Starting Deer Stalking and 300m Target Plus McQueen

[ovenpaa]

1200 yards is a long way and the poor old .308 is falling like a stone at that distance unless it is being propelled out of the barrel at 3100+fps. Yes you can shoot to 1200 with lower MV's however accuracy is sketchy at best.

What you cold look at is a 30-06 which although not *the* accepted 1200 round does do rather well and is also an accepted sporting cartridge. You cold even neck it down to 7mm and take advantage of the high BC competition bullets that are available however it would start getting costly.

[slate]

30-06....interesting, as that is where I am leaning (or a .270) so that I have a bigger rifle for the trips to Scotland. The PH 1200 seems to be plentiful in the 30-06 and bigger game calibres.

How would a 30-06 fare as a first rifle on my ticket (target only initially) with a later variation for deer? Would I need a smaller calibre for popping Roe/Fox?

[ovenpaa]

A .270 is always going to be limited by the choice of bullets and would not be my choice for longer distance stuff. The 30-06 is going to be down to your FEO and you need to give good justification, I can think of a couple of first time FAC holders who had their request for the 30-06 rejected however as long as you can explain why you could be OK. The possibly easier option is the 6,5x55.

30-06 on a Fox is going to be a tad harsh so look to add a .243 if possible.

[slate]

I suspect that I'll end up with two rifles, which is why I am looking at less fashionable brands. 6.5x55 and 30-06 or .243 and 30-06? I guess the latter has less overlap. I doubt I'll be stalking more than twice a year, so the priority is for the smaller calibre to be more ubiquitous that the larger one.

I'll also get a .22 rf as my local range is 25m and I can get some budget shooting in that way.

[ovenpaa]

.22 RF has got to be the most economical way of getting quality range time in and honing your skills, push it out to 100 yards and you can learn a lot about wind reading as well.