[popeyespappy]

Back in the early 80s I spent a couple of years stationed at McGregor Range in the New Mexico desert between El Paso and White Sands. While there I took a few pronghorn with old 30-30. It was the only rifle I had and I missed out on more than a few antelope because they were way out past the 100 or so yards I was comfortable shooting at.

From McGregor Uncle Sam sent me to Germany where I spent more time than I should have drinking beer at the Karlsruhe Rod and Gun Club. I was there one day when the guy that ran the gun shop, as opposed to the guy that ran the bar, was unpacking a shipment of new rifles. One of them was a beautiful new Mark V Deluxe in 240 Weatherby Magnum. On the receiver just in front of the port it had a large spot of rust. It looked someone had put their sweaty thumb on it before they put it in the box. After discussing the ballistics of the 240 and what a fine long range prong horn rifle it would make he told me he would let me have it for $150. That was probably less than he had in it even back then and needless to say I jumped on it. Even though that $150 would have bought a lot of beers.

Well I never made it back to Bliss again to hunt pronghorn and much to my regret I eventually sold the little used Mark V to my Dad’s boss. I now find myself thinking about that flat shooting 240 again as a long range paper puncher. The Weatherby 240 Magnum fires a factory loaded 100 grain bullet at greater than 3400 fps. That’s better than a 6mmBR and almost up there with a 6x284 so I was just wondering if any of you are using the 240 Weatherby for varmints, deer, or even just long rang paper punching. I was also wondering about the Mark V synthetic as that seems to be the cheapest thing chambered for the 240. How is the quality and accuracy on those now days?