Looking to get into long range shooting. What rifles should I look into?

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rickymo

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Indian Arm, BC
My fellow canadiangunnutz,

Recently I have found myself to be bored with my usual shooting sessions and I'm looking for a new challenge to keep this hobby of mine interesting. A friend got a .50BMG the past summer, which he has plenty of fun with it (when he can afford to shoot it...) and has inspired me to try some long range shooting of my own. I have been hunting and shooting for years, and never really bothered shooting at things I couldn't see with my eye (so beyond 200m). I have a browning X-bolt micro in .308 with a simple 3-9x40 bushnell and recently have been practicing shooting an 8" steel target at 300m till the point where I have no problem hitting it. Now that I've tried to push it out to ~400m and beyond, I'm having a really hard time hitting the darn thing which is quite frustrating. I know that my shooting skill is definitely the most important factor, and that my rifle is most likely capable of making these shots. Regardless I am really considering getting a dedicated rifle for long range (with decent glass to match). I don't want the latest or greatest, just want some opinions on some good basic and cost effective options for a decent long range rifle. I would rather spend most of my money on ammunition and put it through a cheaper gun and learn to actually shoot it then drop an entire paycheck on some fancy rifle and just end up with an expensive piece of steel that I don't really understand.

so...
-bolt gun
-Willing to spend around $1200 with glass
-weight and size are not a concern
-preferably in .308 as I have plenty of it as well as the capacity to sustainably reload.

Thoughts?
 
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With that budget, it will be tricky. $1500 and your options improve significantly. Best bet would probably be a Savage and Sightron off the EE.
 
A used Target Rifle (as used for DCRA/PRA) competition, with a Bushnell 10x40 scope with target knobs might be about as inexpensive as you could get, and still shoot well.
These turn up in the EE quite often. A Sportco would be an example.
 
Spend $700-1000 on better glass and the rest on ammo. What you have will be fine for 500-600m with handloads assuming you are just looking to make hits and not win F-Class competitions.

My X-bolt Micro likes 168 Berger Hybrids.
 
Unfortunately your looking at pretty slim picken's for 1200$ about the only options for rifles are Savage Axis heavy barrel model and Ruger Americans. Those run in 400 to 500$ range if I remember correctly and I believe are essentially the same rifle in the same stock. Neither will have after market upgrades comparable to say a Savage Model 10 or Rem 700, but those are a little bit more expensive rifles. Actually a model 10 fcp-sr may be worth looking at (the new one, not the digi camo version). Your optics budget you will have to look at something like falcon optics or Bushnell 10x42, those again will run you between 300 to 500$.

Honestly as was suggested though, you could always just get better glass on your current rifle as the 308 is more than capable of shooting out to 1000. I would suggest though watching some of the sniper 101 vids and 8541 tactical as well as snipers hide low light on youtube. All of those channels will help you understand more about long range shooting.
 
You can get a Remington 700 long range. Out of the box there pretty good, should run you about 950, just transfer your glass.
 
It can be done on the cheap and dirty, but you will put yourself on a much longer road to get there.
I sported a Swede 6.5x55 surplus rifle 35+ years back. Learned how to shoot it, and how to build it into a real shooter, with that same old rifle my go-to, to this very day.
There are days when the old Swede takes home all the marbles, First round CCB at 950 ...dead center ... and there are days when i drop the ball and go home buck naked.
I've tuned and fettle'd forever to reach 'mediocre by modern standards' .. results.
Thats all I could afford.
Spent way more on handloads than the rifle that launched 'em.
Would I do it the same way over again? ... probably not.
But it was a helluva learning curve.
Do not even want to guess how much $ is in the old girl this many barrels later, but shoot her good to this day.

For what it's worth ...
 
Get better glass. Have you considered the possibility that you're not hitting the gong at 400 because the bullet is dropping and you're not properly compensating? At 300 it'll drop around 14-15" but at 400 it's more like 34-35" of drop. Quite a lot if you're not dialing for it, and that 3-9 probably doesn't have subtensions built in to the reticle for hold.
*Ps*
An 8" gong at 400 yards is only a 2 MOA target. If you can't group 2" at 100 yards you might just need more time working on the fundamentals
*Pps*
Cabelas offers Vortex Vipers for $660. 6.5-20x50mm with mildot reticle. Great entry level scope, unconditional lifetime warranty. Can't beat that.
 
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I would get better glass for your 308 and some high bc bullets and shoot it.A buddy of mine shoots his browning 308 eclipse with 155 VLD Targets .It is a very good shooter out to 600 yrds so far. Haven't tried it any further yet but planning to.It makes 1 hole at 100 yrds ,5 shots.He has a Accushot 8 x 32 x 50 on it.Its not a great scope but does the trick.I would recommend a sightron s3 for the money probably set you back around a $800.I would also get a 20 or 30 moa rail for it also incase you eventually want to go further.
Good Luck
 
Bullet BC is overrated for anything but super long range. I am shooting piddly little 125gr Ballistic Tips out of my 308 and they are making decent hits at 700 yds. I doubt they'd go much further but they do seem to work reasonably well at this distance.

For the average shooter I wouldn't suggest VLDs until the distance is well over 500 yds. VLDs can be a PIA to get to group well and they tend to be just that much more expensive.

A reasonable scope with a decent reticle and target turrets is much more effective than uber expensive bullets.
 
I see allot of Long Barrel M305's in the EE all the time that have had all the tuning etc already done. Going for pretty fair/low prices. I can hit a 10 Inch gong @ 400M with mine constantly. No more then $700 into it, just using a Bushnell Banner to bout! Leaves $$ for Better Optics. Prob. easily go longer, just no where to find that out for me. Hungry Clinics, they shoot out to 600M, some with no optics :p
 
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Johnyy said:
I see allot of Long Barrel M305's in the EE all the time that have had all the tuning etc already done. Going for pretty fair/low prices. I can hit a 10 Inch gong @ 400M with mine constantly. No more then $700 into it, just using a Bushnell Banner to bout! Leaves $$ for Better Optics. Prob. easily go longer, just no where to find that out for me. Hungry Clinics, they shoot out to 600M, some with no optics :p
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As much as I don't like Brownings, a decent bolt gun is going to stomp all over a Chinese M14 all day. A cheapo semi-auto is about the second worse thing I can think of for long range precision.
 
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