goodgrouper
Well-Known Member
Two BR\'s, two results on varmints
Last week, 7mmrhb and I set out on a chuck hunt with our 6 BR's. His is a standard 6 br with a slow twist shooting 55 grain ballistic tips in excess of 3900 fps. My gun was a 6mm br Improved with an 8 twist shooting 105 Amax at 2900.
The day started at about 10:00. The temp was about 60 degrees and no clouds. The mirage was thick as soup at ground level but decreased drastically the higher up we looked.
The chucks were out feeding in full force, so we set up the bench and began our barage. The shots were from about 450 to 1250 yards. I can't remember who started shooting first but I do remember how dang well these rifles were shooting. Both rifles were putting shots in very sub caliber groups as far as elevation went, but there was a HUGE difference in the horizontal groups. My bullet has a bc nearly double that of the 55 grain BT and it was easy to see the difference. On shots only around 500 yards, it took about half as many windage clicks on my bullet to get a hit.
We were paying close attention to the trajectories this day because it was only a few days earlier when a "little bullet going fast" fan argued with me on this forum about what made the perfect prairie dog caliber. I knew before hand that the big bullet with the high bc is ultimately going to be the most verstatile projectile for shooting with any kind of distance involved, but this was the first time that we really paid attention to the actual field traj's. And it was the first time we had compared the diffs using two guns of the same basic cartridge. Even though my bullet started off 1000 fps slower at the muzzle, it caught up to the light bullet at the range most of the chucks were at (600 yards)!
It was very clear that out to 500 yards, they both were very capable of one shot hits in a fair wind. But it was also clear that if the wind was blowing more than a breeze, or if the shots were farther than 500, the high bc 105 made it much easier to connect on those wary chucks.
It was also very interesting as we surveyed the dead bodies. The chucks out to about 600 yards showed massive destruction with both bullets, but the 105 caused almost the same degree of destruction clear out to over 850 yards.
Both bullets were deadly, it was just that the 105's were deadly farther out!
And as for the "red mist" debate, yes, there was plenty mist with BOTH bullets. So given this info, the only reason I could see shooting a light bullet in a br or anything else for that matter, is to get slightly better accuracy at 100 yards or 200 yards or if you have a really small case capacity. 7mmrhb's BR undoubtedly shoots better at 100 than my fast twist br because it takes a few football fields for my bullet to go to "sleep".
I brought my digital camera to take pics of the results with the two different bullets, but when I charged the battery, I forgot to put it back in the camera! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
No wonder it felt lighter than usual!
If there are guys out there that are reading this forum and are trying to gather info to use in the designing of your next varmint caliber, take note. The fast twist barrels for any caliber ARE more versatile plain and simple. 7mmrhb's gun was pretty well done in that wind at 700 yards, and I continued to shoot at chucks at 1250 yards with my gun! Having one rifle that shoots scary groups from 100 yards to 1250 yards is very versatile!
It will be fun comparing my new standard br that I just recieved back last week to the br improved in future hunts. The reason I got the standard br slow twist made was just to shoot .1"-.2" groups at 100 yards for fun but I will also try some 700 yard chucks with it-when it is calmer!
Last week, 7mmrhb and I set out on a chuck hunt with our 6 BR's. His is a standard 6 br with a slow twist shooting 55 grain ballistic tips in excess of 3900 fps. My gun was a 6mm br Improved with an 8 twist shooting 105 Amax at 2900.
The day started at about 10:00. The temp was about 60 degrees and no clouds. The mirage was thick as soup at ground level but decreased drastically the higher up we looked.
The chucks were out feeding in full force, so we set up the bench and began our barage. The shots were from about 450 to 1250 yards. I can't remember who started shooting first but I do remember how dang well these rifles were shooting. Both rifles were putting shots in very sub caliber groups as far as elevation went, but there was a HUGE difference in the horizontal groups. My bullet has a bc nearly double that of the 55 grain BT and it was easy to see the difference. On shots only around 500 yards, it took about half as many windage clicks on my bullet to get a hit.
We were paying close attention to the trajectories this day because it was only a few days earlier when a "little bullet going fast" fan argued with me on this forum about what made the perfect prairie dog caliber. I knew before hand that the big bullet with the high bc is ultimately going to be the most verstatile projectile for shooting with any kind of distance involved, but this was the first time that we really paid attention to the actual field traj's. And it was the first time we had compared the diffs using two guns of the same basic cartridge. Even though my bullet started off 1000 fps slower at the muzzle, it caught up to the light bullet at the range most of the chucks were at (600 yards)!
It was very clear that out to 500 yards, they both were very capable of one shot hits in a fair wind. But it was also clear that if the wind was blowing more than a breeze, or if the shots were farther than 500, the high bc 105 made it much easier to connect on those wary chucks.
It was also very interesting as we surveyed the dead bodies. The chucks out to about 600 yards showed massive destruction with both bullets, but the 105 caused almost the same degree of destruction clear out to over 850 yards.
Both bullets were deadly, it was just that the 105's were deadly farther out!
And as for the "red mist" debate, yes, there was plenty mist with BOTH bullets. So given this info, the only reason I could see shooting a light bullet in a br or anything else for that matter, is to get slightly better accuracy at 100 yards or 200 yards or if you have a really small case capacity. 7mmrhb's BR undoubtedly shoots better at 100 than my fast twist br because it takes a few football fields for my bullet to go to "sleep".
I brought my digital camera to take pics of the results with the two different bullets, but when I charged the battery, I forgot to put it back in the camera! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
No wonder it felt lighter than usual!
If there are guys out there that are reading this forum and are trying to gather info to use in the designing of your next varmint caliber, take note. The fast twist barrels for any caliber ARE more versatile plain and simple. 7mmrhb's gun was pretty well done in that wind at 700 yards, and I continued to shoot at chucks at 1250 yards with my gun! Having one rifle that shoots scary groups from 100 yards to 1250 yards is very versatile!
It will be fun comparing my new standard br that I just recieved back last week to the br improved in future hunts. The reason I got the standard br slow twist made was just to shoot .1"-.2" groups at 100 yards for fun but I will also try some 700 yard chucks with it-when it is calmer!
