I am thinking of adding a handgun barrel to my encore for long range shooting. And with so many choices I am having a hard time deciding on what caliber to get. It will be used for whistle pigs and whitetail ( .233 is illegal for deer in this state). Also I am not a fan of the big wrist breakers. I am thinking 7mm08, but would like to know others experiences with the encore before I decide.

.260 or 7-08 would both make a good choices, as would the .308. Depends how long the long range shooting is. If you have baby deer in VA like many parts of the country a .243 might ve a viable option also. I would personally take the larger bullet for deer but if you shoot a lot more vermin than deer, and the deer are shot within 200 yards, the .243 might be a good choice if you don't want too much recoil.

If you handload the bigger rounds would be a lot more versatile than the .243 for what you want to do.

I have been looking hard at the 260 and other 6.5mm cartridges. What powders work best with the short barrels? They only hand gun ammo that I load now are standard pistol cartridges.

Although it may seem counterintuitive the same powders that work best in the rifles usually work the best (if we are talking velocity) in the pistol barrels.

Check out Hodgdon's website for loading data with their powders....there are MANY that work well in the .308 based casings. Other brands of powders will work also I'm just partial to Hodgdon in most cases. I would start with Benchmark or Varget...I've seen some tremendous ballistic uniformity with these two in the .308

http://www.hodgdon.com/data/rifle/260rem.php

If you roll your own ....260 Rem if you shoot factory 7-08.
(anyone considering shooting long range with a handgun certainly needs to handload the for practice and ammo quality)

I am ...however not sure what long range is to you....here it can be several hundred yards.

The 7MM-08 in the Encore is a good choice I shoot one in a 15" Barrel with a brake and the recoil is pretty mild for a rifle round. It's good out to 300 yards no problems. I was getting around 2550 FPS using varget and 140 grain pills.The barrel is a Bullberry in a heavy varmint contour .840 at the muzzel. I think between the 260, 243 and 7-08 the 7-08 is the better choice for hand loading there's a ton of 7MM stuff out there to try.

Hoeram :D

My 260 gets a chroned 2750 fps from a 15" barrel with 120 Barnes X and Varget. It also likes 125 grain Partitions with Varget. This is from an 100XPR not an Encore, used for our larger than average MN deer. If you do go with a brake, esp on a short barreled handgun, be sure to plan on wearing ear protection... even while you hunt. One spur-of-the-moment shot from a braked 223 Contender taught me that.

I am thinking of adding a handgun barrel to my encore for long range shooting. And with so many choices I am having a hard time deciding on what caliber to get. It will be used for whistle pigs and whitetail ( .233 is illegal for deer in this state). Also I am not a fan of the big wrist breakers. I am thinking 7mm08, but would like to know others experiences with the encore before I decide.

All other posters discussed rifle chambered cartridges and that may be what you have decided to go with. However, I will throw out the choice of a handgun cartridge. I have an Encore and live in VA as well. I have a .260 rifle barrel, but haven't done much testing with it yet. However I have done quite a bit of load testing with my 12" 454 Casull barrel. I have been really impressed with this cartridge and understand why it has such a good following. There is something to be said for launching a 250gr round at 1600 fps and watching it make pop cans disapear at 100 yds! Factory loadings are about 2000 fps, but I just am not that accurate with loads that hot yet, though I am sure the gun is. I have shot 44 mags for quite a while, but the 454 is a whole new ball game! Especially on the Encore platform. Components are readily available for a wide range of bullets, even Ballistic tipped bullets if you know where to find them. More of these should be showing up with the introduction of the new .460 S&W.

I am not sure of how long your long range shooting intends to be. I haven't shot further than 100 yds to date, but the cartridge is certainly capable of killing deer easily at least 200 yds. That would be my absolute max distance for deer with a 12" barrel anyway. I can only imagine what a 250gr ballistic tip would do to a groundhog! Maybe someday I will find out.
Just food for thought.

I can tell you that the .22-250 is excellent for long range varmints, but if you after deer, the cartridge is lacking, and in your case illegal. Tc used to have a bunch of wildcats in the contender that were not quite as powerfull as the .260 Rem.

These were good cartridges for deer and antelope so I would imagine the .260 would work well. I know the .30-30 from a 14 inch barrel is excellent for deer with a 130 grain bullet. If you go to 150 grain you start to have expantion problems.

You need a bullet that will expand so don't go too heavy because you may not be able to get the velocity needed for expantion. Good luck Hunting

Regards,
Gene

I have used my .309 JDJ out to 300 yards with excellent results (on targets, not game). 165 gr. Nosler BT at 2304.2 fps will certainly reach out and touch something.

Lynn,
What is long range for you?
What use(s) are you wanting to build this for?
What kinds of rest(s) do you intend to shoot from?

Ernie

I would suggest a custom shop 7x57 Mauser...but thats just me. :)

Otherwise go with the 7-08...weather you handload or not, its a good choice...very easy to come by, as well.

And of course there is the magic in the .284 dia bullet. :D


D


Of course, if you go the custom route....

there IS the 338 WinMag. :rolleyes:

Encores are nice for that... :)