Bitter Clinger wrote:For precision rifle, "long range" (shooting) is best defined as the distance at which the round becomes transonic (and therefore its behavior is far less predictable). When a bullet flies through the transonic region, the aerodynamics change. Transonic regionshockwaves shift from the tip of the bullet backward to the tail as the bullet approaches and then crosses the sound barrier at Mach 1.
http://www.texaschlforum.com/viewtopic. ... c#p1113670
What Bitter Clinger said.
However, some of that is just "combat effectiveness" too.....meaning, the question becomes, what are you trying to accomplish? Punch a hole in paper.......or kill a man? One of my friends who shoots regularly out at ETTS is a medically retired MARSOC scout sniper. lately, he has been regularly ringing steel at the 1000 yard line with an AR15 based DMR, using a midrange powered scope, and shooting Hornady Superformance 75 grain match. But he's doing that just for the grins. In other words, he's just plinking......way more accurately than most of us can, but
still just plinking for the grins. When it came to actually
killing people at 800-1000 yards in real world combat (both Iraq and Afghanistan), he used
at minimum a .308 chambered rifle - typically a bolt gun. At distances below say 600 yards, he used an accurized 5.56 weapon.
Another retired MARSOC sniper who taught
me, told me that he had kills in Afghanistan at 1300 yards with a .308 when I had expressed doubt about my own .308 being a "killing rifle" beyond 1000 yards. He helped me get out to 800 yards, which I found quite difficult mainly due to deteriorating eyesight,
despite have a scope that was more than capable at that distance, and a rifle to match. Maybe some day I'll get out to 1000 yards, but I can tell you that 800 yards, even with good eyesight, is no longer just "plinking". It requires an investment in VERY good optics and a rifle capable of accuracy to match, and the time invested in learning/maintaining long range skills - combined with the
right load for that rifle. For example, my Remington 700 .308 shoots VERY well with my own 175 grain Matchking handload, and the 175 grain Match loads from Black Hills and Federal. Other 175 grain loads have been
OK, but not nearly as good. Of all of them, my best results have been with my handload. My point is, if for example you have a .308 with a heavy 1:10 twist barrel, don't expect that just
any 175 grain match load is going to perform well for you. And to add complexity, just because a load gives you little tiny .5 MOA groups at 100 yards, doesn't mean that it will hold to .5 MOA at 500 or 1000 yards. That's just ONE reason why, the further out you go, the harder it gets........but also the more
interesting and arcane it gets. It's been the better part of a year since I last shot at that distance, and it is a perishable skill if not maintained, so I'm probably going to have to build up to it again when I next have the opportunity to do it.
On that same ETTS range - which goes out to 1200 yards - I have seen guys ringing steel with 6.5 Creedmore and other "less than 7.62mm" calibers at the 1200 yard line. The 6.5 Creedmores are still effective at that range, given a rifle accurate enough to hit.
Without having much experience with it, I would relegate .30-06 to roughly the same category as .308. It's not
that much more powerful. The next logical step in .30 caliber cartridges for long range shooting after .308 is the .300 Win Mag, which is exactly why military sniping units chose that cartridge for long-action bolt guns rather than the .30-06 when it came time to step up from .308 to something more powerful for shooting over longer distances. If I were on the market today, and I could only afford to own ONE long range rifle, I would start with either a .308 or a 6.5 Creedmore. Either will get you
well out past any distance you have any business shooting an animal at......let alone another human being unless you're being
paid to do it, in which case your professionalism will afford you more rifles.
But I would encourage anyone to at least give long range shooting a try. You may not like it, and that's OK. But it is a MUCH bigger thrill to connect with a small, hard to even see, target at 800 yards, than it is to tiny groups into paper at 100 yards. Punching paper is fun. Hitting a clay pigeon on the berm at 800 yards was a huge thrill.......at least for me.....and I badly want to do it again.
), but I find the topic of ballistics endlessly fascinating. Given the right .308 rifle and load, the average shooter (like me) can pretty much count on getting out to 1000 yards with enough practice. What happens beyond that starts to enter the realm of people who have an almost autistic talent for the thing.
