224 Valkyrie, why not more interest?

[ShaunBrady]

Originally Posted by liber

Do you feel confident that you can hit 3/10 with your 300 PRC at 3000 yards?

Absolutely not. I'm not even fully prepared for 2500 yet.

I don't have to shoot the gun I qualified with in the match. The other gun I've qualified but won't be shooting is a Savage 116 in 33xc. Its barrel was going down in flames that day. I've rebarreled it, but have more confidence in the velocity spreads with the 300 Lapua.

Probably won't have to though. There has only been one match that I'm aware of that actually went to 3K. The required 4 hits at 2500 yards have started happening more regularly, but not by the 2 shooters needed to go to the next distance.

Could I make a video with 3/10 at 3K using that gun? Maybe after enough tries on cherry picked days. It looks like the firing solution for 3K at the NorCal range conditions would be 47 mils. I have the optics for that, but not the interest.

My reason for shooting the factory 300 PRC RPR in those matches was to see if off the shelf equipment had progressed to the point it was feasible. I like stomping on that "is it supersonic" thing too. Those guns are also available in 300wm and 338 Lapua. There wouldn't be any difference in the outcome if I used either of the other calibers. I actually have 2 of the 338 versions. I bought the first one the first week they were out and rebarreled it to 300 Norma before I shot it. I did load development with the second 338, but that caliber has been beat to death and I just wasn't into it.

After you get past which cartridge is the most rad on the internet and who has the baddest gun, there is a long list of rites of passage you'll need to go through before you start getting hits. My suggestion is to start with a cartridge that has both cheap and Lapua brass while you figure things out. While you work down that list, your perspective on what makes a good ELR rig will likely change.

You seem to be heading down a long preplanned list that's based on ideology and several misconceptions. My guess is it's going to go about as well as a russian tank convoy in Ukraine. ELR would be much more straight forward if you dealt with it separately. Chambering your own barrels is a much bigger deal than how much powder you're using.

Originally Posted by liber

I only want to shoot ELR, I have no interest in going to the 200-300 yard ranges. Folsom has a 1000 yard range, but difficult to use if you're not a member. Coalinga has about 1000 and I think SLO has about 1500. Upper Lake is the only place I know if to shoot 2000+, short of finding private land big enough.

Well, Lake County is God's country for ELR and motorcycles. I'm not sure what the current Forest Service policy is for the airport at Lake Pillsbury, but it used to be a popular 1K spot. If it's shut down, it should be straight forward to find somewhere in the forest to do it safely. The fires really cleared the place out. I've also heard about targets around Indian Valley reservoir. I have a KO2M day 1 range set up with permanent targets from 1200 to 2300 yards.

With Lynn's matches, you get a spot that's known to LE that they don't object to, a measured range, a target with hit indicators, a very sophisticated spotting system and multiple spotters. There will also be shooters that are coming at ELR from different directions. On your own, you'll have to work through all that for yourself.

[sigstroker]

Originally Posted by ShaunBrady

I've rebarreled it, but have more confidence in the velocity spreads with the 300 Lapua.

I bought the first one the first week they were out and rebarreled it to 300 Norma before I shot it. I did load development with the second 338, but that caliber has been beat to death and I just wasn't into it.

Slight digression - What's the meaningful difference between the Lapua and the Norma? Do you know why the military chose the Norma?

[ar15barrels]

Originally Posted by sigstroker

What's the meaningful difference between the Lapua and the Norma?

OAL.
At a magazine limiting OAL, you have to shove more bullet down into the lapua case than the norma case.

[ShaunBrady]

Originally Posted by sigstroker

Slight digression - What's the meaningful difference between the Lapua and the Norma? Do you know why the military chose the Norma?

The difference between the 2 cases is about 10 grains of water if the bullet is seated to the same depth. I seat them out of magazine. I bought a big pile of Lapua manufactured Barnes headstamped 338 Lapua brass for 80 cents a stick and have done a lot of experimenting with things based on that case. What I'm testing here is using a faster powder in a larger case to give velocities similar to the Norma but lower velocity spreads. The velocities wind up being slightly higher at similar pressures, but that's not the point of the exercise. This is not a gun purpose built to win that URSA match. It's what I have available now.

I used to tell my 375 CT shooting buddies that I'd build a 375 when decent brass became available and Hornady produced a 400 grain AMax. Peterson took care of the brass, the 390 ATip is the other piece. Now just isn't a good time to be tooling up a major change in components.

With the military, my understanding is they developed a set of criteria to test against. Beyond trading ballistic performance against barrel life and the length of the strings that can be fired, there was a desire to have a Raufoss round available. There is a 338 version available, but not a 30. Using the same basic cartridge for the 30 caliber sniping round simplified things. As Randall mentioned, the 300 Norma fits in a CIP magazine. This is more important for the military than ELR shooters. Their 300wm load was way too hot for the brass they were using. The field swapable barrels of the MRAD is analogous to ELR shooters that chamber their own barrels. They can step up a notch on case capacity and down on barrel life.