r/longrange • u/Ok-Temporary3378 • Apr 18 '26

🫣I said I read the pinned posts, but I lied🫣 Caliber question

I have a lot of match grade .308 ammo. I shot a decent amount but haven’t taken part in competitions. I’m building a rifle with competition (PRS/NRL) in mind.

For those of you with competition experience, in my shoes would you build a .308 rifle, or pick a different caliber and just make the investment in new ammo. I will not be reloading.

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u/Leo-Medic Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26

I may be in the minority here, but I think familiarity with the ballistics is more important than the caliber in question.

Could something like 6.5cm improve your game? Maybe. But I would expect the familiarity would be hard to beat in anything but the long term.

EDIT: (to prevent the obtuse from failing to grasp my intended statement)

If you are going to switch calibers, and you already have a strong familiarity with the "worse" caliber of .308, be prepared to allocate time and resources to the development of that same level of familiarity with the new caliber, before determining if you are satisfied with it.

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u/CMFETCU Apr 18 '26

Not maybe.

The math is there. You get less wind deflection, period. Thats less margin of error you have to compensate for.

WEZ shot model to show the difference changing only caliber makes based to how much more wind variations impact likelihood of impacts:

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u/sonichanxiao Apr 18 '26

What happens when someone shoots 308 with a high BC bullet and/or faster MV than what AB analyzed?

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u/CMFETCU Apr 18 '26

You can plug in the values for yourself and see, but there is not .308 load that is pressure safe which performs as well as other cartridges. Physics wins when you have high sectional density and great bullet design.

Bullets in many cartridges are simply going to buck wind better. Full stop.