The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

dromia wrote:So hypothetically a range is "signed of for up to 30-06 calibre" what would that mean?

No argument was intended. You were right.

Ovenpaa wrote: A .308 Win with a heavy barrel is a good starting place. The .308 Remington 700 Police and a reasonable 'scope as a package can be had for under GBP2,000 and will probably out shoot you for a while :)

Apologies for the dim question - what classifies a barrel as a heavy barrel?

Mattnall wrote:

Sonofsammo wrote: Is there any centre fire rifle calibre / set up that doesn’t require the time spent waiting for the barrel to cool - or should I just accept that all barrels take time to cool?

Has someone mentioned this to you at the range?

Yes, by every RO I've met on the outdoor range. They've said it's for two reasons - 1) It damages the barrel over time and 2) It detracts from consistency as the barrel gets hotter.

Pippin89 wrote:The big question is, what is your range signed off for? It will be signed off for up to a certain calibre. If the range restrictions allow, then I would agree with Ovenpaa on a .308 Win (or 7.62 NATO, basically the same thing). Ammo choices are good as you can get it cheap enough to not be restricted on how much you shoot, but there is also very good quality match grade ammo available for when you want to spend a bit more.
On barrel heat, I have never been concerned with my 7.62 TR rifle. Other than the first couple of shots on a cold barrel being a bit off. Once warm it shoots consistently and when I am done shooting, it is hot but not hot enough to not handle. 15 minutes in the open air while chatting to others on the range its cool enough to put away and drive home.

I'm not 100% sure, but I've shot 308 and 6.5x55 there and I know that the the last RO when I was there was shooting 6.5Creedmoor.


Thanks for all the advice so far. I've shot the 10/22, but didn't particularly like it, which is why I'm going for the Vector.
I'll see if I can find someone with a remington 700.
I was leaning toward the 308, but the ammo just seems so much more expensive than 223...

I've a Remington 700 Police in .308 that I use for long range shoots. Got a decent scope and some spar mags and was well under your budget, second hand with low shot count.

Heavy barrel just means that the barrel is thicker, and is quite easy to spot by appearance. You can get the Remi 700 also in .223/5.56 but don't expect it to get as far out as the .308.

Yes there are more expensive guns out there, but I think the Remi is good value for money and as long as it out shoots me, I can't see the point buying anything more expensive. As you've noticed ammo can get expensive....

The slots I went for on my first ticket were .22LR self loading, .223/5.56 , .308/7.62 and a Section 1 12 gauge for PSG.

A 700 with 1 in 7 twist will get to a 1000.
The Mossberg MVP I had with 1 in 9 twist would stabilize 77gn bullets and do well at 900.

And the barrel getting hot seems odd to me. A full auto is one thing but a bolt action rifle I am not so convinced.
I would like to see some data driven evidence on exacerbated bore wear from a hot barrel.
What temperature are we talking about here?

mag41uk wrote:A 700 with 1 in 7 twist will get to a 1000.
The Mossberg MVP I had with 1 in 9 twist would stabilize 77gn bullets and do well at 900

I'd forgotten about the MVP. After looking it seems they're around half the price of the 700.
Is the 700 twice as good?

York Guns currently have the MVP predator on clearance at £499 and having bought one myself its a decent rifle for that price

https://yorkguns.com/shop/mossberg-mvp- ... 56mm-nato/

Or the MVP LR Tactical at £525

https://yorkguns.com/shop/mossberg-mvp-lr-556/

Landrover 130 wrote:York Guns currently have the MVP predator on clearance at £499 and having bought one myself its a decent rifle for that price

https://yorkguns.com/shop/mossberg-mvp- ... 56mm-nato/

Or the MVP LR Tactical at £525

https://yorkguns.com/shop/mossberg-mvp-lr-556/

That's where I was looking, as they're fairly local to me - and that's what made me wonder about the difference between them and the remington 700.

Sonofsammo wrote:

Mattnall wrote:
Has someone mentioned this to you at the range?

Yes, by every RO I've met on the outdoor range. They've said it's for two reasons - 1) It damages the barrel over time and 2) It detracts from consistency as the barrel gets hotter.

I very much doubt you'll get a floated target barrel hot enough to ruin consistency at modest rates of fire. Take a look at service rifle on youtube (both historic and CSR) and you'll notice the practices can be quite fast, typically 10 rnds in 60 seconds on a timed practice, 40 seconds on a rapid practice.

Shooting damages a barrel over time. It is impossible to measure if a barrel will wear less of more as it gets hotter. Recent reports have said a hot barrel wears less than a cold one (you'll most likely not get the barrel hot enough to do much damage in that respect anyway) but it can not be proven either way. Accuracy can be affected if the stock moves as it gets hotter but a good floated barrel and synthetic stock or bedded action should minimise that, even wood stocks aren't bad, some old service rifles can have issues as they get hot but that is the nature of the beast and is all part of owning an old rifle.

Thanks for all the replies so far
I'll stop worrying so much about heat!

I'm thinking I'll go for
22lr self loading
22lr bolt
5.56/223 bolt
7.62/308 bolt

One thing I have no clue about is how much ammo to ask for to start with. Is there a general minimum needed?
TIA

Sonofsammo wrote:Thanks for all the replies so far
I'll stop worrying so much about heat!

I'm thinking I'll go for
22lr self loading
22lr bolt
5.56/223 bolt
7.62/308 bolt

One thing I have no clue about is how much ammo to ask for to start with. Is there a general minimum needed?
TIA

Why not add a .38/.357 underlever? Also, think about adding something black powder (not my thing [others on here would need to advise], but there is reasoning in my logic - it's a spare slot to enable a 1 for 1 variation at no cost). I would also add a moderator for each of the calibres, again if you don't use them it allows a 1 for 1 at no cost.

As for ammunition, what about the following (you can always increase when you see how much you shoot):

.22LR - 1000
5.56/.223 - 500
7.62./308 - 500
.38/.357 (assuming that you add the rifle) - 500