Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Is it worth bedding a Ruger Mark II for accuracy?

A buddy has a RPR in 308, the other has one in 6.5 Creed. Those slots are taken. They don't hunt. I am the Contrarian in the group, and must pursue another path. I have thought of pursuing a poor man's build in 300 Norma... but have not priced components.

So for now, the basic idea is how well and how long can I hang with a hunting rifle, a 3-9x40, a bipod, and Kentucky windage? I figure that out to 500 yards, velocity will do more for me than higher BC... The 300 RSAUM is the most mojo at my disposal. My 22" RSAUM should push a 150 to 3100 with the right powder; with a 200 yard zero will be down 18" at 400 and 36" at 500. I should be able to hang to 500, discounting wind. And still be set up for deer.

Take at least 100 fps off your predicted velocity unless you are planning at shooting exculsively at 7,000 feet altitude. Your short tube at 21" is just gonna make that boom bigger as everytime you pulll the trigger 20 of those 60+ grains of powder are gonna burn up outside of your barrel.

If I were you I'd that gun and buy a medium weight .308 like a kimber longamster, it will weigh the same, shoot more accurately, cost less to shoot, still kill anything in North America at any decent hunting range, and your handloads with a 26" barrel will come pretty close to the velocty out of a 21" way overbored 300SAUM with 150 gr. Ballistic tips if thats what you want to shoot.

i have spent WAY too much time studying Nosler's reloading data, but where the 300 RSAUM shines is with 150 grain bullets and a max load of Varget or RL15... 60 grains gets you 3200 at least in their lab...