I have a mate who wants to build a rifle to use on fox, pig and small deer out to 800m.
He has a .30-06 action to use but is uncertain on which calibre to use.
So far I have suggested:
.243 AI
.260 AI
7mm-08
.25-06 AI
What are your thoughts? He does not really want to use more than 50gns of powder per shot and wants some pretty decent velocity and trajectory/energy.
He wants to use high BC bullets so it wont blow around to much and a barrel with a maximum of 26".
If it were mine (and I may be in a similar boat soon) I would go .280 AI for that game and distance.
If he is real serious about the 50 gr of powder limit though (which seems a hair arbitrary to me) I would vote 7-08 or .284 next. The 06 action calls out for an 06 cartridge, despite that a shorter one will work.
I would go with a 6.5-284 0r a 284 it will do whatever he wants if he steps up to a bigger case he will be using more than 50gr of powder. I use a 284Win for target shooting and use 54gr AR2213SC with 175gr Sierra's and 180gr Bergers they shoot very well and would be an awsome combination. If he go's with a 6.5 he will have less barrel life and recoil but also have less bullet energy at the long ranges.
Well the deer wont be shot all that often so burning all that extra powder on foxes and such seems a waste.
Whats a 6.5-284 pushing a say 85gn projectile at out of a 26" tube roughly?
.280 is 7mm right? Whats the lowest weight projectile in that cal? Whats its energy/velocity and trajectory like out to 600m? BC?
(Im just checking out the lower spectrum of projectile ranges as they will probably be used more often.)
He wants minimal wind drift, flat trajectory and good energy retention and if possable explosive on impact at most ranges.
The .260 AI seemed like a good choice to me?
Take a look at the 6mm Berger 115 grain bullets or the DTACs. They have a very good BC. A 240 Wby will work on a 06 bolt face and it takes about 50 - 52 grains of RL22 to get up to maximum pressure. A 243 AI with either the Berger or Sierra would be a little less powder.
Skip, I'm running 85 grainers at 3600fps in my 243AI with a 3 groove 28" barrel. Great round, probably want a higher bc bullet for over 600m. As most know I'm a big fan of the 260AI for low powder consumption you get very respectable performance and enough power for most any deer.
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Jim
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