Trying to get started!

[CroakerSoaker]

I own a Steyr SSG 04 in a 300 Win Mag.It has a zeiss3-12x56 MC scope. I want to hunt at long ranges. I will admit I don't know much about it. I would really appreciate any help yall could give me. I have looked at nightforce scopes and decided this is probably the way I need to go for optics. I would like to be able to adjust for windage and elevation. I have been shooting 180gr fed premium ammo and it seems to do well. I have access to a reloader if thats the route I need to take. Any advice I could get will be greatly appreciated. Thank You!

 

[Buffalobob]

First thing to do is to find a place to shoot. Second thing to do is to shoot.

You and your gun should be capable of shooting three shot groups of less than an inch at 100 yards.

If you are comfortable shooting out to 300 yards then you should start practicing at 400, 500 and 600. Somewhere around 500 yards the choice of which bullet to shoot becomes important and wind becomes a difficult issue. Once you have mastered the basics of hitting paper at those distances you can decide just how complicated you want things to be.

Depending on what your goals are when you say long range, it may well be that the equipment you have will do just fine. A deer at 600 yards is very doable with a gun that shoots one inch groups at 100 yards.

A few minor tweaks to the gun may help accuracy. A few minor tweaks to the cartridges you shoot may help.

You can read these two posts which are pretty good.

One

Two

 

[royinidaho]

Welcome and enjoy....

Ditto what bb said.

You have the setup to get most of the way to where you want to go. Once you're satisfied with your and the rifles performance out to say 600 or 650 yds or so you'll then know where you will need to improve. The 300 Winnie is good for an awful long ways out there.

Keep us posted

 

[CroakerSoaker]

Thank You! that was very helpful. I live in South Texas and shoot a rifle at least twice a week. Haven't really shot at much over 200yds. I am going to start this week. A friend of mine got me interested in long range shooting this week by talking about it.I had been on this site before and figured if anyone knew it would be one of yall! Thanks for any pointers!

 

[stxhunter]

are you in the corpus area i assume your close if your soaking croakers

 

[CroakerSoaker]

I'm in Port O Connor area. From there to Victoria.

 

[zingdingo]

I would seriously consider starting to reload. It will let you practice in much higher volume (unless your pockets are far deeper than mine), due to the economics of the situation, and should be able to improve your accuracy (though it doesn't sound like thats a big problem).

I also feel I became much more aware of and knowledgeble about my existing equipment due to learning how to handload.