Quote Originally Posted by markm View Post
I don't understand this. We shoot 175 SMKs in .308 over 1000 yards all the time.



With a can or brake my son and (now ex) wife shot my .308. Kids and wives generally don't stay on any bolt gun long enough to get worn out by recoil.

We had a buddy build a 6.5 variant of some sort. It just never "took". We just target shoot with .308... so everything revolves around the flight of the 175 smk. So throwing in an oddball caliber just makes things confusing for us. With the OP not having any standard bolt gun set... a different (non .308) caliber wouldn't be an issue.
As usual, I agree with Markm. I am intrigued by the 6.5, but will likely stick with my 308 (which I also use 175's at 1000) primarily because of barrel life, component availability, and the satisfaction of routinely outshooting those behind a 6mm, 6.5mm, and/or 7mm. In long distance shooting (which 500m is NOT "long distance"), nothing beats repetition on the firing line ... for that, I will stick with the 308. If I were made of $$, I would get other calibers, but would still probably train with a 308 the most.