G,day all. I'm an old bloke who wants to knock down the rams at 500 metres without recoil breaking my bones. I've tried 30/221 but it ain't good enough. Does anyone think a full .223 nec ked up to .30 cal will work on the rams? Appreciate any opinions.

do you shoot cast bullet ?

30.223 is not really a 500 meters cartridge

6.5 TCU with hight BC bullet can do best job but that very light on ram as real 500 meters cartridge for silhouette

6.5 BR and 6.5 IMP ( DAASKER or TKS from Tim Kourek ) is low recoil and very accurate as very efficient

6.5/22.250 is very good too , some Ausy shooter use 6.5/250 ( same cartridge class ) recoil is very mild

another light recoil is the 6.5 X ( 260 REM reduce to the 22.250 lenght) with 123 gr lapua or 139 gr Lapua

use only strong bullet on ram , energy is one parameter but bullet performance is far more important

good shooting

DAN TEC

A fellow IHMSA shooter tried this a few years back. It did not turn out as well as he had planned. The round seemed to be real temperature and load sensitive.
All I can add to the above is, maybe a 6 BR with 105's or 107's. I am doing the same but only to 200M. The 6.5 might have a little more "umph" at 500M.
Just my .02
Jeff

Look up the .30 Apache. A straight neck-up on the 223 case. A bumped up .222 Mag might give you a little extra needed boost, though.>>>>>>>Bug.

If you are set on 30 and low recoild how about the 30x39 (the 7.62x39 with a .308 bore). There is loading data here

the win. .225 necked to .30 or the .35 remington necked down to .30 seems a good choice, the 35 rem. has about 3 grains more capacity and probably easier to find. i think j.d. jones at ssk necked down the 35 rem to .338 that would be real interesting.