As the title states, I am looking for a new rifle. What is the flattes shooting rifle for long range shots. The animals it would be shooting range from prarie dogs to antelope to springbuck.

Maybe you should look to the .257 Weatherby.

The Vanguard is a fine rifle.

Do you want an antelope rifle that you occassionally practice with on prairie dogs, or do you want a prairie dog rifle that will do in a pinch for antelopes?

One rifle will not be the "best" for either. A sporter-weight 25-06 makes a good long range antelope gun, but the recoil, muzzle blast, and heat build-up of anything in the .25-caliber class makes it too much for sustained prairie dog shooting. On the other hand, a heavier-barreled .243 or 6mm Rem is an excellent PD gun, but you don't want to wag it very far on foot looking for an antelope.

For combo antelope/PD's, you're pretty much limited to 6mm and .25's; so take your choice.

Vapodog's on the money! A 75 gr HP over 80 gr of AA8700 at 4,000+ fps from my Wby SBGM makes a fine varmint load. A 115 gr Barnes TSX will work for anything else up to caribou. The only drawback is that the #1-1/2 contour barrel heats up after 2 consecutive shots. I'd maybe look to the Wby Accumark (heavy/fluted barrel).

Uplandhunter: I have a custom Rifle built on a pre-64 Winchester Model 70 action. It is in caliber 240 Weatherby Magnum! I have a 27 1/2" heavy Hart stainless barrel on it and it is a long range killing machine. I have used it on high plains Deer, Antelope, Coyote, Rock Chucks and Prairie Dogs for more than 10 years now!
It IS flat shooting and not to heavy on the recoil. The heavy barrel and Varmint style custom wood stock help tame the recoil.
With just two different loads you could do it all from Prairie Dogs to Antelope to Springbuck!
The Weatherby folks are offering several models of heavy barrel Rifles - maybe check out their website!
Good luck with whichever caliber you choose.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

How about a 22-250, friends load them for varmints over 4000 fps turns a coyote into a canoe head.

Your probably want to take a look at the .243 Catbird. A wildcat a .270 Winchester necked down to .243. Kenny Jerret has some info on his web site about it.

.243 Catbird

Recently I shot a friends old Winchester 25-06 with 100 grain bullets at the local range. I hit targets at 400 and 500 yards nearly every shot. So I got a new Winchester 25-06 and I'm working up loads for a hornady 117 grain bullet.

Keep in mind that with modern laser rangefinders trajectory is not the problem it once was. Its still quite difficult to figure wind drift when it's blowing.

If you have any rifle for big game such as a 30-06, 308 or 270 and a varmint rifle then your next purchase should be a laser. Download some free ballistics program and carry the copy with you when you practice at long range and of course for hunting.

As to the shooting products I have no use for anything that Weatherby has designed. So I would use a 243 for varmints and one of my bigger bores for game. If the range was long I would use a magnum.

My name sake, the 30/378 Weatherby. Don't knock it till ya try it.

It all depends on how many prarie dogs you need to shoot to feel fulfilled....

The 25's have MUCH greater "reach out and touch" than the 6mm's do

If you are looking for a long range whitetail/speedgoat
rifle I doubt there is anything beter than one of the big 25's

But I don't think the Weatherbys, either the 240 or the 257
is a real good cartridge for the lighter bullets of either
caliber, I think the long weatherby freebore will cause issue with the thin jacketed varmint bullets.

And BTW, what is wrong with a heavy barreled 25-06?

Savage and Ruger both make them...



AllanD

Thank's for the help. My two strong considerations were the 25-06 and the 22-250.

quote:

Originally posted by Uplandhunter:
Thank's for the help. My two strong considerations were the 25-06 and the 22-250.

I don't know about the hunting regulations where you intend to hunt but a .22 caliber round might not be legal to hunt game such as antelope. You might want to check into that, especially if you intend to hunt out of state.

My choice would be the 6BR. The intrinsic accuracy beats everything else mentioned. You can also push heavier bullets than the 22/250 and still only use about half the powder of the 25/06. In the end, you can do 3600 easy with the 55 varmint bullets and 2900 and change with a 95. It fills the need perfectly.

Gabe

.300 RUM loaded with 150 gr Nos BT's it's a laser out to 500 yards

Vapodog: The MSRP on a Wby Vanguard is $439

PC, I have the 300 RUM. Great gun. I had 5 one shot kills in Africa on big animals with a 200 A-Frame PSP. Great round for large plains game.

quote:

Originally posted by Fat_Albert:
Vapodog: The MSRP on a Wby Vanguard is $439

OK...I'll accept that that's true....so what's the point? Do you think it's too much???

Vapodog:



Vapodog: Not hardly. The MSRP in Jan was $506. When it cost $600 to get a rifle rebarreled and blued I would say a Vanguard in 257 is a hell of a buy. In So Cal there is a sporting goods chain store that told me the would sell it includeing tax for that price. I bought a 338 Vanguard about ten years ago and would not trade it for a new 70 or 700.

From what I have read the 257 Wby would be a good chioce. I would not over look the 25-06 though. You might also want to consider something in the 6.5MM caliber.

I can think of a few that would be very good for this purpose.

I am supposing that you're a handloader.

In order of smaller to larger.

22/250 AI with a quick twist

6/06 with either a 10 twist and or a 8 quick twist

25/06

25/06 AI

257 Wby

270

one of the big 7's

You didn't define what long range was to you, if you're thinking over 500, then I would take a hard look at the quick twists.

You also did not state which states for lopes so I am saying check the rules and regs b4 going with a 22/250 AI.

IMO in a factory rig and with factory ammo it would be extremely hard for me to not go 25/06.

I love to load and love to work with the wildcats and so the 6/06 is one of my fav rounds.

If you built a 6/06 and got tuned into it you would be amazed at what you can with it. Of course you could about the same with a 25/06 but it just wouldm't have the pinoche of a 6/06...grins

Good luck to ya

Mark D

If there were no 25-06 I might be inclined to load more of the Speer 110/115's in my 7mmMag to do the same job on varmints, and I only did so previously because someone gave me a box of them and I wanted to try them out....

And though Speer recommends against exceeding 3500fps with their 110gr TNT I've pushed them to 3650, though I'm still not sure why I bothered the chunks don't seem to fly any farther..... infact the 7mmMag so loaded doesn't seem any more effective than my 25-06 with 85gr bullets at the same speeds

AllanD

quote:

Originally posted by Uplandhunter:
As the title states, I am looking for a new rifle. What is the flattes shooting rifle for long range shots. The animals it would be shooting range from prarie dogs to antelope to springbuck.

I've thought about such things myself. Here's what I've been contempating. .257" 120gr Berger VLD or Wildcat 125's or 130gr bullets, out of a 26" 1 in 8 .5 twist barrel, from a WSM case. Nate

I'm surprised no one said 6.5x284. Good brass available, good match bullets. You can drive a 95grV-max at 3600fps or so, 120gr @ 3200fps & it bucks the wind well. Many 1000yd matches have been one w/ this mild kicking round.

Fred that's because a .25-06 will touch 3700 with a 75vmax (more than enough for any varmint) and will also push a 120 at 3000+ leaving nothing on the table and the .257" 120 has a better BC and SD.

The plain old vanilla .25-06 is hard to beat for exactly what he wants, very hard.

Sounds to me like you need one of each! By the way, you splt flat wrong. It's "phlat".

So if the 35-06 is all over the 6.5x.284, why aren't they showing up in 1000yd BR matches?

I used to have chrono'ed loads with a 75gr hornady that
were a tick over 3800fps, but that's probably why that particular barrel was scrap metal just inside of 1300rounds...

The 25-06 isn't particularly good at throwing bullets heavier than 100grains.

25-06 performance with 120's is about what a 30-06 can do with 165's(hot handloads) or factory 150's

The 6.5-284 is shooting longer very streamlined 140's

The 25-06 Might make a decent 1000yd rifle with something like a 110gr Accubond...., but few people want to run the risk of wasting time on something that may or may not work.

Additionally the 25-06 has a somewhat deserved reputation of being a barrel eater (not that BR shooters would give a damn), but still accuracy would fall off quickly as the barrel aged....

the 6.5-284 is a replacement for a 300Mag to reduce shooter fatigue over the course of fire. To shoot 180 & 200grain bullets to the necissary velocity for the needed ballistics for 1000yd shooting is very fatiguing with the number of shots necissary... and though the 6.5-284 would make a good game cartridge it's still a bit on the "exotic" side for most people, not to mention issues with feeding from many rifles.... in a single shot match rifle the shape of the cartridge is completely irrelevant to feeding.

when shooting at animals instead of paper and
when shooting to fill your freezer rather than
put another marksmanship trophy on the mantlepiece; there is nothing a 6.5-284 can do that couldn't be done as well with a 270winchester.
If anyone has an issue with this statement you really need to rethink your position....

I think the only thing lacking for someone to be competetive with a 270win are the right match grade bullets and a Lilja barrel...

And No, I wouldn't try with a 270Win myself...

AllanD

quote:

Originally posted by Jay Johnson:
Your probably want to take a look at the .243 Catbird. A wildcat a .270 Winchester necked down to .243. Kenny Jerret has some info on his web site about it.

.243 Catbird

Funny, I was going to mention a 6mm-06 Ackley. I happen to be building one at the moment.

how about 6.5 x 284 ?

What about lazzeroni's .257? 85gr @ 4000fps. Bignate's 257 shorty looks interesting doesn't it?

I've had that itch but haven't scratched it. To hell with barrel life I say ... get a shot-out used Rem700 in 7mmRemMag and rebarrel/rechamber to a 25STW. Might as well have fun whilst your alive!
Cheers...
Con

The last couple of years I've been shooting a 20 Super wolfer which is a 22-250 Ackley Improved necked down to 20 caliber. Out of a 1 in 9 twist Lilja match grade barrel I am shooting 50 grain Bergers with 42 grains of Ram-Shot Hunter powder at 4100 fps and Nosler 40 grain ballistic tips with 45 grains of Hunter powder at 4504 fps.
Also a high velocity cartridge is the 257 hot tamale which is a 7mm stw necked down to 25 caliber. The claim is 100 grain bullets in excess of 4000 fps.

find yourself a remington sendero in 270 winchester or a 7 mm rem mag or 300 win mag shoot the daylites out of it!!!!! by that time you will have very strong personal knowledge of what really works, or better yet get a custom built = shorter learning curve, best of luck with your choice, jjmp

a 6mm or a 25 or 22 caliber based on a 284 case, with a fast twist for long range match style bullets....

A 22/284 with a one in 8 twist is excellent with a 75 grain A Max, or HP....

Of course the life span of the barrel is about 500 to 700 shots... but that is the price ya pay, for the "flatest shooting cartridge" available....

quote:

Originally posted by Juggernaut76:
Vapodog's on the money! A 75 gr HP over 80 gr of AA8700 at 4,000+ fps from my Wby SBGM makes a fine varmint load. A 115 gr Barnes TSX will work for anything else up to caribou. The only drawback is that the #1-1/2 contour barrel heats up after 2 consecutive shots. I'd maybe look to the Wby Accumark (heavy/fluted barrel).

For the game described the .257 Weatherby is a great round.

The 25-06 will stand toe to toe with it however.

While I'm sure everyone's suggestion is great I have always thought that a 6.5 SAUM would be the ticket for long range, the SAUM rifles are not to readily avaliable but you can still get the brass and I'm sure I will get folks to agree that it's going to be hard to beat the performance at range of the 6.5mm bullets, they may not have the 4k velocity but hey they don't need it take a look at the 6.5x55 it is not all that fast but that long skinny bullet will go a LOOOONNGG ways. Ballistics are easy and finding out the range these days is as easy as puhing a button but wind on the otherhand is just a science of practice. Not that it matters but I'm building a 260 Rem for the Tactical shooting that I like to do, light powder charge, high BC bullets, pretty flat shooting and you will not have to have someone reset your shoulder after each shot. For me those are good traits for a rifle. Later,

Kirk

.264 Thor would be flat. I've only saw it in the '97 Reloader's Digest though.

quote:

Originally posted by Uplandhunter:
As the title states, I am looking for a new rifle. What is the flattes shooting rifle for long range shots. The animals it would be shooting range from prarie dogs to antelope to springbuck.

Flattest shooting? Try the 120mm on the M1A1 with an APFSDS round... (Armor-piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot). But a bit tricky to shoot from the shoulder......

Geeze, with all those suggestion's, none of them bad, nobody mentioned the 30-06! That has to be a first! My own pet is a 6.5-06 with 129gr bullets. It shoots well farther than I can.