New long range gun project

codyarnold

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Joined
Apr 20, 2013
Messages
56
Location
British Columbia
Hey guys I'm looking to build my first long range gun, I have my hunting rifle that shoot tight out to 300-400 yards but I want to shoot farther. I want to have another gun besides my 300wthby to shoot. So my question is what do you guys recommend for cal, action, barrel, stock and of course optics. And I'm new to the long range shooting game. I'm only looking to shoot like deer and targets at long range, any info will help guys.
 
If you can hold MOA or better that 300wby is more than enough to get you to a thousand yards for any game in N. America save possibly big bears.

What is your intended use/game etc?
 
Well you asked!:D

http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f17/introducing-406-edition-long-range-rifle-package-125104/

Actually regardless of where you get your rifle made the above question is a pretty good point do you plan on reloading?? We always try to put shooters into a few common calibers that are not only easy to shoot , but easy to find ammo and or reloading supplies for...the short list is 308, 260, 7mm mag, and 300 win mag. These calibers are all capable of great accuracy and precision as well as somewhat easy on the pocket book to buy or reload ammo.

If your looking into long range shooting I would definitely recommend learning to roll your own.

As far as optics I don't think you can beat Vortex in the long range market today. They have optics in about any price range designed around stretching out the distance of your shots and offer many standard options that are not available in their price point from anyone else.

There are lots of good optics out there, but vortex's warranty is unbeatable and they really are trying to produce optics the shooters want and ask for the customer service is top notch.

JWH@406
 
If you can hold MOA or better that 300wby is more than enough to get you to a thousand yards for any game in N. America save possibly big bears.

What is your intended use/game etc?

See my 300wthby I also use it as some that of a bush gun and don't know if making it long range will change it to much
 
Well you asked!:D

http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f17/introducing-406-edition-long-range-rifle-package-125104/

Actually regardless of where you get your rifle made the above question is a pretty good point do you plan on reloading?? We always try to put shooters into a few common calibers that are not only easy to shoot , but easy to find ammo and or reloading supplies for...the short list is 308, 260, 7mm mag, and 300 win mag. These calibers are all capable of great accuracy and precision as well as somewhat easy on the pocket book to buy or reload ammo.

If your looking into long range shooting I would definitely recommend learning to roll your own.

As far as optics I don't think you can beat Vortex in the long range market today. They have optics in about any price range designed around stretching out the distance of your shots and offer many standard options that are not available in their price point from anyone else.

There are lots of good optics out there, but vortex's warranty is unbeatable and they really are trying to produce optics the shooters want and ask for the customer service is top notch.

JWH@406
When it comes to optics I've always had the rule to save up as much as you can afford for the best quality scope you can buy and then save up another 20-30% and get what you can.

Vortex continues to impress me with their quality in that price range.

I own Zeiss Conquest, Leupold, and Vortex PST's along with IOR tacticals and the vortex very much compare favorably in many if not most ways to all of the others.
 
See my 300wthby I also use it as some that of a bush gun and don't know if making it long range will change it to much
The only thing in question is it accurate enough?

Like I said if it will hold MOA or better it is. Caliber wise it's more than plenty though being a Wby more expensive to shoot than the 300wm or 300 Rum due to the cost of factory ammo and brass. If you aren't going to be a high volume shooter that doesn't make much difference though in the long run.

If you are looking at high volume shooting the .260 and .308 are very economical to shoot.

To give you better answers though we need more info from you.

It's one thing to say " I want a long range gun" but let's narrow it down more by "intended game and realistic ranges".
 
When it comes to optics I've always had the rule to save up as much as you can afford for the best quality scope you can buy and then save up another 20-30% and get what you can.

Vortex continues to impress me with their quality in that price range.

I own Zeiss Conquest, Leupold, and Vortex PST's along with IOR tacticals and the vortex very much compare favorably in many if not most ways to all of the others.

On my 300 I have a zeiss conquest HD 5 with the rapid z800 reticle on it but I don't think you can get your ranges close enough to shoot long range
 
I'm with WildRose if your volume shooting a 308 or 260 is an awesome rifle to get into the long range game. The 260 definitely has the upper hand in the ballistic department, but if you can read wind well enough to shoot the 308 at extended distances now your cooking!

Now if your looking for a smoking long range caliber I'd look really hard at the 300 Norma mag kick *** ballistics with a 24" tube and fits in a standard long action.
 
Im gonna have to second what mostly everyone else said. The key to being a competent LR shooter is practice. With that said, the .308 or .260 are perfect. Theyll handle mostly everything excluding Elk and bigger, though some would disagree. For just beginning the long range journey though, nothing is better than a .308 IMO. It lays down the ground skills that you need most and once you get good with it, ie wind reading, etc you can get rebarreled to .260 and have a ballistically much better round along with the skills to take advantage of it. Not to mention, .308 has like a 10,000+ round barrel life depending how you treat it, which equals lots of practice time. Plus, besides maybe .223 I would have to say .308 is the cheapest and easiest round to reload for.

With that in mind, I would get a Remington 700 short action, good quality 20"-26" barrel(you name it, Bartlein, Krieger, Lilja, Brux, Broughton, etc theyre all good), and a Mcmillan A3-5 or A-5 stock(personal choice) and take it to a smith, hopefully with skills on par with somebody like Mr Shawn Carlock or Mr Kirby Allen(though I know Mr Kirby doesnt mess with the factory actions much) and have them true/blueprint the action, glass bed it, and work the trigger down to your weight preference(I like it right around 2 lbs.). I havent shot the new X-mark trigger but I have shot a Savage w/ accutrigger and personally did not like it, but thats just me. Free floated barrel goes without saying here obviously. For optics, it cannot be stressed enough that if youre gonna skimp anywhere, dont do it here. As was said, Vortex has very good quality stuff for the money, probably the best quality per cost out there. Other than them, Leupold and especially Nightforce makes very good stuff. If I was rich, Id get a March, but Im not rich. Also, US Optics and Schmidt and Bender are bad to the bone too if you got the money.

As I said, the Mcmillan stock is a personal choice, run what you want, a factory stock is perfectly fine, but IMO there is nothing better for prone shooting than the A5. Ill admit though I havent shot an Eliseo or any of the other tubeguns and I hear a lot of High-Power and Prone competitors singing their praises(think of stock with basically adjustable everything). You may want to check out Mr Carlock`s website Defensive Edge or GA Precision as they very well may have what you want, and if not they could build it for you.

Thats probably more than you wanna spend though, and if so, just like I said, get a known recommended smith to put together a Rem 700 and quality barrel and glass bed/free float barrel/trigger work as you see fit and you should be able to have a rifle done that should be capable of 1/2 minute groups with the right load if you do your part. Also, with the .308 and .260 and other cartridges with a similar expansion ratio, theres really no need to go above 26" as you wont be gaining much velocity and the longer the barrel you get, the less stiff its gonna be, translating to more barrel whip and consequently less accuracy. Hell, with a .308 I wouldnt go above 24", as I said what you gain in velocity POTENTIALLY could be lost in accuracy, though it would be negligible at 24 vs 26". Either way, shorter barrel means less weight with the same contour, or a heavier/stiffer contour at the same weight.

If you dont even wanna do that, then something like a Remington 700P or Model 700 SPS Tactical or SPS Varmint could meet your needs.

Hope that wasnt too long of a post and that maybe just a little bit helped. LOL dont take my word as gospel but it should atleast set you in a general right direction.

Blake.
 
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