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

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rickymo

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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?
 
Sounds like you need a Savage 10tr . they are loaded with features for their price point and only come in .308. I have been shooting mine for a year and a half and can't complain.
 
If your board why don't you take the time to learn everything you need to learn in order to use that "expensive piece of steel".

For me learning is the best part.

If you really want to get into long range shooting you have years and years of stuff to learn before you will get bored.

If you don't really want to get into it then you will likely get bored again.

Good luck.

PS: I'd drop a whole paycheck.
 
Savage axis, spend the rest on a good used scope.
If you can't see it, doesn't matter what rifle you have you will not hit it! Buy a Litz book and do some reading, maybe by the time you are done the book and have a good understanding on some basics of what sending a bullet past 300 meters takes, you will have enough coin saved up to setup a decent toy and feed it. Ask any old "guy" buy once, cry once.
Have you considered spending your $1200 budget on a 8-32x56 type target scope and putting that on your existing rifle for the off season? It isn't hard to swap scopes back and forth on rifles for the different seasons, lots of us do it. If you don't have it dialed back in after three shots, back to the book learning.

YMMV
 
$1200 isnt enough for what you want,.. keep the Browning but use your budget for a bipod and better scope. When i started i was using my tikka varmit and Bushnell elite 6-24x40 out to 1000 yrds.,, after 700-800 yrds i realized i needed better equipment, but up until then it shot pretty good, 400-500 yrds was easy.
 
Ok... with that budget, don't buy a new rifle. And keep that scope too. You should be able to stretch out to more than double that distance.

You need training and info, data and knowledge... to make the most of the equipment you already have.

You need to understand the ballistics of the cartridge you are using, and how to use a scope at an intermediate/advanced way.

Why? Because, not to knock your efforts so far, but I can hit a 10" steel plate, 20 times out of 20 shots, at 200 meters. No scope, iron sights. With crappy budget Russian MFS ammo. Through a $400 Chinese made M-14.

Your Browning rifle has a better bore, better trigger, a nice scope, and you will be using MUCH higher quality ammo than I was. When you get your knowledge of scopes and ballistics learned and sorted, you will achieve a MUCH better result than mine.

back in the 90's I was at a range and the guy beside me was getting frustrated... poor groups. Really poor. Brand new rifle. He wanted me to test out his rifle, because he was just about pissed off enough to return it to the store and demand his money back. So I fired a 5 rd group. Then a second 5rd group, and we walked to the targets, 100m distant.

All three of us were STUNNED... both groups... were clover leafs!

I had to look closely... probably less than 1/4", measured center to center. 0.25MOA.

This was not $10/bullet being launched by a $6000 ultra long range "sniper gun". This was a light hunting profile, bone stock Browning A-Bolt in .30-06.

This confused the owner even more. I told him he's lucky to have such a capable rifle... all he needed to do is get an intro course 8n basic marksmanship, his goal being hunting no further than 150m. I even offered to buy his rifle, since I was convinced his was unusually good...

I never did come close to groups that small since. At least my brother was impressed!

Use your budget for ammo... maybe get a reloading setup to cut costs and improve accuracy. I'll bet you cod hit that plate at 600m more than 90% of the time, once you are fully dialed in.
 
If you want to shoot long range extend the distance of what you already have. Doing that will give you better insight to what might help you achieve what you're looking for. Get yourself a 20 MOA tapered base and start shooting. Your light barreled hunting rifle will be a good platform until you out grow its capabilities.
 
Well the $1200 is what I have now, I could always save more. Just wondering what to expect with my savings at the moment.
I should of also mentioned i don't wanna put allot of wear on my browning, its my trusty hunter, and I want to keep it in good shape for the rest of my life,
Possibly pass it on to the next generation, like my dad did with me.
So shooting it every weekend and putting thousands of rounds though it =S meh.

I kinda live on the edge of civilization in a way, boat access only, no roads, limited interwebs, no hydro...
So going to a legitimate range is rare and quite a big deal for me. I don't get much exposure to many other shooters, besides friends and family.
Besides my own trial and error I don't have much to go off of.
My range (a patch of clear cut) goes out to about 700m, so thats as far as I will go, unless I find a new spot.

I do love reading, so any book recommendations would be nice. I do reload and have a bunch of literature on the topic already.
 
Without any disrespect the browning xbolt isnt really worthy of the passing on from generation to generation, unless it has some sentimental reasons to you, in which case that makes it worthy, but you would be better off to use it and wear it out and possibly get yourself something like a mint original Belgium high grade safari to keep nice and pass it down. Just a thought.

Just noticed you said your dad left it to you, if you want to keep it nice and pass it on then keep an eye out for a used heavy barrel gun in ee with scope, you can find a package for under 2k , you may have to increase your 1200 budget a little but would be worth it,
 
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Go for a Savage 10tr like mentioned before and maybe a Bushnell DMR 3.5-21 with some good rings.

The xbolt is a good hunting rifle, no point burning out the barrel in that one.
 
I haven't started shoot this game yet, but I've been intrigued for awhile.
I've given myself a few years to get it together (the biggest thing for me is finding an accessible location I can stretch out the distances on...)
What I came up with so far is if you are starting from scratch $1200 isn't going to even get you glass (after taxes and freight).
I bought a Tikka T3 SS Varmint and put some Burris Signature rings and bases on it, when money and time allow a Sightron SIII 8-32x56 LRMOA will be dropped on top of it and eventually a chassis under it (possibly). When/if the barrel gets burned out or becomes a limiting factor I'll drop in a custom one if and when its needed -I got an M-pod as well.
Definitely not top shelf kit but it isn't bargain basement either- my cost/benefit analysis lead me to these choices and your may lead other directions. It's definitely not a custom and I have no idea (or care) if it fits in any particular class of competition...
But my advise:
Buy good glass and the Burris rings as they offer the come up and can bolt to other guns, upgrade other things as funds allow.
But what do I know; I haven't shot this game yet.
Good luck!
 
wasrupzuk said:
But my advise:
Buy good glass and the Burris rings as they offer the come up and can bolt to other guns, upgrade other things as funds allow.
But what do I know; I haven't shot this game yet.
Good luck!
Click to expand...

Yah, well if I can't find any good deals on the EE, I think i'll take everyones advice and just spend the money on glass for now bolt it on what i have now. save up for another rifle down the road. Like I said tho, I don't want to put a bunch of excessive wear on the xbolt, its such a light and handy rifle.
 
Save a wee bit more, consider a used precision 223 or 308 with Ok glass (update that later when funds permit) - both are cheap to shoot, accurate to 700 (223 moreso with hand loaded heavies) and practise practise practise. Built a rock solid bench too.
Good bags/bench and technique do a lot more for accuracy than one might think...
Be patient - there have been some good buys on EE - you'll find something that suits your needs
 
I was in the same boat as you few months back. I really didn't wanna break the bank but I really wanted to get into this sport/lifestyle. I first did TONS of reading and watch YouTube videos of people shootng/putting together/teaching the practices of precision shooting. I decided to shoot .223 for a few reasons but mainly was cost. From my understandment this would be a great leaning curve caliber, you can still get great factory rolled ammo for ok prices or reload for great price and even better accurcy. I then started looking at what brands of rifles, Ive always liked remington so I ended up finding a wicked deal on EE from a 700p barrelled action, they have a 1:9 twist which is a good all round twist. If I wanted I could shoot up a 77gr bullet without much problems. I then found a deal on the choate stock, ptg Dbm, 20 MOA rail, timney 510 and a few 10rd magazines. That pretty much leaves me to look at scopes.
This took me awhile to find something I wanted. There are SO many nice scopes out there that this was the hardest choice, I really like the feedback the sightrons are getting( plus a wicked price point! ) but I really wanted a bushnell DMR with the g2 reticel. Only one came up for sale while I was lookng and got snatched up before I could get it, I then started looking from another option. I've read that the mk4 leupold scopea are great and built great to boot. I ended up finding a great deal a mk4 4.5x14x50 with there TMR reticel. It came with rings, metal flip caps and a scope coat! Pretty happy with it thus far but really haven't used it much as I just got everything together. While I was gathering the part for my build I was buying all sorts of ammo. From horady 53gr amax to fedral match 77gr matchkings.
All in all I'm just at 2,000 dollars into this build with optics. Not to bad really! Just my .02 cents. Happy Easter!
 
I would recommend what some of the others are saying... grab some literature and get behind the gun. Practice and you should get it down. Some people have a nack for it and get it quicker, personally i was fortunate enough to be born into shooting and i also reload my own ammo. I was always taught patience and, to an extent, the gun is only as good as the shooter. I have a savage 16/116 weather warrior in 243 with a burris fullfield scope BDC. I have been able to outshoot others with their ultra high end guns and scopes. Become a fine shooter, then find a gun that shoots better than you without selling your estate to achieve it. All of my long ranges guns, including the savage 10tr i just picked up are more accurate than myself and have been under $1000.
 
You have a Browning rifle in 308. Its probably good for 8000/9000 rnds. You won't burn the barrel out by launching a few non-hunting loads through it. Just think about that rifle as a long range hunter, just don't put a Huskemaw on the SOB. I have shot 308 to 1000 yds and to one mile.
 
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