Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles The best long range gun

I was wundering what you guys thought was the most accurate long range cartrige (in any cal.)

Need guns- Thats easy! .50 BMG [img]images/icons/laugh.gif" border="0[/img] <BR>Accuracy will depend on a combination of many factors including cartridge, action, barrel, trigger, and the shooter. It just takes time to find the right combination for a particular gun. What are you planning to hunt and where? Good shooting. Bob

Depends mostly on how you define long range, and as Bob.280 said, what your target is. One guy killing prarie dogs well in excess of a mile is using .308 Ackley Improved. But there are better cartridges. How far do you want to shoot, and how much do you want to spend to get optimal results?

16"ers on the WWII battleships.

M-duce with the juice.... (thats m-2 50 cal machine gun) My dream is to own one of these god guns in sniper rifle. 2 mile targets are done everyday. Just think.... pop off a round, take a bite out of that doughnut, wash it down with a cup of jo....and "plink"! [img]images/icons/laugh.gif" border="0[/img]

It's interesting that the 16" guns on the Iowa class battleships are 50 caliber. When they added the Lear muzzle velocity radar it made them absolutely deadly. The first shot gave the computer all the information it needed. So if a second round was needed it was right on the money. Years ago Guns & Ammo had an article about them that was pretty interesting. If I remember rightly (and that's questionalble at best:> ) caliber is determined by dividing bore diameter into barrel length or some such formula. I know the naval 5" guns came in 38 & 50 caliber.

accuracy is in the hands of the shooter. also you ask long range well I don,t think you meant 30 miles so I will not comment on military weapons.<BR> as far as hunting calibers, 308,has probably won more long range shooting titles than any other round.

A Dave Tooley built rig called a 30 Booboo just set a new 5 shot record at 1000 yards. 1.5985 at 1000 yards.

Dave 7mm, Thank you for that. I just told some people about that the other night and they said I was dreaming. If I was, at least we are having the same nightmare. <P>For practical hunting purposes, I think the 6.5-300 weatherby is probably the ideal long range hunting caliber. Using 162 grain TIG bullets, if you can find them, in a good rifle with at least 26 inches of barrel and a good muzzle brake, you should be able to take down anything you can see at ranges up to about 800 meters. If you want to shoot longer ranges or really heavy targets or hard targets, the then go talk with Mr. McMillan, he has a great idea. [img]images/icons/cool.gif" border="0[/img]

The US naval 16inch / 50 cal can hit a trash can at 23 miles with a 2300 lb expolisive shell. Most deer are bigger then trash cans...<P>Seriously, the best long range rifle is the the one YOU can shoot at what is your long range. To be honest, very few people, are truly 300 or more capable shooters. The 308 Win in a 22 inch bolt gun with 165g bullets is capable to 500 yrds.. No gun will make up for lack of shooting skill.<P>Now that I have thrown the gaulent down, I will say for MOST shooters, the two most common that will require almost no change in hold from the muzzle to 300yrds, with recoil most can live with are...<P>1. 270 Win<BR>2. 7mm Mag<P>Yes there are others, but for most people, these two are as about as flat as you are going to get for 300 yrds or less, and I consider anythig beyond 150yrds long range for big game hunting or varmiting even.

I don't really know what the "best" is but a 338 Lapua Mag would be one of the best. I use a 300 win mag loaded with 180gr ballistic tips and they work just fine to 650 yards. Maybe you don't consider that long range. As long as I can keep my groups smaller then 8" I will stretch out as far as I can. I hope to be capable of going out to 750 yards prior to this fall deer season as the field I watch is 750 yards deep. As it is right now if a deer were to come out of the woods at 750 yards all I can do is hope it moves 100 yards closer. I do practice at all the various distances and have documented my elevation adjustments necessary to effectively kill deer to 650 yards. My worst grouping so far is at 600 yards, not 650 yards. That was kind of a supprise but it worked out that way. At 600 yards 5 1/2" is about my average. If accuracy can be maintained within my 8" circle I have no doubt that the combo I use would kill a deer to 1/2 mile (880 yards). <BR>I have killed a woodchuck at 660 yards using my 22 CHeetah MK 1 with the 47th round down the tube. With the proper equipment and practice it is more then possible to kill a deer "way out" there. <P>One day I will have a 338 Lapua Mag built with the intention of killing deer beyond 1/2 mile. I need to determine which scope to use. <P>I read in Varmint Hunter magazine where a guy killed a woodchuck at 2500 yards (verified). Impressive. <P>Don [img]images/icons/smile.gif" border="0[/img]

30-378 and 338-378 have always worked great for me. Now that we have the right powders, they are absolutely deadly. Then again, the USMC Snipers use a little 308 out to 1000 yds on human target which is about as far as anyone has business to be shooting, so I guess it depends on the shooter.

Right now the 338-378 wby with the 338 Lapua a close second if you are talking serious long range at big game animals. There are others that can compete trajectory wise but at long range you want to hit them with the largest caliber, heaviest bullet possible. Wind considerations can be more important than trajectory at serious long range and from many years of testing the wind doesn't effect those big, heavy, high ballistic coefficient 338 bullets nearly as much as the smaller calibers.

i'm not a target shooter, i'm a hunter, and to me, long range is 250/300 yards and my .270 Win. handles that chore just fine. gutpile [img]images/icons/laugh.gif" border="0[/img]