Hi everyone,

I have a 24" lilja match grade stainless steel barrel with 1:7 twist sporter contour for my Ruger M77 Hawkeye to try out silhouette.

What are my options as far as bullet choices?

Thanks for the feedback & advice.


Leo

PS I called hornady and they said with that fast twist that 87gr vmax will rip apart Not sure about their 105 a-max bullets

I’ve shot A-Max 105’s, Berger 105’s and 108’s out of a 1 in 7 twist Lilja three groove and they shot well and worked ok on rams and good on all the other targets. They are made for a fast twist so they should stay together. The cartridge is a 6BR. I shot 100 Sierra Game Kings out of factory Savage and Kimber 243’s and they also shot well and worked ok. I would think they would work ok in the fast twist also. Berger 80’s shoot good out of all my 6mm caliber rifles. I shot them on C,P and Turkeys and they were fine---no lost pigs that I remember and they stay together in the 1 in 7 in the 6BR. My experience with the 243 is that it’s more effective at less than maximum speeds---the 6BR running at around 2750 fps with the 105 A-Max was more effective than the 243’s with 100’s running around 2900 fps---but there are a lot of variables that contribute. I cut my load on the 243 to around 2700 fps with the 100’s and I felt it worked better---limited experience with all of the above—mostly practice and four or five matches and probably four or five or six or more years ago.
Jon Carlisle
Wyoming

Jon,

Thanks for the feedback!

Ironically, I meet a person who's been shooting high power silouette for around 30 years who also shoots at Ridgway, PA matches.

He doesn't recommend the 243win as not enough knock down on the rams

And while the 6.5mm and 7mm's of some flavor are popular for this sport, he recommended staying with a heavy barrel 308 win but check to make sure that I can make the weight restrictions.


Much to think about.

Wish I could find a place, ie match, closer to Pittsburgh so I can drive out to see a match and talk to the people. I learned more in half and hour talking to this gentleman than I did surfing the internet.....no knock meant against the internet, if you know what I mean


Leo

Not many people still recommending the .308 as a first option for silhouette. It is a great cartridge, but it is simply out performed by other choices these days.

Ditto on the a-max 105...I shot them in a 6br also with great results at a slow speed about 2600 and they would knock the rams down well. Oh I also only shot 1 bullet weight the 105's....with the 6br you only need to use 1 weight for all the animals. it made reloading much more
simple.

I think his recommendation for the 308win was base on the ease of getting set-up quickly and cheaply enough to compete in match without too much fuss. At least that's how I took it.

I think the two main concerns would be making the weight restriction cutoffs and recoil.

I have had the best luck knocking rams over with the 107 Sierras at about 2800 fps. They work better than the 115s. The 90gr bullets at around 2600fps for the 3 close animals. You do need that 7 twist for the 107s.

Glad to hear the 243win seems to do ok in silhouette matches. With a 1:7 twist, what's the lightest bullet that I could use that wouldn't rip itself apart from the high rpm?

leomort wrote:Glad to hear the 243win seems to do ok in silhouette matches. With a 1:7 twist, what's the lightest bullet that I could use that wouldn't rip itself apart from the high rpm?

Leomort,

I have a light chicken load for my 6-twist, 6-BR that launches the 95-gr Berger VLD's into tiny groups with 26.0 grains of VarGet. IIRC the MV is around 2,600 fps. I don't recall ever having the bullets blowup. My old 8-twist, 243 really liked the Berger 95-gr VLD's under 32.0 grains of VarGet for chickens. MV was about 2,800 fps.

Leo,

If you have a 243, shoot it and have some fun. Everyone has to start somewhere, run with whatcha brung - shoot a few matches and see how you like the game. With the right loads (based on the above info as a starting point) you should be ok for starting out. The 243 is definitely a marginal calibre for silhouette and you might lose a few rams but so what at this stage. Generally you'll probably be pretty stoked to be just hitting the rams out there at 500.

IMHO, I wouldn't even consider a 308 if you are thinking about buying a rifle to get into the game. That's bad advice IMO. Not because they don't work etc, but given you have a 243 you might as well shoot that as a less than ideal rifle/calibre as opposed to buying another rifle (the 308) that isn't ideal either.

If you are going to end up buying a rifle FOR silhouette, you'd be best to go to the 7-08 or ones of the 6.5's. Just no point messing with the 308, unless you already have one. There are rifles off the shelf and secondhand in those calibre's that aren't hard to find so no reason to get a 308.

If it was me, I'd shoot a few matches with the 243, find out if you like the game and are going to stick with it, try out others rifles and look over their equipment and get a feel for the game and then down the track you will be in a much better position to make an informed decision that is going to work for YOU. Its likely you might find a used rifle through someone at the club too that might be a good option.

Shoot the match, get some experience and then start worrying about getting the rifle equipment.

Have fun.

Leomort,

Given what we've learned about bullet-jacket construction and its effects on ram performance, my first choice for rams would be the Hornady 6mm .243 100 gr InterLock® BTSP. And, drive those puppies fast. Work-up your load carefully, checking for signs of excess pressure using a powder like H4350 EXTREME. You should be able to drive those bullets to 3,100 fps with no pressure problems. I'm sure a load like that would do quite well on rams.

DanDeMan and Shandy,

Thank you both for your feed back (and everyone esles too!) I appreciate all your patient for what I'm sure you all hear ask about all the time, regarding rifle calibers for silhouette


Leo

If you keep your velocity below 2700 you should be able to shoot the 90s and 100s at the close 3 animals. 107s at around 2800 for the rams.