Any opinions?

Get a .338 Lapua. I have three 300 RUMs and two big .338s (soon to have 3). A 285 AMAX or 300 Berger is pretty impressive in the wind. I also think the accuracy potential is better (than the 30-378).

Thompson Long Range


http://www.thompsonlongrange.com

quote:

Originally posted by TexKD:
Thompson Long Range


http://www.thompsonlongrange.com

You have got to be kidding...a scope with a holdover dots out to 1000 but no wind hash marks? What do you do if the wind is blowing?

I have been LR shooting for over 30 years; holdover works okay if the wind is calm at moderate LR, but where exactly do you hold for 727 yards? Just a little high above 700? What about 840? Trying to hit a small target at that range is tough enough without guessing where you need to hold. and then to use Kentucky windage for wind deflection??

The reasons I never tried a Wthby:
1. Never seen or heard of one show up in a competitive match
2. Not much ranting and raving on the internet about their accuracy - I tried Savage simply because I heard great things. And you know what? They were right.

It seems these guys are selling stock Accumark rifles; nothing on their website says they do anything to modify them. Seems like a lot of dough for what you get.

Oh, one other thing: those targets on that website are huge - bigger than anything I have ever killed except for an elephant.

I have one, an Accumark. There are times & places I use it. It's my long handle sledge hammer. Recoil is like jumping into a cold spring fed lake on a hot summer day: Once you get used to it feels good.
The worst part of owning one is sighting it in @ a range off a bench.
Ammo is now $150.00 per 20. (Weatherby).
Luckily I bought 300 rds. when it was cheaper ($80). You might want to reload.

I was reading about a big F class shoot in Texas. Several were using 30-378 in special built platforms, not stock weatherby's. Actually 4 out of top ten were including 1st and 3rd place.

I was asking about the cartridge not the gun itself, sorry if I did not make that clear

I am not promoting it per se AZ. But they do use the 30-378 cartridge for this. Which says something.

You can watch a video of him hammering an antelope at 1011 yards on You Tube - just type in Thompson Long Range. At the beginning of the vid there is a quick part but at the end they show more detail of the hunt and shot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAggobHU4Dg

I handload for a stock weatherby accumark .
I have taken deer , bear , moose , and caribou with 180 gr. Scirocco bullets @ 3300 fps .

I have not had much experience beyond 400 yards , but it proved lethal on anything I've shot so far .

It groups about 1 inch @ 100yrds

Even if the .30-378 was inherently accurate, it is going to burn up barrels faster than just about any cartridge short of a Chey-Tac. There is only way to good at LR - practice shooting in the wind. That is actually why I have 3 RUMs - I rotate through them. But if I had a choice between a fast 30 and moderate big 338, I would take the 338. Hey, I use both, and that is my observation.

Yesterday I shot my .220 Swift with 80 AMAX bullets and 338 Edge with 285 AMAX bullets at ranges of 715, 755, 803, and 1290 (didn't shoot the Swift at that last one). To be sure, the Swift is not a .30-.378, but the Edge proved to be much easier. My worst shot was at 803 with the Swift - I guessed 3 MOA wind based on mirage, etc but hit one MOA left - in other words, it didn't drift nearly as much I thought. My Edge at that range showed a drift of 1.5 to 2.0; I held 1.75 and hit a few inches right (2 MOA would have been perfect). The metric I look for in any load is how much does that bullet drift per mile of wind speed at a given distance? Small differences add up. Also, given two loads that drift the same, one with a high BC and one a higher velocity, I will take the higher BC load every time. For one thing, the higher BC load is less affected by changes in temp and atmosphere than the high velocity load with a lower BC.

I still shoot belted magnums, but there is a reason there hasn't been a new one introduced in how many years now?

quote:

Originally posted by TexKD:
I am not promoting it per se AZ. But they do use the 30-378 cartridge for this. Which says something.

You can watch a video of him hammering an antelope at 1011 yards on You Tube - just type in Thompson Long Range. At the beginning of the vid there is a quick part but at the end they show more detail of the hunt and shot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAggobHU4Dg

There was no wind from what I could tell. Where do you hold with that scope if it is a 2 MOA left hold? I am more critical of the reticle than I am of the cartridge.

They have a bunch of vids on their Thompson site. They have one talking about the lack of windage marking. I watched it when a bud and I were thinking of going to Thompson. We never went.

What is recoil/blast like shooting that monster?

where i live the wind only quits blowing in summer afternoons when it is 110 degrees out or in the winter at night when it is 10 degrees out, wind blows here all of the time, I have seen shooters on u tube shoot long distance and you could tell by watching the trees they have no wind, have commented they should shoot where I live. I used to shoot competitive benchrest, one time we had some yankees show up at a match wearing these vests with all these screamer patches, and after the first couple of relays they packed the gear and left. Didn't know how to shoot in the wind...

most people I know who are this serious as the inputs on these forums, rebarreling is not an issue whether economical or hi on the status, its all about the challenge.

quote:

Originally posted by sierra whiskey:
where i live the wind only quits blowing in summer afternoons when it is 110 degrees out or in the winter at night when it is 10 degrees out, wind blows here all of the time, I have seen shooters on u tube shoot long distance and you could tell by watching the trees they have no wind, have commented they should shoot where I live. I used to shoot competitive benchrest, one time we had some yankees show up at a match wearing these vests with all these screamer patches, and after the first couple of relays they packed the gear and left. Didn't know how to shoot in the wind...

SW:

To extend your observation, you can conclude you are a LR death machine if all you do is practice under calm conditions. You will never get good at shooting in the wind if you don't practice, and that is why I am not a big fan of the .30-378 - by the time you just start to learn how to hold for that cartridge the barrel is toast.