Long range shooting

[Davejohn90]

I want a 1000+ gun. I know .308 i s an amazing caliber but is .338 better. Also I'm looking for reasonably priced rifle that is good off the shelf.

[Airdale]

Shooting a .338 will get pretty expensive. 7mm Rem. Mag is a round that will get you out there and still have plenty of knock down power. It's often overlooked but it's an accurate flat shooting round.

[Airdale]

Any Tikka T3, Savage (not the Axis or edge) , Howa, Remington 700 with a Varmint contour barrel with a 24" minimum length should do what you want.

Warning you will probably want to change the stock on most of the above rifles (I know from experience) so you might want to go with a package deal where
that is already done. You'll end up getting a complete rifle ready to shoot.

I got one of these packages for my first long range rifle and am very pleased. http://www.snipercentral.com/scrifle...ml?packageid=1

http://www.snipercentral.com/scrifle...ml?packageid=2

[ozo]

Originally Posted by Davejohn90

I want a 1000+ gun. I know .308 i s an amazing caliber but is .338 better. Also I'm looking for reasonably priced rifle that is good off the shelf.

Do you mean 1000yds or at least 1000 guns....

Get a 50......it'll do what you want.

[cycloneman]

Originally Posted by Davejohn90

I want a 1000+ gun. I know .308 i s an amazing caliber but is .338 better. Also I'm looking for reasonably priced rifle that is good off the shelf.

Well since the thread was called long range shooting i guess you want to shoot 1000 yrds or meters?

A 308 in a hornady sst 165 gr bullet at 3065 fps is gona fall 100&1/2" at 700 yrds. Just saying.

Reasonably priced rifle????? To shoot a thousand yards?

[cycloneman]

Originally Posted by ozo

Do you mean 1000yds or at least 1000 guns....

Get a 50......it'll do what you want.

He said reasonably priced. I dont think he is talking 5K. Much less the optic.

[Airdale]

Something to consider: Apparently Remington is going to offer a long range version of their SPS model so you might want to wait for that (I would). Found this on Sniper Central:

UPDATED NOTICE!!: Remington has pushed the release on the SPS Long Range rifles back to late summer. If you are contemplating 300 Win Mag, 7mm Rem Mag, 25-06 or 300 RUM, you may want to wait until late summer of 2012. Remington has announced they will have the SPS Long Range available in those calibers at that time. We can use these rifles, with their heavy barrels, as our base rifle and be able to offer this chamberings at the same price as the current package without any additional cost. If you need the rifle in one of those chamberings sooner, then it will be the standard $400 upgrade price.

[gun runner]

A Savage .338 lapua magnum with quality optic should work perfect. Ammo is not that high, by the time you get done shooting a 20 pack of .338 caliber ammo it will probaly be over an hour because you would have to let the barrel cool. Unless your shooting in the winter. www.savagearms.com

[ozo]

Originally Posted by cycloneman

He said reasonably priced. I dont think he is talking 5K. Much less the optic.

But it is reasonably priced......
for consistent 1000yd shots.......

[ozo]

A .338 Lapua Magnum falls way short at half the distance
http://www.cpcartridge.com/338lapua-B.htm
Although others have a very high regard for it's possible abilities...
http://www.snipercentral.com/338.htm

And a 10/110 [or similar] is not inexpensive
jus sayin'....
A 700 SPS is very commonly used in SWAT
http://www.snipercentral.com/remspsv.htm

Still, a 1000 yd shot, consistently placed well, is a feat not
mastered by many......and it takes a weapon with expensive
'skills' of it's own to do so, even for the masters.

[ozo]

Reasonably priced-good off the shelf-1000yd shots
These don't go together.
The optics alone to achieve this are expensive.

[gun runner]

I totally agree with you Ozo. Makes alot of sense, the 50 bmg will do what he needs but even if he gets a less caliber he will need an expensive quality optic as well as with the 50

[gun runner]

Originally Posted by ozo

A .338 Lapua Magnum falls way short at half the distance
http://www.cpcartridge.com/338lapua-B.htm
Although others have a very high regard for it's possible abilities...
http://www.snipercentral.com/338.htm

And a 10/110 [or similar] is not inexpensive
jus sayin'....
A 700 SPS is very commonly used in SWAT
http://www.snipercentral.com/remspsv.htm

Still, a 1000 yd shot, consistently placed well, is a feat not
mastered by many......and it takes a weapon with expensive
'skills' of it's own to do so, even for the masters.

How do you become a master?

[ozo]

Originally Posted by gun runner

How do you become a master?

Two centuries ago, if you owned a bunch of land in the south....
farmed cotton and....

I'm sure you know of these clubs.....
A friend of mine is employed as a sniper for the big
contractor in the Middle East and rides the supply convoys.
When he is home, he spends a lot of time with his club
that shoots exploding targets with 50BMG's, many targets
out to 1000yds. There are a handful of these clubs around the
country and they have competition shoots.
The few I have been to have a handful of guys that circulate
meet to meet, and they are true masters of the art of long range
shooting. Obviously it takes a lot of time, a lot of rounds, and a
lot of money to do this, so I can see why you are confused at
how one would become such.

[gun runner]

Makes sense to me.

[aa1911]

you could find a Hi power service rifle or hi-power rifle club/range to travel to and start shooting to hone your skills; I used to do about a half dozen 1000yd matches with my M14 and M1A (iron sights at that) but shooting at bullseye targets the size of a barn door. Wish I had the time to do that still. Many shot the AR mouse gun out there too. .308 will get there but it will have lost much of it's oomph.

.300 mag is a good choice for OK performance at that distance but not too crazy expensive. .338 will be better, but more expensive. then it goes waaaaaaay up in price!

[Davejohn90]

A local pawn shop (I KNOW SHHHHHH) is selling a .308 thats action is supposed to be set at 1500 yards

[Zane71464]

[QUOTE=Airdale;991655]Shooting a .338 will get pretty expensive. 7mm Rem. Mag is a round that will get you out there and still have plenty of knock down power. It's often overlooked but it's an accurate flat shooting round.[/QUOTE]

I totally agree with the 7mm Rem Mag.
I had one for years and before I "took my shooting" to a more "serious" stage, as in longer range and figureing balistics and trajectories.
I always assumed, that my Savage 7mm Rem Mag was a 500yd. rifle, long before taking shooting serious, as in likeing the feeling of being able to make long range shots and keeping sub-moa.
But as I was begining to understand the trajectory of the round, I ended up here recently, parting with the rifle. Still kicking myself over that.

[JLA]

IMO .300 RUM is the ticket. You wont find a better selection for LR bullets than the .308 bore has, the .300 RUM is based on the .404 jeffrey case, which isnt belted and headspaces on the shoulder where a good LR round is supposed to. Its easy to reload for (exactly like a scaled up .308 winchester).. I would recommend a rem 700 action or a savage 110 action and a solid stock. HS precision or McMillain. And you will need to reserve a good chunk of change for a good scope. You can have the best rifle in the world for shooting 1000+ yards but if you insist on putting a 120 dollar walmart special on it you are going to be very disappointed in hyour 1000 yard results. You need adjustable parallax, at least 18X, and the scope MUST be able to adjust across its turret range and return to ZERO accurately. Scopes that do that start in the 350-400 dollar range and go up from there, with the better ones easily costing 1000-1200.. So realisticaly, you are looking at about 2-3K to get set up to shoot 1000 yds consistently and thats if you dont need to buy reloading equipment.

[aa1911]

The RUM is a powerhouse .30 ! I still can't decide if I want that or the 300 short mag next; I'm thinking short mag just for lower recoil and the short action. But a RUM or .30-378 will be in my future also...

[JLA]

go RUM. Id bet you good money that if you had a .300 shortmag, a .300 rum and a .30-378 wby right now, within a months time youd not even bother shooting the shortmag or the wby. the .300 RUM is a perfect niche round as it does the job of all the .30 magnums and has better barrel life to boot.

[aa1911]

good to know, thanks JLA! I'm looking to build a nice bolt gun for long range elk, going to be a 700 most likely but possibly would do a savage. The RUM sounds like it has much more oomph out at distance, looks like something the OP might want to consider too.

[JLA]

I by far prefer it over the Winmag simply because its unbelted.. I hate belted cartridges. IMO they arent any safer for the high pressures than an unbelted round, feeding issues exist, and headspace issues are more prevalent.

Again My opinion.. YMMV

[Redhand]

When I use to shoot on the HP circuit at 1000yds the rear sight post on my M1A was extended up about as far as it would go. I can't remember exactly how many clicks of elevation but it was a bunch. We shot white box match 168 grain HP boat tails. The target was a 4'x4' bullseye but at a thousand shooting iron sights it looks like a pinhead setting on your front sight post and if there is any mirage it dances. You definitely have to train your body and your mind to hit it consistently.

[JLA]

I forgot about this thread. I have been working on setting my LR rig up to shoot Precision Rifle classes. Its all milspec training so my scope, mount, brake and bolt knob needed a change. I had my rig set up for LR hunting with a std Duplex reticle. I stayed with Nikon, But got into one of their high end Monarch X optics. sweet piece of glass. 4-16X50, mildot, 30mm tube, crisp parallax adjustment. Its a sexy scope. And my new mount is a 20 MOA DNZ Freedom Reaper. Basically the Gamereaper with MOA cant built in and beefed up double size. I also stayed with .308. Just going to refine my load. I was fortunate enough to get ahold of a box of M118LR and a bucket of once fired LC LR brass. I dissected the M118 and ID'd the propellant and projectile. I am going to apply match handloading techniques to Milspec sniper ammo. It should get me an easy 1000 yarder. Cant wait!

Ill put up a pic of the rig when I get it back together. I got it tore apart so I can cerakote the bolt handle, action, lug and nut.