Those of you that take the long shots out west... are you using flat base or boat tail bullets to bring home the meat? I assume you would be using 30 cal's or 7mm's because of ballistic coeffecient, but I wonder what works for you?

Not out west, but take an occasional long shot at targets. You can't beat barnes for very, very high BC. But for better BC, boattails are it.

it would be safe to say the top choices in calibers are between 6mm and 30 cal. I personally would favor boattail bullets but have used flat base bullets too.

my meat getters are a 6mm rem , 308 win and 30-06. but looking at getting a 300 win mag. with my 308's I generally use 150 - 165 grain bullets same with the '06 I use a 85 grain sierra BTHP gameking in the 6mm but recently started playing with 58 grain v-max's for yotes and varmints.

At distances inside of 1/4 mile or so, the boattail isn't anywhere near as important as the front end of the bullet. Having said that, however, most of my long range bullets have a boattail. For no other reason, they start easier when bullet seating. Once the bullet falls below the speed of sound (which is way beyond the range any responsible rifle hunter should shoot), the boattail really helps the bullet slip through the air.

Wow---If I remember some of my high school physics, I think the speed of sound is about 1320 fps. For a rifle shootig around 3000 fps at the muzzle, depending on bullet weight, that could be a little further than most could feel comfortable connecting with-----

I believe that is about 1129 fps sea level, 70 degrees fahrenheit. Well, some hit that later than others.

With my .340 Wby. Mag. it likes flat base bullets; with my30 cal. rifles they like boat tails.I will use what ever the rifle likes. Good luck.

My pick is the Partition and the Hornady SST. I'd also use the Barnes MRX and the Nosler AccuBond.

Boattails unless the rifle like FB better.

For deer sized gameI shoot Nosler Ballistic Iips, 150 gr provides the best groups in my 7mm rem mag and has worked to take this game out past 400 yards.500 yards may not be considered long but it is the upper end of my confidence and ability under field conditions. Eveh as such it needs to be close to a picture perfect situation where I have favorable conditions, solid hold and positive angle presented by the animal. No texas lung or head shots for this fella!!

For larger game I have never really needed distance beyond 300 yards, in fact most have been shot 200 or under. WhereI elk hunt a long shot could easily materialize on the big agriculture fields that line the valley bush where the elk call home. Though the routes to these sources are where I situate myself and in most case finding more than 100 yards in staging areas of the dense valley brush is not easily done. Prior I stuck with flat based bullets mostly the Nosler Partition b/cmore concerned withterminal performance and pentration.The past 2 years I have gone with the TSX BT as it is more accurate in my rifle, ithasbeen excellent forthe elk and moose I have harvested.