Hello gentlemen,

Please forgive in advance my newbee kind of questions. I’m not fresh off the boat for shooting, but not in HP silhouettes.

I came up with some sort of plan or project for the first hunter class gun.

Might sound rather strange, but I thought of
Weatherby Vanguard SUB-MOA Stainless
http://weatherby.com/product/rifles/van ... _stainless

I know the majority of you will ask why not Remington 700, but I do have my reasons...

What caught me on Weatherby is their synthetic Monte Carlo stock that I don't see on Rem 700s.
I'm personally a huge fan or Remington actions and I own 3 of them. But their straight stocks don't feel very ergonomic for off-hand shooting. A little more drop of the buttstock would be a huge benefit.
And that's exactly what Weatherby offers you. So I don’t have to fool around finding a high quality Monte Carlo stock.
And I want plastic. As much as I love wood, as much I hate scratches on it.
I couldn’t care less for Weatherby’s 0.99MOA guaranteed. I can tune up my gun and load myself.
But the gun looks pretty and feels good. A good trigger job is also not an issue.

But this is just the half of the plan! ;)

The second part is...
Rechambering 243Win into 6mm BR to 0.272" no-turn neck size. So the barrel will lose about 1” from the chamber.
I like this caliber and its ballistics. And it is very pleasant to shoot.
The twist on original Weatherby 243Win is 1:10".
Rechambered into 6mm BR it will do for the projectiles up to 95 grain.
SMK 95gr at 3000fps, zeroed at 200 will drop only 8.25 minutes at 500 m and will hold nicely in the wind.

I just did some calculations for Sierra MatchKing 0.264", 107gr (260 Rem, as I understand very polular HP Silhouette caliber) and muzzle velocity 3000 fps and got the energy of 814 ft-lb at 500 m.
Sierra MatchKing 0.243", 95gr (6mm BR) at 3000 fps will do 854 ft-lb at 500 m.

So if you guys knock the rams with 260 Rem / 107 gr projectiles, why 6mm BR, 95 gr shouldn't?.. Unless you are pushing 260 Rem / SMK 107 gr much faster than 3000 fps?...

Please, if you don’t mind, I’d like to hear about both of the parts of the plan:
1. Rifle choice and
2. Rechambering idea.

Thank you so much in advance!

Lots of folks waaaay more experienced in high power silhouette will chime in and give most likely better answers, but as to rifle choice: Don't know much about the Weatherby...There is usually a reason that a certain rifle/caliber (in this case the Remington 700 in .260) is so popular for a given discipline....Sometimes re-inventing the wheel is costlier than just buying a wheel already made...As to caliber choice: The numbers look good, but the 107 SMK's are a little light for the rams. 123's may be reliable, may not, there are many variables, but the 142 SMK's or the 139 Lapua Scenar seems to be the best choice. If I remember correctly one of the guys from Texas was shooting a 6mm based on a 22-250 case at Zwolle last year. Don't know anything about his bullet weight choices or how successful he was...someone who posts here may know more. Anyway, welcome to the game..shoot as much as you can and have fun with it.

Kitty

If you have an attachment to a particular rifle, use it! Kitty is completely right about folks settling on a particular piece of gear for very good reasons, but I'm the poster child for irrational choices and have learned it's no good trying to fight it - or defend it. It simply is.

Your reasoning behind the Weatherby is good, but do bring spares for anything that might break, since Weatherby parts will be hard to find..

A guy like you should go with a Stolle Panda action, .223 remington 1-7 twist Lilja barrel , Mcmillian light hunter stock. Enter it as a hunting rifle. Shoot 80 grain VLD's in it and petition Greg Conner for a rule change when the rams won't fall, {count bullet hits}.
Just kidding!!!

Thank you Gentlemen for your input.
It is greatly appreciated.

I'm sure you all have seen this very short video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAmTFqJ6vxw
That is exactly the caliber and bullet weight.
And that's the gun:
http://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek083.html

Any comments?..

I can follow your thinking on the stock that the weatherby has and not likeing the remington stock... But you can always replace the Remington stock as for the caliber thing I can say that the 6BR is marginal...yes it will knock over rams but every now and then they will not fall. If you like the small capacity cases go with the 7 BR tcp in a 1-8 twist and shoot 175mk for rams with the 130mk for the other animals. If you want a more standard caliber go with the 260 rem also in a 1-8 twist you will be shooting the 107mk for chickens, pigs, and turkeys with a switch to the 142 or 140mk for rams. How do I know this...well I currently shoot a 6BR that is getting a 260 Barrel installed soon. I shot the 260 before and never had a spot of trouble with it. The 7-08 also is an excellent cartridge I like it alot and I know Mc Alice loves it plenty.

flint wrote:Thank you Gentlemen for your input.
It is greatly appreciated.

I'm sure you all have seen this very short video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAmTFqJ6vxw
That is exactly the caliber and bullet weight.
And that's the gun:
http://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek083.html

Any comments?..

That's a great video and I really like his approach! It is more satisfying to build something myself, despite the frustration it can cause, and I've looked at Savage high power rifles for that reason.

If you proceed with the 6BR keep us informed. Remington 260 would be my choice for an off-the-shelf build because of the chambered barrels available in that round, and also because the round was developed for Silhouette.

When your project receives the Blaubear seal of approval you could be headed down a rocky slope....

Kitty

From the "Hey y'all, watch this!" school of gunsmithing...

Evelio keeps me around for entertainment value.

jneihouse wrote:When your project receives the Blaubear seal of approval you could be headed down a rocky slope....

Kitty

Ding.. Ding... I was thinking the very same thing.

Thank you gentlemen for destroying rookie's dream...

Nothing wrong with building something "outside the box".....build it, shoot it, enjoy it...no one has to like it but you....If no one had never thought "outside the box" we would'nt have brightly colored bolt knobs, rings, bottom metal, and everyone would still be shooting a wood stocked rifle.

Kitty

Amen.

Oh by the way Flint...not trying to burst your hopes but was trying to save you a costly mistake with caliber choice...I liked the 6br amazing accuracy, very light recoil..but just not always reliable on rams and I shot 107 gr sierras and tubbs 115 gr dtac bullets which are much heavier than the 95 grain sierras you can shoot because you only have a 1-10 twist...I have a 1-7.8 twist in mine. The rams and rails are not standard on any range one or the other and thats what makes it hard for the 6br but if you do your own smithing and have the reamer to rechamber have at it the low recoil can help you shoot higher scores on the short course and make up for a lost ram or two...hell I'll take a 30 going into rams.

Another interesting part of the equation is how bullet energy in ft. lbs. translates into knocking over rams...I've seen folks "ring" them with a lot of stuff and the 2nd ram on bank one at the nationals last year gave me and others fits. I hit it twice hard with a 142 SMK over 36 grains of Reloader 15 (warm load) from my 6.5X47L and Kolby hit it twice hard with a 142 SMK over 44 grains of H4831SC with the same result...bullet splatter and the ram shook, but didn't fall down.....it would seem that 800 plus ft lbs would take down a 65 pound steel ram with no problem, but it doesn't always work out that way...as malinois said, lack of standarization in rams and rails make it an in-exact science....couple that with a wind blowing in and mud on the feet of the ram that "welds" it somewhat to the rail and you have an interesting problem to solve....

Kitty