Being new to the challenge of silhouette, my research has been extensive. For a rifle, a Remington 700 seems to be a favorite. Extensively upgradeable. Of recent consideration, the Winchester Model 70 extreme weather SS seems to have what I like the looks of: bell & carlson stock, fluted barrel, moa trigger, etc. all the Remington upgrades done already. What is your advice? Also the 7mm-08 is being recommended. It would be nice to cut down on the recoil on this old body and still handle the rams! Your help is appreciated. Thanks! Barry

Err.... 7mm-08 ahhhh..... No, I would go with anything 6.5mm. My order is 6.5x47, 260, and then 6.5x55.

My preferred cartridge is still the Remington 260, but there's a 7-08 in the safe ready to roll.

Proponents of the 6.5x47 have a great cartridge, but I shy away from it because of the small rifle primer and higher case pressure against a bolt face designed for something else. I would completely trust a rifle built for that cartridge by any of several gunsmiths, but nobody I know of produces a factory rifle in that caliber.

Tikka and Sako have rifles in the 6.5x55 Swede that are beautiful, and since that cartridge has been around for 100 years (actually a little longer) Lapua brass in this caliber costs less than any of the others. Premier shooters fret about filling the excess case capacity so the powder ignites uniformly, and I would love to be good enough for that to matter, but that's unlikely for this lifetime.

BCloninger wrote:My preferred cartridge is still the Remington 260, but there's a 7-08 in the safe ready to roll.
Proponents of the 6.5x47 have a great cartridge, but I shy away from it because of the small rifle primer and higher case pressure against a bolt face designed for something else.

Different information. There is no way I would shy away from the 6.5x47 cartridge because of pressure. It you stay within the published reloading data it is a great soft cartridge to shoot. IMHO it is one of the softest to shoot.

I can agree if you are trying to push a 142 at 3,000 for 1,000 yard shoots, it is definitely hot. But for how we reload for silhouette there should be no problems with pressure.

The small primer has a reputation of being more accurate and better all around. Just look at bench rest their preferred cartridges all have small primers, and Lapua now makes 308 in small primer. If it weren't preferred and sold; it would not be made.

But unfortunately as stated I am not aware of any factory rifles. There are probably <humor on> 100 rifles in the 7-80 in the us for every factory 260 or 6.5x55<humor off>. You can play with powders to down load the 7-08, hodgdons recommends h4895 (NOT IMR 4895). I have not tired this but have heard it can be done quite successful.


Greg

You can download a 7mm-08 to a Very soft shooting 120 gr load and also shoot a 162 AMAX at 2800 fps that will knock over the hard Rams with authority.

I go to matches and watch the guys (shooting the 6.5 guns of whatever flavor) set the Rams on the very back of the rails and still ring them. Never failed to knock one off with the 7mm-08.

This conversation will now regress to

huh uh...Not really. Not with my 6.5 by whatever.... Or - any gun will ring some every once in a while -Why- my 505 Gibbs rings some every now and then...

I have changed my "tag line" to commemorate this-and similar - threads.

Gentlemen, thank you for all your replies so-far. From my many years of shooting at Camp Perry in the 80's, when they let you grap-up all the military's Lake City .308 brass you could stuff in your pockets, I continue to maintain an inventory of mostly once fired cases. The idea of finally being able to neck it down for 7mm seemed to make sense.
Keep your thoughts coming! Thanks

You can also neck down 308 to 6.5. This is how the wild cat for 260 got started. Just an FYI.....

Take a look at the equipment survey from this years nationals:

260 - 24 shooters
7mm-08 - 14 shooters
6.5x47 - 6 shooters
308 - 3 shooters
7mm br - 4 shooters
6.5x 55 - 2 shooters
7x47 - 3 shooters

etc
So
7mm totals 22
6.5 totals 38
308 5
6 mm totals 2

The top shooters at the match either shot 6mm or 6.5. So yes, the 7mm is a great cartridge but not obvious choice today.

I have a 260 and a 7mm wildcat (IHMSA). The 260 is easier to manage recoil, which is a huge distraction. But the 7's launch the magnificent 162gr A-Max that simply hammers rams. I choose to launch my A-Max's at a leisurely 2300 fps and don't have a problem taking heavy set rams.

But for C-P's I like the 6.5's 107 SMK. Easy to shoot and accurate.

So go your own way any don't look back. There's no wrong choice.

Barry A----notice that the argument in favor of any 6.5 are current numbers at the Nationals. There was a time when everyone shot 308 with a turnout triple what it is today. I always found this argument akin to Obamanomics 7-08, 7 BR. 7IMSHA 7 x47...all have the benefit of bullet selection from 120 to 180 gr Berger ..and the bonus with a 308 based case is lots and lots of successful loading data. Remember necking down to 7 with NM brass is one step with neck turning optional and to go to 6.5 its neck turn down to 7 then 6.5 turn again and fireform 6. If you choose 7-08 you will be blessed by the Guru

Snake wrote:Barry A----notice that the argument in favor of any 6.5 are current numbers at the Nationals. There was a time when everyone shot 308 with a turnout triple what it is today. I always found this argument akin to Obamanomics 7-08, 7 BR. 7IMSHA 7 x47...all have the benefit of bullet selection from 120 to 180 gr Berger ..and the bonus with a 308 based case is lots and lots of successful loading data. Remember necking down to 7 with NM brass is one step with neck turning optional and to go to 6.5 its neck turn down to 7 then 6.5 turn again and fireform 6. If you choose 7-08 you will be blessed by the Guru

Not necessarily true, neck turning could be once, or none depending on the reamer used. You can always get a custom one that would not require turning.

Sorry Greg been there done that. Standard 7-08 brass is .014-.016 wall at the neck. Military 308 runs .016 -.019 which when squeezed to 284 grows to over .020....standard 7-08 reamer neck is .3150 so 2 x .020 = .040 +.284=.324...we have a Houston....turn the neck first to .011 for safety and uniformity. Further brass when squeezed doesn't grow uniformly...even if you're end up safe re pressures your bullet release lacks any consistency.

Snake wrote:Sorry Greg been there done that. Standard 7-08 brass is .014-.016 wall at the neck. Military 308 runs .016 -.019 which when squeezed to 284 grows to over .020....standard 7-08 reamer neck is .3150 so 2 x .020 = .040 +.284=.324...we have a Houston....turn the neck first to .011 for safety and uniformity. Further brass when squeezed doesn't grow uniformly...even if you're end up safe re pressures your bullet release lacks any consistency.

Yes and that is why, I said custom reamer, that takes math into account. I have also heard for years turn this, turn that, in the bench rest world everything matters. But when most people in Silhouette have a 20+ minute hold so bench rest accuracy is not required or IMHO desired.

Same here, been there got the name tag.

I just re-read the original post. Get a 6.5mm and be kind to your shoulder.

On the subject of shooting .308's all day, I'll offer an observation from forty years ago: When I was in the Marines, M16's were only issued to line units, so the rest of us had M14's (which some of the Grunts envied...) and it was well known that 14's in fiberglass stocks had more felt recoil than those in wooden stocks. If you were carrying them, you wanted a glass stock (they were slightly lighter), but for shooting you wanted wood. If silhouette shooters "Back in the Day" had traditional blue steel and walnut, felt recoil may have been a little more manageable than we imagine.