like a large allen mag that shoots so flat it seams wrong but the rifle must be practable not excessive in recoil, barrel life or noise.

If you want any more detail PM me I'm in Bendigo Victoria

Cheers Bill
Australia

 

[The Big Dog]

Long range varmint rig

Hi,

If you are starting from scratch, I'd look into the Savage rifles. Their upper end models are extreamly accurate out of the box. They are coming out with it chambered in 6.5-284. E Arthur Brown, E. Arthur Brown Company - Maker and supplier of hunting and shooting supplies, specializing in single shot rifles and handguns, including Thompson Center, Ruger, Sharps, BF Pistols, Model 97D Rifles, Ruger 10/22 accessories and reloading tools and co has Savage barrels chambered in such calibers as the 6mm BR, 6.5-284, 260 Remington, 243 Win all with a 1-8" twist barrel for long range shooting.

In my younger days, everything I shot had to be the high speed get-it-all. It was fun to be fast but it came at a price. Short barrel life. If you want to go fast, you are going to have to pay for it. I've found out you can't miss fast enough? Out to about 700yds to 800yds, I've been looking at and building the 6mm BR with the 1-8" twist for the 105gr Amax. For a while, a guy held the world record with this caliber at 1000yds. Check out the 6mm BR web site, http://www.6mmbr.com/ There is a lot of good information there about the 6mm BR, 22 BR, 6.5-284. For the longer ranges, I use my 338 Lapua Mag. If I had it to do over again, I think I'd go with the 338 Ultra Mag. Same performance with a lot less cost.

Next comes the optics. You will need a scope that is clear and can hold zero. Target turrets are a must for long range shooting. The scope should be able to be adjusted and returned to zero. The adjustments should be repeatable like a tacital scope. There is a place called Kenton Industries that makes target turrets made up in yardages for several models of scopes. If you know the yardage to your target, adjust the top turret and hold dead on. No MOA. No counting clicks. No trying to remember how many clicks for each yardage. Whats now to like about this set-up. Jesse got his Elk this year at 1145yds using this set-up.

As for stocks, most of your varmint stocks will work fine. If you are shooting off of a rest, take a look at the Shehane Tracker Stocks. They have flat botoms and track very well in the bags. Very nice stocks for varmint and benchrest shooting, NightForce Scopes Nightforce NXS Rifle Scopes : Custom Rifle Stocks for Benchrest Shooting I think you'll like these stocks.

I'm getting a little to long winded here so I'll go for now. Catch you later,


The Big Dog

 

[The Big Dog]

The scope will be an IOR straight 16X scope. From what I have been able to find out this scope is the best tracking scope you can buy for under $900. If you come across a better one let me know!! Tom.[/QUOTE]



Hi Tom,


Do you want me to let you in on a little secret?????????? I've been testing the newer model scopes from Millett and was very suprised? I have never been a fan of Millet scoped. They've never help zero to my satifaction in the past. A friend of mine wanted me to help him test the new Millett TRS-1 Tacital scope. I've never been a fan of mil-dot or tacital scopes. I was going to show Jared just what kind of **** Millett was puting out. To say the test was unfair is an under statement. The guns I was going to use were a 338/378 Weatherby Mag, 338 Lapua Mag Custom Rifle, 2 300 Win Mags, 6.5/06, 270 Win, 308 Win, 223 Rem. The scopes used were Swarovski, Nightforce, Leupold Vari-X III, Tasco Custom, Super Sniper. All the scopes except for the Super Sniper had higher magnifaction. The range tested at was 200yds. Let me make this short and sweet. Except for the Swarovski, Millett matches or beat the rest of the scopes and I was trying to fail Millet. To be fair, the scope bases were loose when took the millet off of the 338/378 Weatherby. It still grouped under 1" at 200yds. We put 200 rounds through my 338 Lapua and couldn't shake it loose. We did a box test at 200 yds and it came back to within 1/2" whish is my group size at this range.

Tom, check out Midway USA.com for the Millett TRS-1 scope. All the reviews are 5 star. The only problem is trying to find one. Midway sells them for about $300 but they don't have any. They are sold out as soon as they come in. I now have a Millett riding atop of my 338 Lapua. It used to have a Leupold Vari-X III 6.5x20. The Millett scopes model #30735 and up are worth every dime they are asking for. The 4X16 TRS-1 and the 10X TRS-2 cost around $300 or less depending where you are looking.

Go to SWFA Quality optics and accessories from Leupold, Bushnell, Burris, Nikon and more! and check out the forum Optics Talk. Post under Tacital scopes and asked about the Millett TRS-1 and you will get swamped.


Catch you later,

The Big Dog