Best factory gun for Highpower silhouette

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DavidABQ
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Re: Best factory gun for Highpower silhouette

Post by DavidABQ »

I noticed that good old fashion .30-06, .308 or .270 is not discussed. Are those calibers too weak to knock over the rams at 500 meters?
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Re: Best factory gun for Highpower silhouette

Post by Bob Mc Alice »

No, they got plenty power for rams. Most people are too weak to take the pounding on the butt stock end. :wink:
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Jason
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Re: Best factory gun for Highpower silhouette

Post by Jason »

They can do the job if a more appropriate cartridge can't be found. The question being asked here was about the best factory gun for highpower silhouette, though.
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Re: Best factory gun for Highpower silhouette

Post by Bob Mc Alice »

Now, now Jason. Watch your manners. [-x :) Any legitimate question asked and answered is OK on SC. Don't matter if it's not directly related to the topic, it was close enough.

The OP's question was answered in spades. He has made his choice and seems happy with it. I kinda liked the in between "banter" myself. :D
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Re: Best factory gun for Highpower silhouette

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Right on goo roo. :-bd
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DavidABQ
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Re: Best factory gun for Highpower silhouette

Post by DavidABQ »

Thank you for the honest no B.S. answer.
If I understand it correctly the absence of .30 cal. is due to recoil issues.
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Re: Best factory gun for Highpower silhouette

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Yes and no, it is a complex issue. You need a certain amount of foot pounds delivered at the 500m ram to reliably tip it over. Very skilled shooters can get by with lighter kicking ammo like the 6.5x47 Lapua with shots placed accurately in the mid to lower rear leg. The weight on the rear foot pad is about twenty pounds.The ram has 42 pounds of it's total weight of 50 lb. plus on the front foot. I tested this long ago and proved it. Fast light bullets hit in that spot (rear leg) will push the animal butt first off the rail. Almost every time. High neck or head area hits take advantage of the leverage theory. It is no secret that the HP national champion this year lost close to 17 rams total and still took the title. The 6x47 cartridge was used. Accurate bullet placement is the name of the game. Imagine the scores had they all fallen. :shock: ^:)^

For us lesser skilled shooters that pray for any hit, me as an example, I let the muscle of a slower heavier bullet do the job with most any hit. The trade off is some more felt recoil but not excessively so. The larger .30's such as an '06 really need bullets, talking rams here, of 190 grs. or heavier for near perfect ram knock down reliability. The big bullet and big charge of powder generate big recoil with our weight class of rifles. Multiply that by 100 rounds in a typical day match. Ouch. The .308 Win. is not much different in performance but there are still a few that use it for silhouette.

Smaller .30 cal. rounds like the .300 Savage use less propellant and have less felt recoil. It is not an ideal case to send big heavy .30 bullets to the ram. Too little powder space for heavier bullets equals not enough velocity and rainbow trajectory. Other .30's like that little Blackout round are severely outclassed buy the larger rounds for this game. I doubt it could deliver the accuracy needed that far away. There are few .30 cal. cartridges suitable or legal to use in silhouette.

Way off topic now but who cares? It's all good. 8)
Last edited by Bob Mc Alice on Sat Sep 12, 2015 8:09 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Best factory gun for Highpower silhouette

Post by Jason »

I think you meant to write "lighter kicking" referring to 6mm cartridges there, Bob. The 6.5mm cartridges don't need to hit the rams any specific place for them to fall like most 6mm cartridges do. That's why a fast twist 6.5mm cartridge with enough case capacity to get a 140-grain bullet up to about 2700 fps is the sweet spot. Going bigger than that will also do the job, but it isn't necessary. It's not just about ability to withstand the recoil of 100 shots per day. It's also about more recoil making any little inconsistency in stance, including pressure into the shoulder before the shot, make more of a difference in point of impact versus point of aim due to very slightly altering the path of the rifle during recoil before the bullet leaves the muzzle.
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Re: Best factory gun for Highpower silhouette

Post by Bob Mc Alice »

Yes, agreed. The 6x47 version or the 6mmBR are about the legal lightest recoiling rounds. ABQ....forget any .30 cal. round you may be thinking about. :-ss
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Re: Best factory gun for Highpower silhouette

Post by EQ Guy »

DavidABQ wrote:I noticed that good old fashion .30-06, .308 or .270 is not discussed. Are those calibers too weak to knock over the rams at 500 meters?
When I started shooting silhouette in the late 80's I used my deer rifle, a Sako 270 and it performed nicely. Later I got a Remington 700 in 308 and I seldom rang a ram with it. I added another Remington 700 in 300 Savage to use as a hunter rifle. I also hunted deer with it. If I could hit the rams they generally fell over. I even skipped a couple of rounds into the rams and they both fell over. I used 155 Sierra MK's on the turkeys and rams and they got the job done. I took 9 or 10 years off from shooting and came back to the game three years ago after having rotator cuff surgery on my shooting shoulder. I quickly discovered the 308 was now too much gun for the job and put together a 6.5X47 Lupua and I have not looked back. The 300 Savage barrel was shot out so I recently rebarreled it to 6mmXC with a 7" twist barrel. I have not shot it at 500 meter rams yet. I do know a couple of guys that shoot it and it works for them. If I did not reload I think I would look very closely at the 260 Remington.
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Re: Best factory gun for Highpower silhouette

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Hmmmm, it seems the 6.5 calibers are the go to cartridge. Any of those not suitable? How abour the Creedmore, Swede or Grendle?
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Re: Best factory gun for Highpower silhouette

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The 6.5 Grendel is out for sure. Was mainly designed for AR-15 style rifles , also has a non common head diameter based on the 7.62x39 Soviet round.

This chatter should be moved to your "new rifle" thread to keep peace in the family :wink:
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Re: Best factory gun for Highpower silhouette

Post by Snake »

Professor McAlice...I weighed our rams and the skinny legged ones are over 54lbs and the chubby ones are right at 58 lbs. When I shot hunting rifle I used a 308 . .30 Cal bullets are too short relative to length for reliable ram knock down...that's why we used 190s...which are about the length of 7mm 168 mKs . and the recoil of the 7 is less and its wind bucking qualities are superior to .30s across all bullets weights.
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Re: Best factory gun for Highpower silhouette

Post by Bigfoot »

DavidABQ wrote:Hmmmm, it seems the 6.5 calibers are the go to cartridge. Any of those not suitable? How abour the Creedmore, Swede or Grendle?

In the case of the rounds you mention. 6.5x47/6.5 creedmore/260 bobcat for all intents and purposes have powder capacity of give or take 1 grain. All will work nicely to take down rams with a 142 siera match king, 140 amax, 139 lapua scennar etc...The 260 rem is just a 308 necked down to 6.5mm but somebody probably already mentioned that.

The secret seems to be two fold. First make sure you have a 1:8 twist barrel. The second is find an accurate load that gets the 140s going at somewhere between 2600-2750 FPS. Faster than this and the bullets start to break up on impact with the target and much slower you start to loose accuracy.

We're really lucky to have multiple choices in bullets for this game that all work pretty dang well. It takes a lot of disipline to get good and that means trigger time and dry firing. Once you get going focus on that and have a ton of fun! Hope to see you out at the range next year!
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