Long range budget build

[Loud by design]

Hi everyone, I am new to the forum and have enjoyed reading around on it for the past few months and now have decided to join. I have been shooting long range for me but short range for many of you (around 400 yds) for a while now with my 30-06 and now am looking to move my rang out to 600-800 yds. To do this I am looking to build another rifle that is relatively cheap to shoot and not a high end or custom rifle as I just don't have the funds for it. My 3 highest condensers I am looking at are in this order the savage 12bvss, Remington 700 sps, and howa heavy barreled 1500s all in .223 Remington. The savage is my top contender but is also the most expensive rifle on the list. The Remington is the cheapest as the local walmart caries them for 440-460 and Remington is offering a 40 dollar rebate bringing the price down to 400-420 for the rifle as it sits. Add in another 100 for a boyds stock and it will be right around 500-520. The howa fits in the middle and I have always heard geat things about them but never had any experience with them. Total budget for the rifle scope and any othe accessories has got to stay under or close to 1000. Also the reason for picking the .223/5.56 round is again because it is cheap and will allow me to shoot more often and longer without breaking the bank. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[snox801]

I have several savage rides all shoot great. I done think you could Do wrong. that being said I won my first howa1500 at safari club. It is a 204, but it is quickly becoming my favorite gun. This thing is super accurate can cover a five shot group with a quarter @100. I would put my vote for the howa. But you would also be very happy with the savage. In fact I have a friend that shoots a stock savage axis ad it also shoots great may just be luck of the draw.

[Loud by design]

well i took a stroll around today and after walking around a few gunshops, the local basspro, and dicks sporting goods it think i might have ended my search.i found a remington 700 sps varminter in camo with the heavy barrel on sale with a few rebates and coupons. after all the rebates and the sale they are putting on the rifle will ring up at $380. i compared it to the savage base model 12 they had at bass pro which was 630 and the remington fit me better. also i think the stock on the remington was a good bit stifferand didnt feel quite as mushy as the savage. if the cost difference wasnt so substantial between the model 12bvss which they said they could order for 895 id probably have sprung for it but im thinking that a good bit of work could be done to the remington for the 515 extra ill have left over if need be. verdict is i should have a new remington 700 in my hands tomorrow if all goes well unless someone on here has a reason not to pick it up. if anyone has any experience on this rifle that would be great. thanks everyone once again.

[J E Custom]

Originally Posted by Loud by design

Hi everyone, I am new to the forum and have enjoyed reading around on it for the past few months and now have decided to join. I have been shooting long range for me but short range for many of you (around 400 yds) for a while now with my 30-06 and now am looking to move my rang out to 600-800 yds. To do this I am looking to build another rifle that is relatively cheap to shoot and not a high end or custom rifle as I just don't have the funds for it. My 3 highest condensers I am looking at are in this order the savage 12bvss, Remington 700 sps, and howa heavy barreled 1500s all in .223 Remington. The savage is my top contender but is also the most expensive rifle on the list. The Remington is the cheapest as the local walmart caries them for 440-460 and Remington is offering a 40 dollar rebate bringing the price down to 400-420 for the rifle as it sits. Add in another 100 for a boyds stock and it will be right around 500-520. The howa fits in the middle and I have always heard geat things about them but never had any experience with them. Total budget for the rifle scope and any othe accessories has got to stay under or close to 1000. Also the reason for picking the .223/5.56 round is again because it is cheap and will allow me to shoot more often and longer without breaking the bank. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Actually the 30/06 is a great 1000 yard rifle with the right load and bullet combo. The 30/06 held
all of the major LR records at one time and with new bullets and powder available they are even
better today.

The 223 is one of the most fun rifles I have but the wind is its #1 enemy at anything over 300 yards
unless you are a master at reading it.

Conditions have to be very good to be accurate at greater distances with any .224 caliber cartrige
so I would recomend a larger diameter bullet for true Long range Hunting. A 6.5 would be about
my lower limit and .338 the upper limit for reasonable cost and performance.

I am not trying to talk you out of the 223 but just make you aware that it has it's shortcomings
at extended ranges.

Just something to think about.

J E CUSTOM

[Loud by design]

Ballistically the 30-06 is a much superior load compared to the 223 for what I'm trying to do. My issue with it is it's to expensive to shoot as much as I want/need to to really improve my skill. The 223 will be a range riffle 98% of the time unless a coyote or something else fairly small needs to be taken care of. Also as you had said the wind will affect the 223 more, I do realize that but here's my idea, at first it will be a bit harder to shoot accurately but I'm thinking that I will just have to learn to read the wind better so in the long run it will make me a better hunter/shooter. Hopefully

[Loud by design]

well i brought the rifle out to the range yesterday and in its bone stock configuration without the barrel being broken in and using the cheap remington scope that came on top of it, less than 1" 5 shot groups were the norm. now i know many people will see 1" and say well thats okay but not great but considering the ammo (remington umc 55 grain), the scope, and the shooter especially i feel that with minimal work( new scope) this rifle could be a very very accurate platform. also i am unsure if it was the barrel warming up or me pulling the rifle slightly as i squezed the trigger but i would get 4 shots touching and then one to the right by maybe 1/4 inch. sometimes less and sometimes more. as of now i am going to chalk it up to me pulling the rifle, just wanted to know what all of you thought it might be

[golffitron]

I would suspect your choice in ammo, off the shelf ammo could be inconsistant. I really see a difference in ammo with my 7 mm. I can get hand loads to cover a dime at 200 and can't seem to cover a quarter at the same distance with off the shelf loads. Just a thought.