1 mile cartridge?

[Shagnasty]

I'm in the exploratory phase of a bolt gun and I'm trying to answer what I want it to do, 1 mile seems like a good top-end benchmark and I'm trying to decide a caliber.

I have experience (albeit minimal on some of these) with 7mm Rem Mag, 300 RUM, 7mm-08, 300 win mag, and 300 WSSM. I like all of these calibers for their practicality and am hoping one of them would be practical for extreme long range. Mostly I love my 7mm Rem Mag the best but I only stretched that out to 900 yards. The 300 RUM was my fathers and though I never took it past 5, he was regularly shooting at ranges around 2k. All of these calibers we loaded up on a single stage press and I plan on doing that myself if I settle on one

I read that a lot of people consider 338 lapua the "minimum" for this distance, but it seems overkill to me. I don't mind making a bit of extra work with an "inferior" caliber, that's part of the fun.

What say you? Would a 7mm mag with a 28" barrel get me there?

[pyrotechnic]

Pretty much any of the calibers will "get there". The 7mm has some nasty high BC projectiles available. So does the .30 cal. The problem with the lighter bullets is the lack of splash on misses, this is where the heavy 30 and 338 caliber rounds shine. The 7 rem.mag and the 300s will get you to a mile. The issue will be that you are looking at a pretty long flight time no matter what you are shooting. Wind will still be a bitch.

A little more clarification on what you have to work with, or what you are planning would help.

Are you just wanting to pick a caliber and build a rifle or do you already have the sticks and want to pick one to shoot with?

[Shagnasty]

I'm planning on building a 700 action. I'm balling on a budget so I'm trying to keep it under 2k minus glass. Sold my 7mm a while ago so this is all from scratch.

[pyrotechnic]

Assuming you reload. A 7rm or 7wsm will get to a mile and do well. On the same note a 300 rum will do so as well with a bit more ass when it gets there. Is the shooting at mile more an occasional thing? Or do you want to be able to do it consistently and possibly shoot further?

You can huck rocks at a mile with a 6.5
creedmoor when you feel like it and enjoy shooting with authority at closer distances with both factory ammo and reloads alot cheaper with less recoil and much less impact on the wallet.

If you want to shoot a mile + on the regular and don't reload the .338 Lapua is probably your safest bet.

[Shagnasty]

Reloading is the key for me, I took a bargain basement 700 ADL and stretched it to those 900 yards I mentioned, so count on another RCBS rock chucker to round out the setup. 6.5 creedmoor is new to me. I see a lot of bench shooters working with that caliber, but I figured it was something more regarded for accuracy than distance.

Im not too nuts about hitting over a mile. I more want a precision rifle that works at 1k all day and can touch 1 mile for the bragging rights.

[pyrotechnic]

In that case I would really reccomend something along the lines of a 6.5 creedmoor. It's fantastic to 1k, easy to get both factory ammo and reload for, and depending on your altitude will "get" to a mile without breaking the bank or killing you with excessive recoil.

[Shagnasty]

Good info, thanks. Will do more research on the 6.5.

[masan]

My grandfather and a group of his friends regularly shot out to 1 mile, most used .338's, he used a 300 RUM. Regular hits on a 5 gal bucket, heavy Berger VLDs.

As for the Rockchucker, they are good to go. When I travel to Benchrest Competitions I have a Rockchucker with me, mounted on my table, loading all day long.

[daniel87]

An old rock chucker works as well as new. With the same warranty.

I have checked the ram for play. There is none .

I oiled and greased it a few years ago.

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

[rjacobs]

6.5c will "get there", but not with authority.

Outside of around 800 I cant hear my 6.5c hitting the steel so I have to rely on a seeing splash outside of that. 1200 is as far as I have to shoot, but it does it with ease.

I can dial to ~1450 or so with my scope(Vortex Viper PST 6-24 MIL/MIL) on a 20 MOA mount shooting 123 AMAX at 2900fps. Zero is ~2 mil from the bottom of a 20 mil scope so I have ~18 mil I can dial. To 1600 I would have to dial 22.6(which I cant do) and I can hold 9 mil on the reticle, so beyond 1450 or so I have to hold over, not a big deal, until/unless the target gets real small.

I say all that to say, it dont matter what the cartridge can do if your glass either cant dial it or you run out of dial and subtensions and are having to hold completely randomly because your reticle is not up to the task. Most cartridges are more capable than we give them credit for, yet we shoot them out of a system that is sub-par for what we are attempting to do.