Is Weatherby Mark V Accumark qualified for Hunter Class?

[oldflint]

Hello gentlemen,

Strait and short one ...

Weatherby Mark V Accumark
http://weatherby.com/product/rifles/markv/accumark

Can it be qualified for Silhouette Hunter Class or the barrel is too "Heavy"?

It does say "heavy", but doesn't look like one.
In Weatherby barrel categories it is contour #3, the rest of hunting guns are #2.

If not, then
Vanguard SUB-MOA Stainless
http://weatherby.com/product/rifles/vanguard/submoa_stainless
should be OK.

Do I make any sense?

Thank you thousand times in advance!

[Quonset Hut]

The Accumark barrel is tapered, as long as it meets weight with scope you are fine. Three issues with this rifle choice. The caliber choice is very limited for Silhouette. Most of the choices are long action (.30-06, 270). Long action rifles are rarely seen at bigger matches - if they were winning they would be. You have .243, which is not suggested generally in a first gun as it is more difficult to get a load that will knock over rams. The "only" reasonable choice is .308, and most people are moving away to 6.5mm and 7 mm. The company says you need a qualified gunsmith to mess with the trigger - I don't know if you can get those triggers down to a consistent two pounds. The last reason, and this can be checked better, is that hardly anyone uses them in this sport. The Rem 700 used to be what almost everyone used, but some time has passed and you have custom made guns that look like hunters taking over, though many still have 700 actions. Your best bet is to travel to one or two matches and talk with the competitors about why they use what they use.

The rifle silhouette forums with the most traffic are at www.steelchickens.com. They have a separate forum for high power rifle there.

[oldflint]

Quonset Hut,

Thank you many times for your detailed reply!
Your made a few very important points.

What caught me on Weatherby is their synthetic Monte Carlo stock that I don't see on Rem 700s.
I'm personally a huge fan or Remington actions and I own 3 of them. But their straight stocks don't feel very comfortable for off-hand shooting. A little more drop of the buttstock would be a huge benefit.
And that's exactly what Weatherby offers you.

On caliber choice, I was thinking of 308 with light bullets, but Accumark offers 1:10" twist which would be more suitable for heavier projectiles.

The original Weatherby trigger feels awful but I was thinking about replacing it with Timney.

But considering the price of Accumark + Timney vs Rem 700 + custom Monte Carlo stock starts moving me away from Weatherby.

Thank you so much again!

[Nobade]

The mk V trigger is wonderful, and can be adjusted down to ounces safely if you know what you're doing. A Timney trigger is a big downgrade on those rifles.

Another thing to consider is that Bell and Carlson makes their Medalist stock in the Weatherby shape to fit Remington 700 long action rifles. I have one on my hunter rifle, and love it. It fits me way better than any Remington factory stock for offhand shooting, and they're pretty cheap.

As for the 308, loaded pretty light with 147 FMJ bullets it works great for silhouette, but does have more wind drift than my 260. About the same recoil, but is harder to shoot well in the wind. On a calm day you don't give up anything.

[oldflint]

Nobade,

Thank you so much for your input.

In other words you don't think that the idea of trying Weatherby Mark V Accumark
or Vanguard SUB-MOA is so crazy.

Unfortunately my "experience" with Weatherby is limited to almost nothing, basically just touching them at the gunstore but I liked the balance and Monte Carlo stock.

After your post my sick mind is brewing even a crazier idea...
Rechambering 243 into 6mm BR.
I like this caliber and its ballistics.
The twist is 1:10" which will do for the projectiles up to 95 grain.
SMK 95gr at 3000fps, zeroed at 200 will drop only 8.25 minutes at 500 m and will hold nicely in the wind.
But the main question is if 854 ft-lb would be enough to knock the rams.

Thank you gentlemen again!

[oldflint]

Gentlemen,

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I just did some calculations for Sierra MatchKing 0.264", 107gr (260 Rem) and muzzle velocity 3000 fps and got the energy of 814 ft-lb at 500 m. As I stated in my previous post,

Sierra MatchKing 0.243", 95gr (6mm BR) at 3000 fps will do 854 ft-lb at 500 m.

So if you guys knock the rams with 260 Rem / 107 gr projectiles, why 6mm BR, 95 gr shouldn't?

The only "No" would be if you are pushing 260 Rem / SMK 107 gr much faster.

[Nobade]

6mm anything is very marginal on rams. Most of the time 6BR won't do it, 243 will about half the time if shooting 107 or 115gr. bullets at full throttle. Sometimes I ring them with my 260 shooting 144gr. bullets at 2500 fps.

However, 45-70 shooting 550gr. will NEVER ring one. They go down right now. That bullet is only travelling about 850 fps when it gets there. This is why you don't care about energy, only momentum when figuring knockdown. I like to try to exceed .8 lb/sec at the rams, and 1.0 is better.

[oldflint]

Thank you gentlemen for destroying rookie's dream...     

[Jason]

Translation: Thank you for saving a rookie quite a lot of expense and heartache from finding out that the rifle wouldn't knock down the targets.

[Quonset Hut]

Folks who shoot the 107 gr bullets in 6.5 are using them only for the first three animals, NOT the Rams. The standard ram bullet is the 142 gr Sierra. Most of my ram shots were with the 140 gr Sierra, as I has laid in a supply before the 142's came out. I've also used the dearly lamented and never properly replaced 144 gr Lapua, and the 130 gr Norma, which came in loaded Diamond Line Moly rounds

[rich56]

Oldflint, I'm just a rookie myself tho I may be a step ahead of you. What I did was buy a Remington CDL LTD in .260 then bought a used 700 BDL Varmint stock from EBay. The drop and montecarlo on the stock are closer to what you want and the magnum taper barrel is free floated in the barrel chanel.  All under $1000 and you could sell the CDL stock if you want. If you can't fiind a LTD 260 I'd go SPS in 7-08.