Custom Rifle Cartridge Choice

Coyote Shadow Tracker said:

6.5 X 284. or .260 don't leave the 6.5mm out of the equation. The 6.5 has been and still is one of the most popular bullets ever made and just see what they have been are are using in Europe. The 6.5X55 probably took more African animals than any other cartridge. the 260 Rem will reachout and touch at 800yds then add the 6.5 X 284 with the correct bullet good to 1K yds. Plus reloading you can go from 85 gr to 153gr + bullets for any small or big animal.

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LRNut said:

I might do that for my next rifle; my smith has a 300 RUM; Brux on order. Told him to do another 300 RUM, but the optionality of bullet seating with either the Nosler or PRC has me wondering...

Bryan Blake built my two 28s; one is on a Stiller action and the other a Borden, both with McM stocks. Bryan makes his own barrels (one took first place in a recent F class national comp). I had him build me the second one to practice with so I don't burn out the hunting rifle, but both are so darn accurate I almost hate to shoot them. I have found an Edge, Lapua, and RUM (shooting 225s) have almost identical wind drift, so I find myself practicing with them quite a bit; yesterday I shot my Savage Lapua as well; shot hit just below that circle but with a 1.5 wind hold. Shot it later that day at 500 in a somewhat stiffer wind (different location) and hit dead nuts on. Takes quite a bit of wind before you have to hold more than 1.5 MOA at 500 with these.

I shoot a 308 at 500 a lot too, but it has so much more wind drift than the above cartridges that it isn't a good substitute for wind practice. But that rifle has a mil reticle, so when I look at mirage to judge wind I think in terms of mils, not MOA, which helps (I think).

Not to overstate the obvious, but the only way to get good at calling wind is to either eat a lot of pea soup or shoot a lot. It is so much easier with a 28N, 300 RUM, or Edge/Lapua than lesser calibers but the price is barrel life. Nothing is free.

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lancetkenyon said:

If I were to buy a used rifle w. 300 +/- rounds through it, a 28 Nos would be off the table. That could be as much as 75% of barrel life gone already.

I would be looking at a 7RM, .300WM, 6.5SAUM, .280AI, etc.

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Jud96 said:

That's a very good point. Thank you

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lancetkenyon said:

If I were to buy a used rifle w. 300 +/- rounds through it, a 28 Nos would be off the table. That could be as much as 75% of barrel life gone already.

I would be looking at a 7RM, .300WM, 6.5SAUM, .280AI, etc.

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LRNut said:

I would be leery of buying any long range rifle used, esp a 28N. For one thing, why is the seller selling? I sure wouldn't sell my 28s - they are tack drivers. But even if accurate, the bbl life question is a show stopper. Sure, the seller can say the tube has 300 rounds down it, but you have no way of knowing; I haven't seem too many bore scope pics on a For Sale ad, but that might be helpful.

That said, I bought a .338 Edge used; the guy who sold it posted pics of his loads. Said it pained him to sell, but he was shooting BR competitively and needed to raise money to buy a lathe and other tools. I bought the rifle for 3K to include an NXS along with 200 new pieces of 300 RUM brass. That rifle turned out to be super accurate.

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Coyote01 said:

I disagree. I own 2 28's and barrel life is much greater then what's being spread around. Like any rifle if you take care of it longevity is not really an issue

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lancetkenyon said:

I have loaded for 39 different 28 Noslers. When run at max and more than 3 rounds at a time, 400 rounds of ACCURATE barrel life is very realistic. Seen a few go that fast. 600-800 is very realistic when taken care of. 1000 is pushing it. Unless you are defeating the purpose of building a 28 Nosler, and running them at 7RM speeds.

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Calvin45 said:

I'm finding this hard to believe (though I sure ain't calling you a liar, let that be understood as well). The 28 Nosler is basically a standard length action 7stw, shorter wider powder column but more or less same case capacity. I know the 7 stw isn't exactly friendly to barrels but I also know that people on here routinely do well with them waaaaaay north of 400 rounds per barrel. Either that or they're full of it. Either way, something about this isn't adding up to me. I just don't quite get it. Perhaps differing acceptable accuracy parameters?

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