Cooper Excalibur/Jackson Hunter for Longrange Work

[ramrod79]

Good day everyone , I want to know if anyone is using their Coopers for Long range work weather it is hunting or shooting steel and what distances . I guess I really want to know what everyone thinks of using these rifles for long-range work,and the reason I ask is that I have a 280AI Excalibur 24" pipe ,and I use mine for long range work but I am thinking of upgrading to well lets say a better quality rifle or maybe just some add on features to help me out more not sure yet so thats why the questions,and I had thought of a 6.5 -284 Cooper Jackson as well for the longer barrel and better cheek rest.
My Cooper shoots really well at 300 yards about 1.5" 3 shot group ,and then when I run the rifle from 500 - 1000yards I get MOA with the rifle yesterday I was out, and was shooting a 5" 3 shot group at 600yards of my bipod lying in the snow (I know many other rifles shoot better than this at this distance) . My gun does not wear a muzzle break ,and I was thinking of getting one installed to see if this will help shrink up my groups some( any thoughts on this) although for my thinking a 9-10"group at 1000yards is really not that bad so let me know if there are any other Cooper shooters using there outfits for LR work ,and your results .

 

[el matador]

Coopers are awesome rifles. I've got a 300 win mag Jackson Hunter that shoots about the same as your 280. I've done minimal load development with it and quickly found a 3/8 MOA load shooting 208 grain Amax bullets. I think with further load development or possibly a different bullet/powder combination I could get it shooting closer to 1/4 MOA. This gun has a great stock, crisp trigger, and a solid barrel/action. Not sure what I'd "upgrade" to since Cooper's are very good quality.

A 24" barrel is about right for the 280 AI. You'll get another 50 fps or so by going to 26" but I don't think it's worth the trade off in maneuverability and weight. Brakes are fun, I have a mini magnum muscle brake on my 270 WSM and really like it. It won't help your groups much unless you're flinching but it will make extended shooting sessions more enjoyable.

1/2 MOA at 300 yards is not bad at all. There's no reason it won't hold that out to 600 or 1000 yards. Maybe a better scope would help, different technique shooting off the bipod, better rear support? It's also likely that wind is opening up your groups...are you getting horizontal stringing at longer ranges?