Re: Your .30cal of choice?
I think that for competitive shooting these days I prefer the .30 caliber for short range paper punching in a case of very limited capacity, I.e., I use the .30BR for FV250. I like the larger .30 caliber bore because larger holes cut more lines on the target.
The .30 caliber is also a choice, not my only choice, for Highpower/Service Rifle shooting. I.e., this Neanderthal is never going to give up shooting his Garand.
The .30'06 and .280 are also my choices for deer in open areas.
Beyond that, I prefer the .260 and .280 for paper punching at distance. The skinnier bullets in those calibers can do it well enough without the additional energy expenditures the .30's would need.
If I <span style="font-style: italic">had</span> to use a .30, my upper limit is the .30-'06. Anything larger is just too fatiguing for the kind of repetitive shooting practice competitive shooting requires.
I don't like recoil because I actually have a physical limit on how much recoil I can actually tolerate. But even without that, recoil has no practical benefit in the precision shooting process. If you can get it done without it, I don't see any downside.
I think that once you get the projectile up to a 6.5mm or 7mm diameter, BC's become high enough to be as practical as larger diameters. Mass is only useful if signifacantly larger terminal energy is required. Otherwise, it's not an asset.
Greg
