Shooting Major caliber in 3 Gunning

[kellyn]

This year I shot a DSA FN FAL with a .260 Remington barrel in the USPSA 3 Gun nationals.  Only 4 people shot major and I think I had the only .260. Unlike the .223, I was able to shoot major power factor.  Likewise, a .243 can't make major.    I shot 2 different loads:  120 grain molycoated Sierra matchking in front of 45 grains of IMR 4350 in a Remington .260 case (uncrimped erik :-) and a winchester primer.  That was my long range load as it shoots flat at 2925 fps.  For the short range courses, I shot a 140 grain moly-coated remington power-point with 36 grains of IMR 4320 at about  2500 fps.

I took 2d to Bennie Cooley in the Limited rifle but we were pretty close.  He was shooting an AR with 75 grain Hornadys. The .260 proved to be competitive against the .223s. Timewise, I was able to keep up with the lower recoiling .223s and the C hits did not hurt as much.  Most of the Super squad were very surprised at the low recoil of a major .260.  Of course a .260 is quite a bit more expensive to shoot than a .223.

One thing I did learn is that shooting through brush is risky no matter what caliber.  On the Gully whacker stage I took 5 shots through some brush.  I figured that the 140 grain bullet would make it.  Well, 3 of the 5 did, leaving me with 2 mikes.

I don't think a .308 is going to be able to keep up with the .223s.  The time lost dealing with recoil versus the points gained on paper is not worth it.  The .260 may be a different story.  

(Edited by kellyn at 6:39 pm on May 8, 2002)

[Phil Dunlop]

Thanks for posting that Kelly, very interesting!

especially as its now so hard to import and (export) semi autos.

P.D.

sorry, forgot congratulations!

(Edited by Phil Dunlop at 11:39 am on May 8, 2002)

[Carlos]

Good shooting!  Glad to hear the .260 (AKA 6.5-08 wildcat in an earlier life) is competing succesfully. I am a fan of this cart. for both competition and hunting - it nearly duplicates the 6.5x55 Swedish in a shorter format and is supperior to the 308 for long range shooting (IMHO).

There was a custom builder who was marketing AR-10 uppers in  260 - I lost the bookmark to his site.  Anyone know who I am talking about? Site address? Thanks.

D.

[Flexmoney]

Kreiger Barrels makes a barrel for an AR-10 in 260.

http://www.kriegerbarrels.com/ar10.html

[Dave Berryhill]

Kelly - Does anyone make an FN barrel in .260 or is it a custom barrel?

[kellyn]

DSA has FNs available in .260.  I have not seen a .260 barrel advertised by itself though.  I'll see what I can find.

[Dave Berryhill]

That's ok, I can look around.  If anyone has them it will probably be DS Arms.  Plus, it might make for a interesting gunsmithing project.  What twist is your barrel?

Thanks again!

[Rich Bagoly]

Is the possible advantage to shooting major diminishing?

The self reseting steel targets are about all you are going to see over 100 yrds.  The steel targets score the same in minor.

I thought the guy who shot minor for Manually Operated Division, was smart.  How many paper targets did he have to shoot?

[kellyn]

It really is unclear as to the advantage of shooting major.  I've done some experiments and so has TGO.  TGO told me that me the advantage of shooting major in scoring when shooting a .308 is outweighed by the slower times (shot to shot recovery).  That fits with my experience.  

The .260 remington however is new territory.   A great deal will depend on how the match is set up.  If the match is mostly steel, shooting major .260 has no advantage unless there is a lot of wind.  If the match has a lot of paper - partial targets in particular, then the  .260 may be the ticket.  

I'm certainly not suggesting that everybody jettison their .223s but I think that there will be a lot of development towards major caliber rifles.

FYI  I don't think there were any paper targets in the manually operated rifle match.  Jake did shoot minor but remeber Voigt won with a .260!