My favorite Thunder Stick is my LH 300 Wby Rem 700. It was built for elk hunting, 24" ported Douglas barrel, carbon fiber/graphite thumbhole stock, Leupold 8.5x20, Gunkote flat black moly coating. I killed a 5x5 bull 2 years ago at 400 yards (laser rangefinder). When the bullet hit him, it sounded like a bag of cement dropped onto the pavement from 10 stories up - whuuump!

My 2nd favorite is my LH 300 RUM Rem 700. It was also built for elk hunting, 26" ported Kreiger barrel, carbon fiber/graphite thumbhole stock, Swarovski 8x20, Gunkote flat black moly coating. When loaded hot, it shoots a 180 grain Nosler BT at 3500 fps!! I haven't killed anything with it yet, that's why it's my 2nd favorite. I had it in Idaho the year I killed the 5x5 elk but I had a cheap Cablelas Alaskan Guide scope on it and the rear glass came loose so I had to use the 300 Wby.

I bought the stock Rem LH 700 actions and my father built both of the rifles for me, actions trued, bolts squared and lapped, stocks pillar bedded, triggers adjusted/lapped to about 4 lbs. They are works of art, I am very proud of them but especially so since my Dad built them.

 

My flash gun is a Weatherby Accumark .338-378....I'm shooting a load with 122 grains of powder and pushing a 200 grain nosler ballistic tip at over 3600 fps. I've taken two Oryx with it. I mainly hunt with bow, but on White Sands Missile range, you don't have much of a choice but to use a rifle...

 

Thanks

 

You might look into casting your own. Cost goes way down and if you shoot many different calibres the savings really mount up. Also if you do much fishing you can use a lot of the tools for casting weights, jigheads and such.

A good source for buying bullets a little cheaper is at your local shooting range. Ask around and you will find the local guy that is making a few bucks casting in his garage.

 

The .50 BMG is one big mother for sure. What really impresses me is the range you get from the round. Kind of spendy to shoot however. What load do you use? Do you use a few grains of black powder for a starter? Sounds like the perfect rifle to carry on an ATV, way to heavy to pack on your back. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

I have an 1856 Sharps in 50-70 that I know will do a job on big game, I suspect the AR-50 would do the same, just from about a mile further away.

 

Right now all I’m running through it is military ammo that I’ve been accumulating at gun shows. The cost per round varies but is generally in the range of $1.50 to $2.00 per round. I have a local dealer working on acquiring an RCBS .50 BMG reloading kit (press and dies) but in the meantime I’m accumulating some nice Lake City brass with the military ammo that I’m picking out.

Actually I think it will be more expensive to reload the .50 BMG than it is to purchase the military surplus stuff when it comes to recreational shooting. Hornady wants nearly $2.00 each for their match grade 750 grain A-Max bullets. I haven’t done a lot of research yet for other sources. It has a veracious appetite for gunpowder too, as loading them with a maximum charge you might get 30 rounds per pound of powder! However by reloading you can really fine tune it for accuracy and consistency.

One thing for sure you really need a good backstop. I’ve been doing some plinking with it, using an old V-8 engine though instead of tin cans. Somewhere I’ve read that the .50 BMG has the ballistic coefficient and remaining energy sufficient enough to take down an elephant at 1400 yards. Energy at the muzzle is around 13,500 ft lbs, and it has more remaining energy at 1800 yards than my .45-70 (with 500 grain bullets) does at the muzzle...

 

I have several favorites.

My Shiloh Sharps in 45-70 is my favorite long range rifle. I have a 1000 yard rifle range on my ranch with a small mountain for a backstop. (Check out my gallery page)

My most often carried rifle in the desert (on my ATV) is a Marlin chambered in 45 Colt.

My most fun rifle is a Taurus M62 Carbine in 22 long rifle.

Now, except for 22s, I haven't bought a box of ammo in 40 years. You ain't a real gunner 'til you're rolling your own. That's the ONLY way to get the most out of your chosen rifle (or handgun) - tailoring the load to what shoots best, for you, in your gun. I figure a box of 20 45-70's that shoot accurately for me out to 600-700 yards costs me about $4/box or a little less.

 

Ol:

You must be shooting jacketed bullets for the cost to stay up around $4.00 per box. Shooting my own cast bullets makes it a lot cheaper than that.

I agree about the "rollin your own", I have, however, bought some factory ammo during the past 40 years. Loading for the 223s is sometimes more expensive than buying case lots of surplus stuff. I have also bought a few boxes of factory ammo when starting to load for a new rifle to find out what brand of brass it likes best.

That Shilo must be kind of like shooting a morter at 1000 yards. I have a 45-90 built on a Sharps action and the lead you have to take at 1000 yards, when shooting other than straight east or west, because of the earths rotation is noticable. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

EDIT

Forgot to mention a tip on the old big bore coal burners that my Dad gave me. When you shoot game at those long ranges you should use only hollow point bullets. Fill the cavity with salt and it will preserve the meat till you can get there to take care of it. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

LOL !! I do rec-o-member that from a lonnnnnnnng time ago. Thanks for the laugh, Pard.

And Tencubed, you do indeed speak the truth:

My accuracy drops off dramatically past 650 yards.

You're right about the cost too. I admit I was guess-timating. I use Oregon Trail Laser Cast bullets @ ~$27/250. Figure 11 cents for the bullet (excessive estimate). Powder at $14/pound (7000 grains) - so guesstimate a max of 3 cents for the powder, primers a cent and a half each and brass at 2.5 cents each - divided by 10 to 20 repoadings so you end up with ~about~ 16 cents a round or about $3.20 a box.

I shoot only hard cast lead Oregon Trail 405 grain bullets over 28.0 (twenty eight point zero) grains of XMP5744. That gets me a chronographed velocity of 1441 fps and which indeed has a moprtar shaped trajectory at that range. Hence, my Shiloh wears $750 worth of MVA globe front spirit level sight and rear mid-range soule sight.

 

My bud as a multi mold in a semi pointed 500 grain 45 bullet, that he made the mold himself, that I'm trying to talk him out of... as I'm currently too busy to reload, I mostly shoot factory ammo, but I have all the dies etc, to load most every caliber that I own, after I slow life down a little, I'll start reloading more... of course there are always the "special" TC cartridges, & things like the 10mm mag for my Automag 4, that are hand load only... but I find that I usually have something else just as "cool" to shoot, that I can stuff a factory cartridge into... & save the brass for a rainy day...