Silhouette barrell choice for 75 to 200 yards

[rexican]

I was watching shooting USA early this morning on the outdoor channel which contained a segment on the Masters- 3 handgun shoot. I really want to train to be able to do this, but it requires shooting steel plates from 75 out to 200 yards. I don't have a contender barrel to do this, but I think that's a pretty good excuse to pick one up. Right now I only have a super 14 3030 and a 45/410 octagonal. I'm only a couple of weeks in to long range handgunning, but I was thinking about .223 because of my farily unlimited supply of brass for it. What do y'all think? Will that suffice, because it would also allow me to familiarize new shooters relatively inexpensively. maybe I should just buy a .22 super 14 barrel for that purpose and start saving for an encore?

I'm going to be spending a lot of time on the range this year:  my university finally chartered our club, the Baylor Marksmans Association, of which I am the pistol range officer. We felt there should be someone promoting safe firearm handling and responsibility in the collegiate setting, especially in light of recent tragedies. If y'all have any ideas for sponsors let me know. Thanks in advance

[WayneS]

what position do you shoot at these distances ? Standing or free style.Your 14" 30-30 should be up to the task of the  200 yd accuracy needs , as proven in the early days of IHMSA, and if loaded correctly won't cost that much more per round that loading a 223.
My suggestion would be to start with what you already have, set it up to play this game and if after a few matches you feel the 30-30 is holding you back then look here for a .223 BBL.

[WayneS]

Since in a previous post you asked for 30-30 loads, see if you can beg, buy or barter  some SR 4759 or AA 5744. Try 21-22 gn. of either with a 150 . either will give you near the same MV out of that 14"BBL as most of the loads listed in your previous post. A plus of useing these powders is light recoil. this was  a load we used in the early days of silhouettes, 40-60 & 80 round match's weren't a problem from recoil

[jhalcott]

 While I don't know the size of the plates and position they will be shot from a 30-30 CAN be a bit much in long strings of fire. I would consider some thing like a 6mm TC/U for the 85 grain bullets knock down ability and accuracy. The lighter recoil is a bonus when shooting long strings. The .223 can be used but it might not have the knock down ability of the 6mm .

[rexican]

Thanks for the advice, all.  I'll go to the store this weekend to price the powders you mentioned, wayne S. The shooters were shown firing from freestyle as well as standing positions. I guess I'll invest in a variable scope and a lot of practice.

[skarke]

IMHO, The 300 Whisper is a great cartridge for silhouettes.  Load SUBSONIC!!!!  The downrange velocity loss is much less than you think (being sub-sonic), and it cleans the clock of these steel plates.  Plus, it doesn't have that supersonic crack, and doesn't recoil very much.

[rexican]

Thanks, Sharke: I've just been reading up on the 300 whisper and it does sound like a lot of fun. I hadn't heard of it before, now this tc itch is turning into a full blown obsession! I have to decide what what I'm going to part with to pick up some more barrels. I got some pretty good deals on ebay for a bushnell trophy 2-6x and some pachmayr grips (with gas prices not going down any time soon I got rid of some performance parts). Thanks for the tip on 150 grains bullets WayneS, I have some I was using for .308, but long guns aren't much fun at the ranges I'm limited to. I hadn't thought about the tcu, I'll look it up toinght also. I'm going to the range tomorrow regardless of weather.

[rem2035]

I use a 7m/m tcu super 14 to do the job. You don't say what  happens to  the plates.  A 139 -140 gr. bullet has a lot more knockdown power than the lighter bullets.

[rexican]

I realize now how much of a noob question this was, so I finally decided to go to the source. From Shooting times' site:
"the Long Range Event competitors use high powered rifle rounds to knock down 45 steel plates. Targets range from 75 yards, out to 200 yards, with the close targets shot from the standing position, the distant targets shot freestyle, prone."
and from the Masters' site: "The second event is the Handgun Long Range Event. This event consists of three stages with 5 steel plates on each stage set at different heights and different distances out to 200 meters. Each stage is shot from different positions (Standing, Freestyle and Standing & Freestyle). This event uses any pistol or revolver with a barrel length less than 15 inches. Ammunition must be no less than 6mm."
The match looks like a lot of fun, and I'd love to go next year with my contender, glock 35, and Buckmark. If anybody wants to check out the match website I thought I'd include it: http://www.themasters.org/   
thanks again for all the help

[rexican]

Now I'm torn between the 7mm TCU and the 300 whisper! I'm very happy with the accuracy from the 30-30, but I'd prefer to keep it as my hunting barrel. I have so many pounds of .223 and .556 brass: my 30-30 brass selection has been limited to what I have picked up at the local range. I'd kind of ruled out the 6TCU but the bullet prices seemed tempting.
I'm also selling one of my glocks to buy an Encore pretty soon. I don't yet know if I'm going to use it as a rifle or a pistol, but one of the first calibers for it will be 300 or 250 savage.

[SLAVAGE]

300 whisper barrels are very nice but expensive to a point 7tcu's are very nice too... i had them both i let  the 300 whisper go...to much trimming and stuff involved.. you can shoot either of them useing a 223 base brass the 300 used 221 brass nothen but a choped down version of the 223... were a 7tcu is all so known as a 7mm/223 ishma... so all you have to do is send a 223 brass down the 7tcu sizing die an boom little trimming an such to square the edges and your good to go.. i used too shoot that in pgh a few years ago and i used to buy bulk 7mm 130 grain i beleave and it shoots great just have to work a load up for the barrel... all so the 7tcu can be used as a hunting barrel too same with the 300 but again to much work involved unless you wish to buy 221 fireball brass and thats one heck of a lot of money.. compaired to the 223 case.. last case in point... 300 whispers are expensive cause every one keeps them and they are expensice on dies all so..
7tcu barrels are floating around all over the place and same with dies
Dave
pistol wise... i shot a 40 usp.. i would of shot a 1911 38 super just too much $$$$.. my 22 was a ruger mark II with a tasco reddot

[hank]

You may want to look into the 6.8 Remington SPC, that the military currently favours. It is designed to be a good performer in 10 to 18 inch barrels, highly accurate, and hard-hitting, too.

See this link: http://coloradomultigun.com/misc/sgn_68spc.pdf

Nice long article, full of details on the development of this cartridge.

[rexican]

Thanks everybody, I just picked up a 7mm TCU from the classifieds. For now I'll have to keep the other suggestions on my wish list. I've been reading up on the forums about reloading the TCU. I'll have to pick up a selection of 7mm bullets and probably some H322. I'll try out some varget, Rel7, and 4895 first. I don't think I have any 7mm molds or gas checks, so it looks like my bank account will be a little low for a while. Oh well, college kids are supposed to live on spaghetti and Ramen.

[Lone Star]

I think you made a wise choice.  Now you need to develop loads, but really a huge amount of load development has already been done for the TCU.  My suggestion is to find out the maximum size/weight of the targets and choose the lightest bullet that can reliably knock down the silhouettes.   This will keep recoil down and will require less sight adjustment.  Another approach is to use heavier bullets at low velocity, this gives low recoil but more sight adjustment.  Here are a very few of the many sites with info:

http://www.ihmsa.net/forum/showthread.php?t=264

http://www.reloadbench.com/cartridges/w7mmtcu.html

http://www.handloads.org/forum/showthread.asp?thread=1907&topic=8


.

[canyon-ghost]

Have been putting my 10" barrel in 7mmTCU on paper at 200 yards. Redding Deluxe Die Set 84242 comes with the neck sizing die*. I've been using the 145 grain RCBS bullet but, I'd like to try out Lymans 135 grain GC bullet.  Bought some old stock powders, and I've been loading SR-4759 for it.  Good Luck.