Which Caliber???

[james blond]

Well i live in the U.k and have a 17hmr at the moment. im looking to upgrade but don't know which caliber to choose- maybe .223 or .243??? im just undecided.

I need something fairly quiet, we can add moderators over here. I need it to effectively shoot to 500 yards and i love accurate rifles- iv no time for loose groups so a target weight barrel is a necessity- maybe the faithful 700 in target weight???

Have you any suggestions??? im also looking for extreme comedy value for exploding rabbits- what caliber should i look at please-

Cheers

James

 

[grit]

I'd go with a 6mm in one form or another. The smaller the case the tighter the groups seem to be - 6br or 6ppc. The larger the case the better the splat.

The old 243 would be a sweet compromise. Need more splat? The 243wssm is a screamer and surprisingly accurate.

My pick was the 243. 87vmax a shade under 3200fps. The first shot opportunity was a big jack under thirty yards. You couldn't find a piece big enough to identify as rabbit.

A few days later a friend and I were parked on the edge of a long valley. The valley was covered in snow, thin grass, and thin sage. We shot jacks from fifty yards to 550 yards. It was amusing. They made quite smear on the snow. Seemed every time we shot one two more would hop up to sniff it. Pop, giggle, pop, giggle.

For even more splat you could run the 58vmax at 3800.

 

[james blond]

Hey thanks for the informative reply- the 243 wssm would be a real noisy beast so i reckon the 6mm would be preferable- im never more than a mile or 1.6km from a house and noise is an issue over here.

Im chatting to a rifle maker and i would like to use the 700 as a base for an action, thereafter, barrel, trigger, moderator im not decided, the 6mm ppc sounds interesting though I will google it and see what comes up. Iv got a dvd 'Varmint Hunting' and on that he uses a .22 BR @ 500 yards- it shreds rabbits too- thanks for the feedback