Thank you very much for your input. Between the 6.5 and the 300WM, what would you say would be the better overall round to learn on out to 1000-1500? Thanks again!
6.5CM hands down. The ammo is cheaper, the barrel will last twice as long, there are far more guns suited to that distance available and it's better training. 1500 yards is pretty much the end of the line for the 6.5CM on a silhouette and the wheels have fallen off at a mile but it'll still be getting a couple hits. Eventually, the wheels fall off everything and you will be going there so getting the experience early is good. You will be able to cross 1 mile off the bucket list with a 6.5CM.
10 years ago, I was in the same position you're in now with the same goals. I set up a R700 in 300WM for it. Worked great. It gave up nothing to a 338 Lapua except a lot of expense. That was then, better choices are now available. That applies to both the gun and cartridge.
Let's put up a straw man for what you're after. I'm not telling you this is what you need to be after, this is just a set of working assumptions to be updated with what you're really thinking. What you're thinking will also change as you work through this project and gain experience.
Not a reloader (yet). Factory ammo must be available. The 4 components of a 1 mile error budget are the precision of the ammo and rifle, velocity variations, BC variations, and uncertainty in the aiming point. Factory ammo means the most undesirable values for the first 3. The last one is what you're trying to develop. The short version is assuming the next shot will hit in or even near the last shot is naive. The group will be a cloud. You need to figure out where the center of the cloud is with as few shots as possible and have the discipline to wait for the inevitable hit. You will also need to be adjusting for wind changes through the filter of the horizontal cloud. Factory ammo will either be the most discouraging or the best teacher depending on how you approach things. When you're up and running on a ballistic solver, use it to get a set of common values for the contribution of each of the first 3 components. The precision comes from the 100 yard groups, bump the velocity 100 fps and run another solution, do the same for a 10% change in BC. Convert it all to either an angular value at the target or inches of vertical. Figure 50 fps and 4% on the BC is a pretty good lot of factory ammo. Decent reloads are half that, one fourth of that is highly competitive. If these concepts are internalized, it quickly becomes apparent that jerking off on the 100 yard line trying to get group sizes down is a waste of time, barrel life, and components. Cartridges that trade a less drop for barrel life lose a lot of luster. Time of flight does matter in the on target vertical spread from a given set of velocity or BC differences, but the real meat is in cutting the differences themselves. The estimates should be for what you're confident the next 10 shot string will be, not the best you remember for each.
10 shot strings on a 30-60 second cadence before a barrel cool down. This seems to be where everybody I shoot with goes when recreational shooting. It's middle of the road for a competition COF. Figure barrel life of 2500 rounds with the 6.5 CM, 1200 for the 300WM, 600-800 for a 300 Norma, 400-600 for a 33XC or 375CT. A given barrel might be done at half that, it's unlikely one will go half again that.
Hobby level interest. Not interested in cutting edge competition equipment. (yet)
For the gun, my thoughts are the RPR is the best value. I have 6 of them. Two of them still have their Ruger barrels. Pick 6.5CM, 300 PRC or 338 Lapua. If you want a 338, just buy it because nothing else will scratch the itch. The 300 PRC has the same ballistic performance for half the factory ammo cost. The core benefits of the 300 PRC over the 300 WM are the factory ammo is much better, the chamber in factory barrels is better, and much better brass is readily available for the reloader. The 338 might be more upgradeable, but this likely won't be your last ELR rifle.
For optics, start with the travel you'll need for a mile. Say 20 mils or 70 moa. My equipment is all mils, but optics specs tend to be in moa so we'll use those. If we try to brute force it, trying to do 70 moa with just the turret will require a scope with 140 moa of travel. That's on the expensive end of 34mm scopes. If a 20 moa base is added, we'll only need 100 moa of internal travel. That's within the range of decent 30mm scopes. There isn't any difference in the costs of 20 and 30 moa bases. Once you're into scopes with 100 moa of travel, just go with the 30 moa base. These are sample calcs, redo them for the cartridge and maximum range you decide on. I prefer ghosted Christmas tree reticles. Hashmarks on the cross hairs, dots out in space. This is a strongly personal preference that depends on the mental games you play to improve your chances on the 4th component. For reference, a 2 mile optic system looks like a 130+moa 34mm scope in a 20 moa 1 piece mount on a 30 moa base with a 30 mil NF wedge on the forend or NV bridge.
I strongly recommend the use of a chrono when you shoot. It'll greatly improve your perspective on what's going on down range, speed up the learning curve and frankly it's a huge advantage when shooting long range. The Garmin is the current favorite. I have one and it's lived up to the hype.
A LRF is a good idea, as is a Kestrel.
There are all kinds of hacks to avoid buying those 3 pieces of equipment. That getting stuck at 600-800 yards is often the result of "truing" up a solution and building a broken watch. It's right twice a day, once at 100 yards and once at the truing distance.
Fuck, I've written another attention span test......
