Which calibre/s for LR & ELR, and general costs?

[Ds J]

Just out of interest - which calibres are most commonly used for long range and extreme long range shooting?

I know about 7mm SAUM and 338 LM, and I have read about 375 and 416 Cheytac. A few weeks ago I handled a rifle built for the 416 Hellfire cartridge. It must have weighed a good 12kg or more? One also needs to mention the .50 BMG.

And - if I may - what does the shooting cost? Some years ago a shooter mentioned he pays R120 per cartridge, and someone mentioned R75 000 - R120 000 per rifle. The equipment looks spectacular - much like a sports car for a kid.

[big5ifty]

338 Lapua and 375 Cheytac are the most popular that I've seen on the firing line for one mile and over.

Cost per round hangs off the bullet choice. If you use a well priced bullet, that reduces the cost significantly.

At the moment, the best priced bullets for long range and ELR are Peregrine.

Primer availability aside, the cost of a BMG reload is just under R100 if you use Peregrine bullets.

It may sound expensive to shoot, but consider that if you use the rifle in one match per year for 30 rounds, it's cheaper for the year than shooting a 9mm pistol at IPSC.

Berger bullets [ just the bullet ] for the 375 Cheytac cost around R120 each.

The cheapest option for a long range rifle is a custom build.

Off-the-shelf Barret and Victrix will cost multiples of that.

The actual caliber for LR / ELR is not material. The bullet weight and bullet BC are important, and matter much more than muzzle velocity.

Bullet weight is important for spotting misses. No jokes. The heavier the bullet, the better you can spot the miss. Spotting misses is more important than spotting impact, because these days there are hit indicators on the target to show a hit, and nothing to help you spot a miss. You'll only understand this if you regularly shoot past 1 km at different venues.

BC is the critical number. A G1 of 1 reaches 2 miles in 70 mils with a muzzle velocity of 2650 fps. Anything that reaches 2 miles at around 200 moa is fantastic, IMO.

If you just play with the ballistic calculator a bit, you'll see that even fantastically high velocity without a bullet G1 of around 1, is not as practical.

For ELR, if there are no G1 BC bullets at around 1.0 or greater available, it's not a good ELR cartridge.

For LR, or to 1600m, any cartridge with a bullet  G1 of 0.6 can get you to the target, elevation adjustment permitting. On a day with no wind.

When the wind blows, the smaller, lower BC bullets suffer the most. The harder the wind blows, the more you wish you had a bigger rifle.

[Treeman]

The above just boggles me mind, whole different ball game.

[JamesNotBond]

Not ELR, only 300 m. This range is actually far less dramatic when there in person, a big let down actually.
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/11/22/rifle-range-highway-switzerland/

[Ds J]

Goodness me! Thanks, it is really a whole new world.