Consistent one mile accuracy from a .300 Win Mag? Oh, yeah, baby. Check out the video below.

 

Mind the three Ps: Performance (shooting range), Practicality (field) and Price.

Shooters made of money now-a-days? Nothing could be further from the truth. Making a more modest priced round can have some staying power in the market, but my task today is to select each round based on a number of factors, all three Ps.

 

 

The elephant in the room. Big, outrageously expensive, legendarily powerful. You can't say "long range" without considering the .50 BMG

#1: .50 BMG

M-2 Ball 750 gr 50 BMG in links. These make great rat lodge destroyers in a prairie dog town at long range.

Say what you like, but nothing fired from a human shoulder can touch the big bad .50 ca.l cartridge. The fuel cell is so outstanding that the bench mark .30-06 cartridge was the basis for it by the developer John Browning in his search for an anti-aircraft round. The big .50 will send a 750 grain bullet down range at 2700 f.p.s., then destroy almost anything in its path that ranges from barricades to warm targets. In terms of ranging ability the massive bullet will stay awake (above the speed of sound ) and clear out to 2,500 yards before someone puts a pillow under its head. Shooting the 50 cal requires a whole lot of rifle, and in this case I have owned several, but today shoot a very straight forward Steyr H.S. 50 with cut rifling, and it is so accurate that it has held world long range titles for back to back years across the board.

Practical? No, but a great deal of fun when shooting off the tops of bad lands mud butts at a mile away.

Price per round? Very high but there's always case lots. In terms of performance, well, nothing was feared more then an American sniper and his .50 Barrett in the sand box.

On that note I rest my case.

 

 

Proprietary (aka expensive) but a heavy hot rod at 3450 f.p.s.

#2: .408 CheyTac

The .408 CheyTac has a mixed history of both success and failure, but in the area of pure ballistics it is a very deadly gunning system. As a total long range wildcat round with no parent case at all, the round is unique, and the time I have spent behind a custom McMillan turn bolt shooting this cartridge can be considered memorable at the least. Some will say the .416 Barrett commands more respect then the .408, but being a bit old school, and liking the added velocity of the big “8” over the .416, it still takes top billing in my book.

The .408 CheyTac sends a 419 grain solid copper ultra high BC bullet down range at 2900 f.p.s., or a somewhat light weight pill being 305 grains at a blistering big bore 3450 f.p.s. That’s hot in terms of a big round.

[Ed Note: Cost? Eh... Practicality? For long range shooters this is a Maserati. That's practical, isn't it?]

 

 

The .338 Lap is the rock star of long range cartridges at the moment. 

#3: .338 Lapua

The real heavy weights in cartridge selection will boil down currently to the .338 Lapua. From grain weight options, price point per round, practical applications and performance at long range, this cartridge is just about the best of the very best as a long distance shooting choice. Like the previous offerings just covered, the 338 Lapua is a military generated round that has been developed by the Fins to replace the .50 BMG, 416 Barrett, and the .408 CheyTac as a long range snipers tool.

As .338 Lapua ammunition has built an outstanding track record among military snipers and sportsmen alike this option is here to stay.

[Ed note: price wise, the .338 hurts a little less than the .50 bmg but not much, and it's more practical in the field for open country big, big game, but the rifles made for it are long and snaggy in brush and heavy for carrying long distances.]

 

 

The emergence of younger, sexier, bigger cartridges has overshadowed the venerable .300 Win Map, but it is fun and effective on the range, great in the field for everything from mule deer to elk and moose and in the right hands for brown bear, and it is relatively inexpensive and available in a huge variety of platforms.

#5 .300 Win Mag

The short form here is that the .300 Winchester Magnum cartridge is a massively popular go-to round due to cost per round down range, options in rifle available as chambered in the .300 Win., and its performance even at ranges well beyond 1000 yards.

Currently the US Army has gone to this cartridge when chambering their turn bolt Remington 700 action sniper rifle, ( M-24’s, ) and when applying a new round to chassis rifles like the Remington 2010 sniper platform, among others.

Snipers needed to get past 1000 yards, and that meant turning to more cartridge and more bullet to do the deal.

Now the .300 Winchester Magnum can hold off mortar crews and small unit snipers to ranges beyond 1500 yards all day long in the mountain of Afghanistan. As a long range big game round or hard steel target cartridge this is a top contender to say the least.

 

 

The 6.5 mm Creedmoor is the next big thing with rocketship muzzle velocity of 3,000 f.p.s. with a 150 grain bullet.

#5: 6.5mm Creedmoor

Hornady’s Dave Emery ballistic expert broke the mold on this one, and now after almost two full years of testing by way of four different rifles at, and beyond 1000 yards here in western South Dakota, I can say for a fact that we are seeing the next rising star in long range shooting.

Because the 6.5 Creedmoor will stay with and exceed a pile of cartridges, not break the household bank account, and is quickly growing in terms of cartridge brand options and bullet types. Sierra has just released the 130 grain TMK in 6.5 caliber, and Hornady offers the brand new cold tip ELD-X in a 140 grain Match bullet this summer. With the new Federal American Eagle offering in a 140 grain “hollow tip” pill, and Winchester’s 140 grain Match ammunition, factory loads are everywhere. Black Hills ammunition is considering very seriously offering the new round, because I believe due to the Sierra bullet options now available to this high quality cartridge company.

In just handloaded bullets, Berger has now built a new 130 grain VLD that will drill prairie rats to 800 yards all day long. By the time this copy goes to press I would not be surprised to see still additional bullets and loads coming to volition.

I believe that the 6.5 Creedmoor could be the 21st century 30-30 in terms of general popularity down the line. 

 

 

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Excerpt from original piece by L.P. Brezney who has decades as experience as a gunwriter for numerous publications including Ammoland. He is a regular columnist for Gun Digest.

Read more: AmmoLand.