Looking at building a new silhouette rifle. What would be a great cartridge for it.

6.5X47 Lapua, 260 Remington or 7MM IHMSA, 7mm-08 if you are a 7mm fan.

lone ringer wrote:6.5X47 Lapua, 260 Remington or 7MM IHMSA, 7mm-08 if you are a 7mm fan.

What about 7br?

The 7mm BR is a fine cartridge for handgun silhouette but in my opinion not the best choice for rifle silhouette.
In capable hands like CA Jared Perry's shooting a 7mm BR cartridge with reamer designed by Dan Theodore and rifle put together by Marvin Pearson it can be just a good as any of the other calibers previously mentioned by me. Jared had a very good run of high scores with his 7mm BR months prior to going to the NRA Nationals in 2008 but once in Ridgway, PA he had the same problems as the rest of the competition with rams rung. The things that the 7mm BR has going for it is lower recoil, good accuracy and longer barrel life. The draw back in my opinion is case capacity specially with heavier bullets for rams. A 7mm IHMSA or 7X47 Lapua would be better choices because you could develop better loads for sticky rams.

Before Remington introduced the 260 Remington the 7MM IHMSA was the caliber I liked best for shooting silhouettes with rifles and I would not have a problem using it again with the exception that I like shooting 6.5 caliber rifles better due to its better bullet selection.
Back in the 80's and 90's Sierra used to make a 120 and 140 matchking bullets for the 6.5 now in addition to those they offer 107-123 and 142 VLD bullets. Berger makes a fine 140 gr bullet, Hornady offers 123 and 140 Amax bullets and Lapua the brand I prefer makes 108, 123, 139 and 144 the first three are the VLD kind and the 144 is a very good ram bullet.
I have not kept up with the 7mm bullets suffice to say that you would have to go to custom bullet makers to buy lighter VLD bullets in 7mm. I know somebody is going to argue that 7mm VLD bullets are not really needed and that they do very well with what they are using now and I would argue that the 130/140 gr bullets preferred by them for short range targets would not perform as good as 6.5 107/123gr bullets in windy conditions. That is why I think that it would be nice if the major bullet makers would offer 7mm VLD bullets in 130, 140 and 150 gr.

Dont forget about the 6.5 Creedmoor. I am having one buildt now and in my opinion it will be A great choice for high power. I am by no means an expert but just some more of my humble opinion.

44 mag wrote:Dont forget about the 6.5 Creedmoor. I am having one buildt now and in my opinion it will be A great choice for high power. I am by no means an expert but just some more of my humble opinion.

Agreed. The Creedmoor sets perfectly between the 260 and 6.5x47L. I think it is going to prove to be a fantastic silo cartridge. I'm looking forward proving mine in AZ in 2 weeks at the state match.

Tony is offering some excellent advice as always. Knowledge gained through experience and not keyboard jockeying as we frequently see. Consider brass and dies. Do you want to or are you prepared to make brass if the supply isn't there or the quality is lacking? Some choices back you into this corner. Dies are a one time purchase and redding and others are excellent. Once you decide on what level of work and what expense you're interested to go into for brass and whether you want to spend for forming dies you can narrow it down quickly. I have watched literally thousands of ram bullets go down range and I feel the absolute king of ram killers is the 7mm Sierra 175MK or the 7mm 168JLK launched at 2300fps or above. Note I did not say 7mm Sierra 168MK. Not even close to the previous two bullets. 2300fps is 7-08 velocity. I don't know if a 7mm IHMSA, 7mm WALLY, or others would do that; they very well may. Do I shoot a 7mm? No I shoot a .260 because Rams are only 25% of your score and a 6.5mm 123 at 2550fps will outperform any 7mm offering in the wind at comparable recoil levels for the first three animals and a 139 Lapua, 142 Sierra, or 144 Lapua 6.5mm at an honest 2700fps is at least 90% as reliable on rams as the aforementioned 7mm's while generating less recoil and less wind drift than the 7mm's. Any of the 6.5's previously mentioned by Tony and others should get to these velocity levels easily as well as the 6.5x55 which is an excellent cartdridge especially when using Lapua brass. If you decide on a 7mm consider the Hornady SST 139 gr as recomended by Dan Theodore years ago. Great BC, relatively inexpensive, and usually very accurate. Either way you go make sure when you order your barrel you get enough twist. 6.5 would be 1-8. 7mm would be 1-8.5. Erring on the side of a quicker twist will let you use the various VLD design Ram bullets and have no negative effect on the short range bullets.

Choose any 6.5 and you will lose more rams than with a 7mm, 6.5's absolutely have less recoil and wind drift than 7's.

kevinbear wrote:Choose any 6.5 and you will lose more rams than with a 7mm

That only applies in places where the rams a hard to knock down and you almost have to go to a 200gr 30 cal bullet to do a proper job at those places. Other than that the 6.5 is king and most if not all current records have been set with one.

Don't forget the gravitational pull of a full moon on those rams!
I'm sorry I've never been to or even heard tell of a range where it takes 30 cal bullets to knock down rams, please tell us all where this home of the "super rams" is?
[quote="lone ringer"][quote="kevinbear"]Choose any 6.5 and you will lose more rams than with a 7mm[/quote]

That only applies in places where the rams a hard to knock down ------- Really,your on top of it tonight LR! - MASTER OF THE OBVIOUS!!!!!

and you almost have to go to a 200gr 30 cal bullet to do a proper job at those places. Other than that the 6.5 is king and most if not all current records have been set with one.[/quote]

[quote="one shot"]Looking at building a new silhouette rifle. What would be a great cartridge for it.[/quote]
Go out to your local range or wherever you plan to shoot the most and find out if the rams at that range are difficult to topple from the stands, if they are buy a factory built remington 700 in
7-08.
If the locals have no problem with rams with the smaller cartridges buy the same gun in 260 remington but be advised that if you travel to compete elsewhere like here in Colorado where I live and a few other places around the country we have heavy rams and we don't "soft set" them for the 6mm or 6.5 guys, consequently you will lose a few.

kevinbear wrote:

one shot wrote:Looking at building a new silhouette rifle. What would be a great cartridge for it.

Go out to your local range or wherever you plan to shoot the most and find out if the rams at that range are difficult to topple from the stands, if they are buy a factory built remington 700 in
7-08.
If the locals have no problem with rams with the smaller cartridges buy the same gun in 260 remington but be advised that if you travel to compete elsewhere like here in Colorado where I live and a few other places around the country we have heavy rams and we don't "soft set" them for the 6mm or 6.5 guys, consequently you will lose a few.

Kevin, how many rams has Bonner lost with his 6.5s? I'm not sure if he keeps a running total on how many rams he has hit compared to how many he has lost but that would be a neat thing to know. I haven't witnessed him ringing a ram yet. The times that I have witnessed rams being rung... it was with the 7s mostly.

I can't remember who it was on here that posted a reply to me regarding rams hit compared to rams lost with his 6.5 (Lone Ringer maybe?), but it was 250 rams hit and ONE lost. I'll take those odds.

I have never lost a ram with a 7-08 or 7 IHMSA, the 7br is a different story. I have lost many with the 6.5 IHMSA that I used for years and and a few with the two 260's I had.
Dave rung a ram last weekend at CRC hit dead center with his 6.5, that is not that unusual an occurance.

This topic can and will go on forever the 6.5 mm vs. the 7mm. Nobody is right and nobody is wrong on what caliber is best for the shooter and their ability to knock down the rams. What every caliber you choose to shoot high power silhouette with is the best. PERIOD. The same goes for your choice of bullet for the rams.

Note to all: I did lose a ram shot two inches left of center shot with my 260. Shot in practice the Hornady 140 SST. These are my practice / club match bullets that I am still working on the best load to shoot. My match bullet of choice is SMK 142. My spotters will tell you that I do not push my ram loads very fast, thus causing me to lose a few now and again.

Dave Bonner

And thank god you lose a few otherwise you might shoot a straight 40! We could handle it but I'm not sure you could!!!!