second guessing my caliber choice

[Coal Dragger]

Jpipes,

I don't recall you saying I was full of shit. That was another member.

At any rate I will still stand by my position that selecting a .223 for 1000 yard shooting, even of paper, is a less than ideal choice. I am not out here advocating a .338 Lapua for crying out loud, just a fairly mild .260 Remington or a 6.5mm Creedmoor as better choices.

Will ammo be more expensive? Sure it will be a bit more $$$ per round. Can't argue that. It will cost more to reload a .264/6.5mm than it will a .223/5.56mm both in the cost of bullets and powder charges, although realistically we're only talking about a 20gr difference in powder charge here.

I will note though that in the case of a 6.5mm Creedmoor you can just order match ammo that will work great from Hornady. Which you can't do with a .223 and loads using heavy 80-90gr match bullets, at least I don't know of any. So you're stuck with a hand loading only proposition. No getting lazy and buying a few hundred rounds of factory loads when you don't have time to reload, or don't feel like it.

Plus the ballistics of the 6.5mm in either .260 or Creedmoor form are better than a heavy .223. An 82gr Berger in .223 has a BC of .444, vs a 142gr Berger with a BC of .612, and both will start out at about 2700fps with maxed out loads according to Hodgdon. If it were me, I would pay the extra money for the 6.5mm but that is me.

I will note that personally I would put up with the relatively shorter barrel life, and step up to a 6.5mmX284 Norma, but I like that round and have some friends who have been shooting it for awhile and have gotten excellent results with it.

[565fitter]

Thanks for all the answers guys. This gun will see some hunting but nothing bigger than a coyote. I have messed around with my brothers bolt .223 and we were hitting 500yds pretty good with it. I have a 650yd range on my property and we are trying to clear it out for 1100. so I wanted something more. I do reload but I just got into it so with the 6.5 having more factory options that sounds like a better option for me.

so onto the next question. I don't want to say money isn't an object here because I've seen the price tag on some of these rifles, but I do want a tack driver. I would say my budget is around $2000 without optic. what are some options? again I want to stick with the 700 action because I already have $250 in seekins base & rings and I am familiar with them.

[Coal Dragger]

Well.... that's a tough one since you are married to your bases. Just kidding, no reason not to use a Remington 700 if that is what you like. I have a personal grudge against Remington because I was once fired from a part time job while in college for telling the them CEO of Remington (Tommy Milner I think is what his name was) that the newly released Model 710 was a pile of crap. He didn't like hearing the truth. So for illogical reasons only affecting my particular brand of psychosis I don't buy Remington products of any description.

You should be able to get a Remington 700 pretty close to what you want in .260 Remington. If you want a factory 6.5mm Creedmoor you'll probably need to look elsewhere. One option would be a Cooper M54 Phoenix in 6.5mm Creedmoor, although you'd need a different scope base with that action. I have 2 Coopers, one in .22LR and another in .280 Ackley Improved and both shoot like hell is on fire for what it's worth. Then again you will be right up against your budget with a Cooper, but they are already glass bedded, action is blue printed, etc.

[CC556]

Thanks for all the answers guys. This gun will see some hunting but nothing bigger than a coyote. I have messed around with my brothers bolt .223 and we were hitting 500yds pretty good with it. I have a 650yd range on my property and we are trying to clear it out for 1100. so I wanted something more. I do reload but I just got into it so with the 6.5 having more factory options that sounds like a better option for me.

so onto the next question. I don't want to say money isn't an object here because I've seen the price tag on some of these rifles, but I do want a tack driver. I would say my budget is around $2000 without optic. what are some options? again I want to stick with the 700 action because I already have $250 in seekins base & rings and I am familiar with them.

Remington doesn't currently offer a rifle in .260Rem, and IIRC they only ever offered one rifle for a limited time chambered in it. Other than finding one of those (and modifying it to suit your purposes) another option is to build one. Any of the short action .473" boltface 700s would work fine, pawn shops are a good place to look as well as places like walmart or other chain stores that sell basic models. Once you have a donor rifle you can have a gunsmith chamber and install a 6.5mm barrel and you'll have a .260 or any other chambering you want. You can build a pretty nice rifle with a $2000 budget.

Another option that might save a little cash is to check out used rifles somewhere like the for sale forums on Sniper's Hide.

[565fitter]

Remington doesn't currently offer a rifle in .260Rem, and IIRC they only ever offered one rifle for a limited time chambered in it. Other than finding one of those (and modifying it to suit your purposes) another option is to build one. Any of the short action .473" boltface 700s would work fine, pawn shops are a good place to look as well as places like walmart or other chain stores that sell basic models. Once you have a donor rifle you can have a gunsmith chamber and install a 6.5mm barrel and you'll have a .260 or any other chambering you want. You can build a pretty nice rifle with a $2000 budget.

Another option that might save a little cash is to check out used rifles somewhere like the for sale forums on Sniper's Hide.

thanks! that's just what I needed to hear.