next rifle

[alendil]

Hello every one.

 

so its time (i think ) for next rifle.

i do use at the moment . .22LR .17HMR .22Hornet.

 

i am thinking about next rifle for long long range fox / deer

whats there witch is good and flat shooting with smaller recoil. is .243 good choice or .270 how about 6.5x55

i am thinking about reloading for it if i will have lot of use.

[njc110381]

A lot depends on the numbers of quarry you will shoot?

 

If mainly foxes with the odd deer the .243 is very popular. I've just got myself another one and although I still don't follow it as the best choice for deer, it certainly makes a mess of a fox!

 

Throwing in more deer I would say the 6.5x55 is a great choice. Heavier bullets and lower velocities make it better in my opinion, but then it's a slight compromise for fox. You can still go sub 100gr with it and get really explosive bullets - the Speer TNT (85gr I think) will quite literally rip a fox in half!

 

Anything bigger I would say is likely to be very biased towards deer and it's also more likely that your force will start to question it's use on foxes. Sure the .270 will kill a fox, but it's a beast of a round and not really needed unless the ranges on the deer are likely to be long. I could confidently shoot to 250 yards with my 6.5x55 knowing it would flatten anything I was likely to shoot at. Likewise the .243 shoots quite flat (flatter than the swede generally) and will take down most deer with ease. For that reason I'd give the .270 a miss unless you feel that one day you may want to shoot boar? Not that the 6.5 won't smack one of those over, but the guidelines seem to prefer something a little bigger.

[kent]

.243 win, it will do all you ask but you have to loose all the BS talked about its performance on Deer. Its all in bullet selection when you learn that not all 100 grn bullets perform equally and understand why and what you actually require for your individual purpose its darn near perfect.

 

Doubtless you will read a load of tosh about bullets of this that and the other weight being for this that and the other and .243 will not Kill reds. Funny, because before I knew much of terminal ballistic effects I might have said likewise. The only thing I wouldn't go out to kill in the UK with a .243 is Wild boar and the only reason is I might have to shoot at a running or charging animal, bigger is then better when placement is likely to be poor you need bigger holes frankly.

 

I have used and owned quite a few bigger guns on Deer but unless I was shooting almost exclusively on Large Deer in high winds or needed to comply with given terms of a night licence I shouldn't bother with doing so again.

 

The Recoil factor is a big one when it comes to accurate shooting from various improvised stances, for this reason .243 has always been a dominant choice in Sniper / tactical comp at high level. It would in deed be used more for general target work in fast twist barrels but for one factor RELIVIVELY SHORT BARREL LIFE. A big plus is most UK shops keep a good component and ammo stock in for it as its the most popular deer rifle closely followed by .308 its parent case

[kent]

A lot depends on the numbers of quarry you will shoot?

 

If mainly foxes with the odd deer the .243 is very popular. I've just got myself another one and although I still don't follow it as the best choice for deer, it certainly makes a mess of a fox!

 

Throwing in more deer I would say the 6.5x55 is a great choice. Heavier bullets and lower velocities make it better in my opinion, but then it's a slight compromise for fox. You can still go sub 100gr with it and get really explosive bullets - the Speer TNT (85gr I think) will quite literally rip a fox in half!

 

Anything bigger I would say is likely to be very biased towards deer and it's also more likely that your force will start to question it's use on foxes. Sure the .270 will kill a fox, but it's a beast of a round and not really needed unless the ranges on the deer are likely to be long. I could confidently shoot to 250 yards with my 6.5x55 knowing it would flatten anything I was likely to shoot at. Likewise the .243 shoots quite flat (flatter than the swede generally) and will take down most deer with ease. For that reason I'd give the .270 a miss unless you feel that one day you may want to shoot boar? Not that the 6.5 won't smack one of those over, but the guidelines seem to prefer something a little bigger.

 

A friend who lives in Lapland and was raised there says 6.5 x 55 is the favourite round in his area for Moose, closely followed by 30-06, I shouldn't worry about a few piggies

[malantone]

 

A friend who lives in Lapland and was raised there says 6.5 x 55 is the favourite round in his area for Moose, closely followed by 30-06, I shouldn't worry about a few piggies

 

Haven`t seen many Moose around here, come to that I haven`t seen any wild pigs either, I would recommend the .243 it is very versatile with different rounds, IE 58grn Vmax for fox, very flat shooting and does a lot of damage.

[welshwarrior]

308 for all my long range shooting target or fox even the odd wild goat.

[kent]

 

Haven`t seen many Moose around here, come to that I haven`t seen any wild pigs either, I would recommend the .243 it is very versatile with different rounds, IE 58grn Vmax for fox, very flat shooting and does a lot of damage.

 

Also try the 55 grn and heavier 70 grn Nosler B/tip simply stellar performance foxing, you get the point then most stalking is done on small and medium deer for which the .243 win is perfect few have decent UK access to Boar, We have no bears. no moose etc. Only those who shoot mainly Large Reds at range might wish for something bigger and still it don't need to be too big, NZ deer cullers were issued .222 rem and they faced some of the biggest Red stags there are

Edited October 17, 2013 by kent

[alendil]

i think .243 sounds best option.

on top of it since it is one of the most popular cartridges ammo or reloading gear is going to be easy to get.

 

now what twist to go for. and is standard CZ as good choice as hornet and rimfires

[weejohn]

Anything in 6mm.

[kent]

i think .243 sounds best option.

on top of it since it is one of the most popular cartridges ammo or reloading gear is going to be easy to get.

 

now what twist to go for. and is standard CZ as good choice as hornet and rimfires

Just std twist, don't get fancy or you loose versatility. The CZ is OK but there are a stack of good medium action guns out there based on the .308 deriatives

[njc110381]

I had a CZ 550 American in .243 a while back and it was a nice gun. Removable magazine that held four (I think) rounds, a good action and it was accurate. It had a nice feel to it too. The only reason I didn't buy another was that they don't offer a synthetic stainless, so I went for a Tikka. That and I'd already had one - I don't like to buy the same thing twice!

 

Calibre wise you're probably making the right choice. I prefer the 6.5 for deer but as kent said, there are a lot of folk who find the .243 more than acceptable. It wouldn't be as popular as it is if it wasn't any good. Just pick your bullets carefully and if on the light side don't drive them too fast. That's why I prefer the 6.5 - not because I think the heavier the bullet the better it is constructed, rather because heavy and slow seems to do less damage to the meat surrounding the wound channel. To get deer legal energy from a sub 100gr bullet it needs to be flying pretty fast and at close range I just found them a bit aggressive for my taste. I never lost a deer to it though - they all fell down just as well as they do when hit with something bigger.