Well, I have to admit that I was just stirring things up a bit with my comment about the new Weatherby caliber and folks buying it and not shooting much. And folks responded with true statements about dear old Dad never practicing and still competently shooting deer to 400 yards. I can't fault that logic. But...this new caliber is for the sole purpose of being able to shoot at long range, which by my measure, is out past 400 yards. The trajectory is likely to be something along the lines of my 220 Swift, when sighted in at 200 yards, which is a 5 inch drop at 300, 15 inches at 400, and probably 33 inches or so at 500. If you are going to shoot at 400 and beyond, practice is required. If a fellow isn't going to use the cartridge for its designed purpose, why buy it? Just get yourself a 256 Newton (6.5-06) and go with that.

Of course I realize that it's their money and they can buy whatever they want. And there will be people that buy this caliber in a rifle and are extremely proficient shooters. Further, since I'm an old 270 guy. I could buy the rifle and caliber and probably be quite happy with it, except for my shoulder.

Just stirring the pot...

I would be impressed if dear old dad could hit a 6 inch target at 620 yards, cold bore, no sight in, and not having shot the rifle since last deer season. Regardless of caliber, if that shot could be pulled off I would be impressed............Until shots such as these can be made on a regular basis, I will keep practicing.

I would be impressed if I could read rifle thread on the Texas Hunting Forum that did not include the terms: Cold bore shot, shooting steel, long range, or MOA. Or try to belittle the observations of folks who don't care about punching holes in paper or ringing steel plates.

My dad never considered himself a very good shot because his dad and uncle were such amazing shots. They use to put on demonstrations like exhibition shooters where they would shoot their winchester 22s. Dad said they would hang an empty shell casing from a string, call which direction they wanted it to swing, and shoot. Then the other one could make it stop swinging or shoot the string off. Or they would throw bottles in off cliffs into the strip cut. One would should under the bottle to make it jump out of the water, and the other would shoot it in the air. My uncle even hunted quail with his 22 until the game warden threatened to take him to jail if he didn't stop.

is MIL okay to put in posts?

As long as it isn't in conjunction with a lever gun.

We can shoot water balloons if you would like. They just don't hold up like metal targets.

Amen to this.

I hear or read "cold bore shot" one more time I'm gonna....burn every did copy of shooter I can find

Colt it's not illegal to shoot quail with a .22 in Texas...

That story took place in Western Kentucky where my dad is from, but I think the game wardens concern was my great uncle shooting birds in flight with a 22.

Dear old dad probably had enough sense not to attempt a 620 yard shot. He probably knew his limits and his rifle's well enough to use it in the field. What else matters to a hunter?

Dear old Dad would be hunting with a 3x9 duplex scope sighted in 2 inches high at 100 yards, no range finder, no BDC and no wind-meter. Dear old Dad did just that at Camp Pendelton while hunting blacktail with my brother. Dad had given him the 300 about 2 years earlier and hadn't shot it since. Pop's rolled her over at 600 yards with a half a dozen witness's. Not because he was lucky but because he knew that rifle and that caliber.

But it takes a real shooter to drive a rifle well enough to make cold bore hits ring on moa long range steel plates. Everyone else is a poser.

Can you do it with a duplex, single cross hair only 3x9 sighted in 2 inches high at 100, no rangefinder, no wind-meter and not touch your scope? Now I'm going to give ya 3 seconds to pull it off. Care to try it with the 6.5x47 or would you rather something a little flatter and faster?

I'm a dear old dad and I suspect were you and I to both take a single shot at any distance over 500 yards using my rifle only, as it's set up with no range-finder or wind-meter, I'd take your money for the closest hit.

I gotta ask.

What is so wrong with having a ruler in the scope? It gives precise holds for elevation and wind. Anyone that is extremely proficient with a duplex reticle uses it with known measurents. Center of the reticlr halfway to the heavy line, all the way to the heavy line, ect.

What is so wrong with using a laser range finder IF SOMEONE HAS THE FEW SECONDS TO DO SO?

And how do you know, without a shadow of a doubt, you have shot at X distance beyond 200 yards if it is not confirmed with a range finder? I've seen lots of shooters call 250 yards 500 yards, and 400 yards 600 yards. And that is an observation not an accusation.

This is the clash of two different styles of shooting. One is not any more right then the other. Both styles have their pros and cons. Ones quicker and more instinctive. The other is more precise but slower. They prefer different cartridges, bullets, and sights.Two sides of the same coin that rarely agree.

^^I completely agree^^

You led right into what I was thinking. It's like the pereptual HF/ LF debate.

And as far as slow, speed comes with practice, and the speed is simply making an educated guess on distance. I am pretty good at it, but I still don't trust myself to accurately judge distance beyond 300 yards. I too have estimated distance, held over, and made the shot, but they have not been long shots Typically anything I am hunting far away (hogs and coyotes) are calm and don't know I'm there. Therefore I have the few seconds to bounce a laser off em.

If a fellow is going to take long shots on critters, why guess distance if you don't have to? Out past 400 or so, distance really starts to matter on trajectory. If you have a plain old duplex reticle and think the distance is 200, and your rifle is sighted in for that, and the distance is really 300 yards, the drop with my 270 is 7 inches. I'll get the deer, but I'd likely miss the coyote. At 400 yards, still thinking it's 200 yards, I'll miss both a deer and a coyote, but I'll scare them plenty. That's why I have a RF. Not the best, but good to 400 on critters and 600 or more on shiny stuff.

From personal experience, I can tell you that your guess on distance will depend on several factors that you might not have even considered. How big is the deer and how tall are the trees? It matters. I wouldn't have guessed that it mattered that much till I started splitting hunting time between NE Louisiana (big trees and big deer) and south TX (smaller deer and mesquite trees). I was way overestimating distances in TX, thinking a deer that looked tiny was 400 yards away and he was 250. Your eyes play tricks on you. Get a RF. Can't hurt. Sure saves tracking time on wounded deer.

Ranging is vital for long range, but,back to topic, we are talking about a weatherby. They are typically used by people looking for mpbr. The 6.5-300 only has 7 inches of drop at 400 if zeroed at 250 so it helps eliminate range estimate errors. It speeds up the shot by helping to eliminate ranging at typical hunting ranges and one less thing to carry. However barrel life is short if abused or used for more then hunting.

I agree! One is slower, requires different setup's and gear, different bullet's, batteries and the rifles used tend to be heavy, cumbersome and are frequently chambered in mundane lower velocity calibers. The other tends to lean towards less gear, sleeker lighter rifles chambered in calibers that are flat and fast enough to remove allot of the guess work out of range estimation and wind calculations. One side tends to agree that if your not capable of making 600 yard cold bore shoots on steel your not a shooter. The other side tends to agree that if you need all that gear just to make a 600 yard shoot instead of trying to move in closer your not a hunter. While I applaud the LR boys accomplishments at long range I do find their arrogance less than appealing and their equipment less than desirable for most hunting situations. Personally I want to drive a bullet designed for impacting meat and bone as fast as I can to guarantee I deliver as much energy as possible to make it a one shot stop. I've made some long shot's in the past but most were on none game animals such as yote's and jack rabbit's with a couple of those being in the 600 yard range but it was mostly just to see if I could do it shots. My longest on a game animal was a mulie down by Rankin about 450 yards with no possible way of getting closer other than having to walk about 3 miles to get on the other side of the canyon. That one shot was made with a 7-mag and he dropped where he was standing, had it been much longer I would have made the drive and moved in from above. My personal rule is 2000 ft-lbs of energy at impact on game animals which means keeping the range in an area that assures that.

All my rifles have one thing in common from the 223 to the 300, all have muzzle velocitie's in the 3500 to 3600 ft-ps range wit a few just a little faster.

For me it just clutters up the view.



How long does it take to grab the range finder, range then grab your rifle and shoot?



A lifetime of playing golf and a general knowledge from looking at game animals and terrain. With the rifles I shoot a difference of 50 yards is not going to make that much of a difference in bullet impact. I tend to guess a little long on yardage but short on antler score, never figured that one out yet.

I don't keep binocs around my neck, I glass with an 8X Swarovski Laser Guide, all that is added is the push of a button.

To shoot anything far away can be done with sleek, light weight rifles, that are more comfortable to carry all day. And that sleek rifle can wear a lightweight scope with a reticle with known holds for elevation and wind. Fast bullets do well inside 400 yards, they don't fall much which helps with the simple duplex reticle. 400 is the typically the dividing line where bullets begin to drop rapidly. I've seen .22-250, and .223 run near the same trajectory as 300 Win Mags to 300 and 400 yards. 500 plus and things significantly change. Once a person learns how to use the "ruler" they don't have to dial for the speed of the shot's sake. Anyone that has hunted long enough knows sometimes you have to snap shoot. But I'm not gonna snap shoot anything I think is outside 300 yards. If I am on the move I am zeroed for 100 yards, magnification turned down as low as it will go, and focus set for 100 yards. My room for error is small, because I am trying to hit coyote vitals or head, not deer vitals. There's a significant difference in size. And coyotes really want to live! I'd rather kill coyotes and hogs than deer, call me crazy.

I don't use a wind meter. It only tells what the wind is doing where I'm standing, but what matters is what the wind is doing where there is something I am going to shoot. Grass, trees and mirage are the wind flags, that's all ya got when hunting so that's all I use when shooting for practice. Making a wind speed estimation is where the art comes in. Some guys are terrific at it, some of us have to practice it. Once the wind speed is judged it is easy to remember what the wind hold should be, in hard numbers, for a given distance. As you well know, judging wind can become a gut feeling based on previous observations.

I don't begrudge anyone for doing things their way if their way is working for them. But I can't teach a person the 40 years experience from a veteran hunter. I can, however, teach a person the science behind the shooting and give them solid numbers to compensate for distance and wind simultaneously.

I can see it well from both sides because I like both kinds of shooting. My favorite reticle is a duplex, although I haven't owned a scope with a duplex reticle for some time. I have shot mostly air rifles for the last decade or so, and used fixed 4x mildot scopes almost exclusively. The trajectory of an air rifle practically requires it, because pellets drop really fast beyond 40 yards. For hunting, even with an air rifle, I still prefer the duplex reticle, or open sights, and to limit myself to the practical range without holdover. 30-40 yards, is plenty for small game- squirrels don't stop for you to find a solid rest so fast off-hand shooting works the best. You have to limit yourself to the distance you can reliably hit the heart/lungs off-hand, even when you are in a rush.
I prefer the duplex or open sights because it is not as cluttered or busy looking as some of the crazy reticles out there. A mil dot or better yet, a half mil reticle, to me isn't that bad-and it's usefulness offsets the advantage a plain reticle would offer. I have only one rifle, and it has a for-now scope, but it will probably have a nice FFP mil/mil variable on it within the next couple years despite my affinity for a plain scope. I like to push my limits in target shooting-not even competitively, but just because. It's just plain fun. But you are not going to guess on 700 + or - yards accurately enough to prevent wounding and losing a animal. Missing and using the impact to adjust is fine for target shooting but you need a lazer rangefinder if you plan to hunt with the combo and really stretch it out beyond the max pbr of your gun. And you need a place to practice, and learn the actual drop because ballistic calculators are never just 100% dead on perfect. They can get you close but that's all.
A guy like me could really enjoy a gun like the new Westherby 6.5. I don't own anything really nice to pass down to the grandkids one day. If you are looking for just one, real nice rifle, with a flat trajectory that's capable of long range shooting with the best of them- this might be a good choice. I don't think Weatherby's target audience is the tacticool crowd, nor the serious long range crowd, but the average guy that wants a very nice rifle he could be proud to pass down. Also one that shoots very flat- and with which, given he one day has the time and resources, can expect to be competitive in long range competition. Are there other guns that fit the description? Yes, but they don't shoot as flat or hit as hard as the Weatherby. Pretty cool story to tell your grandson, "in my day this was the flattest shooting, hardest hitting 6.5 made. I killed my first (insert cool hunt) with it, i competed against whoever with it, maybe won x trophy or whatever or maybe not. Surely any grandson would be proud to have his grangfather's rifle- especially the flattest shooting, hardest hitting version of a rifle built at the time.
So it's not necessarily about building the gun with the longest bore life, or to a price point. It's about building a nice rifle with max potential right out of the box, that you can be proud to own and pass down. Maybe Weatherby offers some other cartridges that are more versatile to a hunter, but if you like 6.5's this might be it for you.
Personally if I were to buy a 6.5 I'd go with a Swedish mauser because I like guns I can shoot comfortably all day, and afford to do so. I don't get to the range often, but when I do I wanna make a day of it and beat my last best. That's just my thing.
I have to admit though, I would love a Weatherby Mark V, chambered in something I could hunt the world with...