What gun, caliber, and mods are needed for shooting commercially available slugs at 300y+?

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JungleShooter

JungleShooter

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What caliber, gun, and mods are needed for shooting commercially available slugs at 300y+? ​



So, if I wanted to play this extreme long range game, but just not quite head-first-down-the-rabbit-hole as some of my ExLR heroes... — what does it take? 🤔


🔸(1) First of all: At 300y I'd like 2 to 3 MOA precision. Does that sound realistic?


🔸(2) What calibers should I consider?
➔ taken in consideration that I would be using commercially available slugs (either airgun slugs or firearm slugs)
➔ taken in consideration that I would be willing to get a barrel for this gun (Troy Hammer is in the process of making some)


🔸(3) What guns are easily modifiable to make the kind of power necessary to drive the slugs?
▪ I'd like my gun to be somewhat "portable" — tethering is not an option.

▪ What mods would be recommended (and no, I neither have a shop nor the gift, I'd have to send the gun someplace)?

▪ With a 700cc bottle, what kind of shotcount could I be expecting?


🔸(4) What kind of expense am I looking at for taking the ExLR plunge?





Maybe I shouldn't be asking these questions. That rabbit hole is deep. Really deep.... 😱

Matthias
 
rsfrid said:
Nope… the Accuracy International in 308.
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Sterling precision…. They do amazing work, even do some lightweight builds with proof research barrels and titanium actions.

I honestly think your going down the rabbit hole, I am looking into some big bores. The Texans 257/457 seem to have really good accuracy at longer ranges.
 
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.257 Airforce Texan, and obviously big bores like the .457 Texan and the .452 Bushbuck 45. The .257 caliber is fascinating just how accurate they can be, but the upper limits of that caliber is 250y. The Texan in .257 for precision shots while target shooting is the way to go, and it is able to be infinitely modded. The Bushbuck 45 is a dream rifle of mine so that is why I bought it. It shoots 452 diameter so that is really nice for casting/amount of commercial ammo, which is also really great for accuracy.

In all honesty most of my shots in California were 130 yards and under, and 90% of those were 60 yards and under for hunting. Now that I live in Florida they will be 40 yards and under haha. I try to keep the distance stuff to target shooting and the regular distances for hunting because I don't want to prolong an animal's suffering.

PS: nothing in my mind can beat a .257 Texan in accuracy, price, power, flat trajectory, ability to modify, and more. Many of the newer platforms are trying to achieve what Airforce Airguns did 10 years ago, and they are starting to achieve it at 2-3X the cost. Obviously every airgun is designed for different reasons so I think first you would have to specify what your intended use is.
 
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AtlasAirguns said:
.257 Airforce Texan, and obviously big bores like the .457 Texan and the .452 Bushbuck 45. The .257 caliber is fascinating just how accurate they can be, but the upper limits of that caliber is 250y. The Texan in .257 for precision shots while target shooting is the way to go, and it is able to be infinitely modded. The Bushbuck 45 is a dream rifle of mine so that is why I bought it. It shoots 452 diameter so that is really nice for casting/amount of commercial ammo, which is also really great for accuracy.

In all honesty most of my shots in California were 130 yards and under, and 90% of those were 60 yards and under for hunting. Now that I live in Florida they will be 40 yards and under haha. I try to keep the distance stuff to target shooting and the regular distances for hunting because I don't want to prolong an animal's suffering.

PS: nothing in my mind can beat a .257 Texan in accuracy, price, power, flat trajectory, ability to modify, and more. Many of the newer platforms are trying to achieve what Airforce Airguns did 10 years ago, and they are starting to achieve it at 2-3X the cost. Obviously every airgun is designed for different reasons so I think first you would have to specify what your intended use is.
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With the correct bull barrel..the limit of the .257 is 1000y .. same for the 457 the difference is that is more easy to modify the 257 texan for 1000y shots than the 457 .. the 457 without a custom Doug valve will not hold against a heavy hammer strike at higher pressure like 3,500psi .. the Chanel Verybigrifle on YouTube shows a old guy .. that spend big coins modifying airforce platform for really long shots..at really high cost... barrels only.. been in the $900 for the machined Bartleing barrel only... a simple but well done condor or talon ss build in 257 with the valve from Doug.. could shoot soda cans at $400y effortlessly..257 is that good
 
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AtlasAirguns said:
.257 Airforce Texan, and obviously big bores like the .457 Texan and the .452 Bushbuck 45. The .257 caliber is fascinating just how accurate they can be, but the upper limits of that caliber is 250y. ...
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It depends on your expectations. I consider my .257 to be a 300m (328yd) airgun.
300m-armada-02.jpg
 
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@JungleShooter, Why? If you have that distance… shoot a powder burner. Who in the heck gets into airguns to shoot 300 plus yards? A very select few? Seems silly and impractical. I thought it was understood that the strengths of airguns was/is the ability to use them in confined environments. If you’re just shooting inanimate objects? Lob them as far as you can… If hunting or pesting? You’re sending the wrong message to many. .22 rimfire energy levels, with very small margins for error?
 
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Scotchmo said:
It depends on your expectations. I consider my .257 to be a 300m (328yd) airgun.
View attachment 286024
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I am well aware as I watched you do very well at EBR last year. This the Armadanstein? I was thoroughly impressed with the build. That said, my 250y comment above holds true for most factory airguns/lightly modified rifles in real world conditions for 2-3 MOA. Hope to you see at EBR again this year.

-Atlas
 
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🔸 Thanks for all your answers! 👍🏼


🔹 I have high respect for the Airforce brand — they fill a niche, and did so a long time before other players got big.
I do admit that the looks of Airforce guns don't appeal to me — and that's saying something because I really like the looks of an RTI....
Also, I wished Airforce would pack their o so powerful guns in smaller packages — bullpups that is...


🔸 L.Leon,
no everybody has the priviledge of residing in a country who had the wisdom to formulate ⭐ a Second Amendment.
Most countries in comparison are extremely restrictive when it comes to owning and/or using PB's.... 😞
So, at my current geography PB's aren't an option, believe my I have tried (and spent more in paperwork and applications fees than the gun cost I tried to get the license for.... 😖


🔹 mercado,
yes, the not yet released RTI sounds really exciting. Already their recent Prophet II comes with a slug barrel (in .22 and .25), and has a lot of power.




🔘 What?!? "Rabbit hole"? What in the world would make you think I'm going down some rabbit hole?!?
I already picked out my scope — for the gun that's not even in existence yet.... — yes, I am a forward thinking individual, well prepared for the future.

Matthias
 
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mercado said:
With the correct bull barrel..the limit of the .257 is 1000y .. same for the 457 the difference is that is more easy to modify the 257 texan for 1000y shots than the 457 .. the 457 without a custom Doug valve will not hold against a heavy hammer strike at higher pressure like 3,500psi .. the Chanel Verybigrifle on YouTube shows a old guy .. that spend big coins modifying airforce platform for really long shots..at really high cost... barrels only.. been in the $900 for the machined Bartleing barrel only... a simple but well done condor or talon ss build in 257 with the valve from Doug.. could shoot soda cans at $400y effortlessly..257 is that good
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Here is my issue with videos like the one you mentioned. Of course that can be done and it is awesome. But in real world application these shots for hunting are rarely hits or at least without nicking half the animals you shoot at. Even if we are just talking about target shooting, at an event like EBR where metal targets are arranged at different distances (out to 394y for the 2021 competition), the .257 caliber had a difficult time landing shots past 250y because of the wind/shooter's ability. The .257 as a whole did, in my option, probably the best inside of 250 yards, but the conditions largely favored the 9mm and greater past that distance. If you could shoot from one benchrest for an afternoon I believe that yes you could get a handle on the wind and dial everything in to hit a can semi consistently, but I don't think 2-3 MOA would be possible in most cases. For most shooters, not the competitive shooters, 200y would be a stretch even with a .257.

Just my 2 cents though. I better get back to my mic and stop imagining myself with a .257 Texan 😭😂🤣
 
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Definitely not for hunting..I think any air gun should not be used past 150y if you are hunting birds or squirrels..big game may 120y if the gun is that good... as for the texan in 257 ..since I already had a well buid condor didn't find the texan any better since the 1-14 maxes out at 85g..so I sold it..very big rifle. Used a 1-13 Bartlein I imagined that helped him to stabilize better 85g for those 1000y shots .. only if one of the 2 barrels I paid to make work 257 -- 1-8 n 1-9 to stabilize 100g then I make a texan build..the texan has the capacity to do 100g at 1000fps but not the twist rate..I imagine that is the reason it could not do better in competition the little 70g is struggling in the wind..
 
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Matthias, I can fairly easily hit a bobcat sized steel at 300Y with my Uragan King in 25 cal with NSA 29gr. Can I hit it every time??? Nope, but if the wind is down I can hit it enough to enjoy the experience. These slugs only have a .075 BC in my gun BTW.

Its when the wind is switching, swirling, and generally uncooperative that results wain drastically as well as it seems to affect the vertical aspect as much as the windage aspect. However I am shooting up into a hill at 16 degrees.
 
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This is all helpful input for me to reflect on. 👍🏼
Thanks, guys. 😊


The BC info at the HardAir Magazine BC database is still kind of sketchy when it comes to slugs, soooo:

❓ Would you say that (commercially available) .25 slugs have a better BC than .22 slugs — IF we compare say a "midweight-for-caliber slug" in .22 with a "midweight-for-caliber slug" in .25?*


*I don't have the necessary experience with slugs to know what a "typical-weight-for-caliber" is.
In pellets, a midweight-for-caliber in .22 is a 15.89gr — and for .25 it's a 25.39gr.

I hope I'm making sense. This is all a bit out of my depth (technically and financially — o how I love to circle that ExLR rabbit hole.... 😱 ).

Matthias
 
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