Long range groundhog getter

[Speed Demon]

Did somebody mention steak? Could you throw in some lobster also? I'm in!

[thetworegs]

Doese that mean we can shoot some cows????we'll need a Howitzer won't we???or maybe just Genes big rifle will do!!?...We could hide in the trees and all fire on the count of three......but then we'll need a video.....who's going to do the video?.......we shouldn't have a problEm with the movie score....but possibly the animal rights people might get a touch testy.....maybe I'd best stop now......

[Mojo1961]

Cool thread, guns and guitars - my two favourite things.

Yesterday I got to fire a barrett .50BMG for the first time. I was actually surprised how little recoil there was, it was like shooting my .243 groundhog gun. The muzzle blast was unreal through the muzzle break, but Gene is right, only subsonic can be silenced, it's the bullet in the air breaking the sound barrier that makes it loud. That's  why they make the .300 and .500 whisper and lower-power (still deadly) subsonic .50BMG round, the full power .50BMG ain't silenced. In the AWC video  they are using subsonic rounds (there are other youtubes to verify this). No silencers on supersonic F-16's, but the subsonic stealth f-117 was way quieter. Physics don't lie, hollywood does, next thing you know there will guns firing underwater and bullets lethal in 10ft of water. Of course in space no one can hear you scream.


Hey Gene, I had a great .22-250 Ruger varmint heavy barrel, the old tang safety action, strong as a tiger tank and a  200 yd one holer with 55g sierra Blitz seated way way out. Lots of Win 7xx powder (check old lyman 45th reload manual hint, hint) and chronyed at 3950fps! Way beyond lawyer-friendly new loading data. I only used these for 3 reloads max, the necks would get way too thick. It was probably as loud as you say but man it made a good groundhog out of every one of them that was in it's crosshairs. Unfortunately it and all 6 of my other guns were stolen 5 years ago. I've replaced a few but I'm keeping an eye out for another good Ruger M77.
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[Tony W]

Jets.... I was stationed on a predominantly Harrier base for 3 years. We would deploy about 30 miles out in the desert for 6 weeks at a time, and those jackass fighter jocks would break the sound barrier right over our camp. The problem that I had with it was if we were in a tent when it happened, the roof of the tent would come down and slap you in the face. I'd still like to get my hands on one of those pilots.

I had a .22-250 with a varmint barrel on it, and traded it off for a .270, a trade that I wish I had not made now. I miss that gun.

There's a huge  difference between silenced and suppressed when it comes to expectations. I sometimes forget the magic bullet factor, and some people believe that you can achieve silenced rounds. Nothing is going to silence a supersonic round, but the muzzle blast is suppressed to a much lower DB level by how the gas is dispersed. I stand by my first post in the thread as to why suppressors can be potentially beneficial, and silenced isn't on the list.

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Off Topic:

Either of you guys ever considered progressive reloading? My brother did all my reloading, so I'm in the market to get setup for high volume.

[Mojo1961]

Hi Tony, good call on the suppressed explanation. It's too bad Hollywood perpetuates so many gun myths. I agree sound of gas can be reduced.

Regarding the progressive reloading, I used to shoot competitive bench rest, so I did all my reloads single stage. I used a .222 Rem Custom based on a Sako L461 Vixen action, 26" no taper HB, 20x Lyman American Target scope 1/8" dot. Unfortunately it was stolen too. So all my reloads for the Ruger were one at a time as well, as they are for my .243 now. Lyman Orange crusher press, RCBS scale, assorted dies. I weigh each and every load and check the scale every 10 rounds. Depends on what you want to use it for, say action shooting, I would imagine a progressive would work fine, but I would still use single stage (say one of the Lee presses) for load development and learning first. Hard to tell what little changes are affecting accuracy if the progressive is changed in any way. But once you had that set to your ideal load it would be fine. I did have a progressive 12 Gauge but shotgun is way more forgiving on the subtle changes. But the price of 12 Ga is not worth the effort anymore as it is so much cheaper now (relatively). Centerfire reloads are less than half cost than manufactured, and are well worth the effort! So overall load development and learn on single stage press, then volume load on the progressive. And record everything you do in a log book, from components, to group size of fired rounds, to air temperature, don't go by memory. But Beware - reloading is addictive. And it is rocket science

Hope this helps Tony. PM me if you want to know more.

[Tony W]

oh that helps! PM on it's way.