03a3 at 500m rams?

[dualsport]

Searching here I've reviewed a lot of info on this topic but was wondering if there's anything new? I'm the proud new owner of a fine rifle and want to knock down rams with cbs. It's been modified to be used in CBA scoped/modified class matches so now wears a 6X mildot scope. My hope is to be able to use the mildots when going from turkeys to chickens and pigs, etc., without changing the elevation settings. The match I shoot is rams at 500m. I already shoot 200m rams in a cb only match at another club, 30-30 is great for that, but moving out to 500 changes everything, so I bought a 30-06.

[excess650]

I dunno about anything new, but I would suggest a 190gr or heavier over ~30gr H322.

[Chicken Thief]

You need 3 things to calculate a fairly accurate ballistic table:
1) Boolit weight
2) Boolit BC
3) Boolit speed

The rest is but calcs in an online program, to get you in the ballpark of true hold over.

[Will]

311284 50gr 4831

[Bret4207]

What Will said, that's the first boolit design I'd look at.

[dualsport]

OK. Thanks. I've got that, I'll load some today.

[Char-Gar]

RCBS designed their 165 and 190 SIL bullets just for your purpose. They are both bore riders and when fitted to the throat, lands and grooves deliver great accuracy.

[Larry Gibson]

I've found the 311299/314299 to be about the best longer range cast bullet availble, even sold my 311284 mould because i no longer use it. If the 03A3 is worn at all then the 314299 is the choice but if the barrel is in excellent condition just ahaed of the throat then the 311299 is the one to get. With either you get a heavier bullet that will give excellent ignition with medium and slower burning powders in the 1900 - 1950 fps range (top end of the RPM threshold) and thus will avoid the problems of trying to push higher. At that velocity the BC of either bullet is excellent and about the highest available on a decent cast bullet. It holds extremely well to 500 yards and will have sufficint "knockdown" ability on the steel targets.

Larry Gibson

[dualsport]

Funny you mentioned that. I've been 'studying up' and noticed the higher BC of the 311299. I'm going to load both and see how they compare. I'll try a tuft of dacron on a few, see what that does. Only catch is my 311299 is really a 316299 NOE. Sized a couple down to .311 but the noses are about .304. Tomorrow a chamber cast and some dummies to see what will fit. I'll also try some IMR 4350 besides the 4831.

[dualsport]

Well I didn't load today. Shot all day instead. Shooting up leftovers in the new 03a3. Nothing great, but not bad. The heaviest load I had was the old Ideal 308334 over 42 grs. 4831 and 1/2 gr. dacron. Maybe 3 " at 100. It kicked a bit, the next loads with the 311284/316299 and 50 grs. 4831 ought to be stout. I see from Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook this is still below max. WHEN I pull this off it will be a dream come true. I've wanted to use cbs for a while now in these military rifle silhouette matches. I could see today the NcStar has to go. Maybe I'll give it to my brother, he don't know no better. His vision is usually a little blurred anyway.

[GrizzLeeBear]

dualsport, last year I tried to use a mildot for the "holdover" on sillywets with a .270 Win. If I recall, I had sighted in for the turkeys and held 1 mildot low for pigs, two dots low for chickens and 2 or 3 high for rams with the scopes set on 16 or 18 power. While this worked out pretty well during sight in off a bench, I found it EXTREMELY frustrating to try and keep track of which dot I was looking at AND concentrate on the target when shooting offhand. What you need in a good scope for this game is one that tracks well up and down so you can adjust the scope for the different ranges. It does NOT have to be extremely expensive or even have a lot of magnification. Many shooters find the target movement in the scope very disturbing (especially newer shooters) above about 18 power and keep their scopes set at 12 - 16 power.
I would agree with Larry. Find a load with the 311299 at about 1900 - 2000 fps. This should give you enough steam for knocking down the rams at 500m. That 50 gr. of 4831 is probably a bit more oomph than you need (on the ram and you). Even if it shoots good, you will want a lighter load for the chickens, pigs and turkeys. There is a reason sillywet shooters moved to lighter kicking calibers. Shooting 40 rounds of heavy recoiling rounds WILL wear you out and your technique will be shot to heck (literally) by the time you get to the turkeys where you really NEED good shooting technique to hit those buggers.
I'm thinking about putting together a Mauser in .308 ( I already have the action and barrel) and the 311299 at about 2000 fps is on the top of my list for loads to try on rams when I get the project together.

[dualsport]

Thanks for the pointers, I can learn from other people's experiences. To work for me it will have to be as simple as possible. It will come down to mildot w/holdover or else something with target knobs and adjust for each distance. A lighter load for the closer ones is a good idea but I'll have to have another set of sight settings for it. This is going to take some time to work out but I'm committed to this project. It's my favorite match, military rifle silhouette, and using cbs is optional but is my long range goal. Once I'm dialed in it'll be all me. I've looked over a lot of scopes, even Leupold custom shop stuff. The BDC types are interesting, so's the Bushnell DOA 650. This is in the 'modified' class, I still shoot 'issue' too, lots of fun. The Arisaka 7.7 is going to get a chance too.