Great Long Range Setup on a Budget

Jud96

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Hey all, it has been awhile since I have posted a thread, but I have a good topic for those on a budget or for a beginner. I will include the pricing and information in this thread for those that may be interested in getting into long range shooting. I will also continue to update this thread with further information and experiences with this setup.

I decided to purchase a Savage 12FV in 6.5 Creedmoor this past winter for my brother to use and learn the ropes with. He has shot with me before, but never had his own rifle setup for this type of shooting. I have always been a Remington man, but there's no denying the value of the Savage rifles and what they bring to the table. I was able to pick this rifle up for $350, along with a Black Hawk picatinny base, a set of Leupold 1" rings, and a box of Hornady 140gr ELD bullets all for just under $500 at my local Cabelas. All of the above was purchased for the price well under what most long range style rifles cost. Additionally, I ordered a set of Hornady dies and 50 pieces of Peterson 6.5 Creedmoor LRP Brass (which is excellent by the way). These two items were around $80 together.

Reloading is not required for the 6.5 Creedmoor or for most popular long range cartridges nowadays, but I reload for everything and wanted to get the most out of this rifle and setup. The components I chose to use were Peterson brass, Hornady 140gr ELD Match bullets, Alliant RL26, and Wolf Large Rifle Primers. I had the primers and powder on hand already, but if you're interested in reloading for your 6.5 Creedmoor, there is a metric ton of load data and information out there using many different components.

The weather has not been ideal and time has been limited, but last week I was able to take this rifle to the range for the first shots. I threw together a load using 46.0 grains of RL26 and the 140gr ELD seated .005 off the lands. This has been a good load from my experience, I know it has worked for other rifles and I know it is safe from previous experiences as well. (Do not use my load or any other load that is unknown to you and always start low and work up! Consult a reloading manual for more information.)

At the time we did not have a scope for it yet, but I threw on an old scope of mine for this session. I fired a total 10 shots through the rifle. The first one got me on paper at 50yards after bore sighting, and the second hit near the center after a quick scope adjustment. I proceeded to fire 3 for a group at 100 yards and printed a nice clover leaf just under 3/4 MOA. I let the rifle cool and attached my Magnetospeed chronograph to the barrel and fired 5 through it. This group measured closer to 1 MOA, with the last 3 going into a 1/4 MOA ragged hole with the first two just high and left. I was battling some mirage and did not have the most suitable rest, but I won't complain for an out of the box rifle with no load development done. My load averaged 2875fps with an ES of 27. There were no pressure signs and velocity was excellent from the 26" barrel. I will be going down half a grain to see if that tightens up the extreme spread, and if not then I will be doing some more extensive load development. I would like to comment and say, the rifle does not have the best stock, but it is free floating from the factory and has small aluminum pillars in it. I would also like to compliment the AccuTrigger, I like a good trigger and this is very nice for a factory rifle!

Yesterday we received a Bushnell Elite 5-15x40 that we got off eBay used for $230. Forums and online auctions can be a great place to pickup new/used equipment for a good price. We also ordered some more Devcon 10110 and will be bedding this rifle in the upcoming weeks and mounting the new scope. The total amount invested in this setup is around $800, not including the primers and powder that I had on hand. I will keep everyone updated on my findings and results. I hope some people find this thread helpful and interesting! Take care.

Below is the target I shot, bottom left group is the first three. The top right are the five with the Magnetospeed attached.
 

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cool deal. i was very tempted to buy that as well. the rifle was $219 after MIR, that's nuts! kinda wish i had as i have 2 savage rimfires that are awesome. but of course, i put it off and forgot about it til it was over. ended up getting their rem 700 adl for $324 instead. next time! post some pics of the gun when you get a chance.
 
cool deal. i was very tempted to buy that as well. the rifle was $219 after MIR, that's nuts! kinda wish i had as i have 2 savage rimfires that are awesome. but of course, i put it off and forgot about it til it was over. ended up getting their rem 700 adl for $324 instead. next time! post some pics of the gun when you get a chance.

I plan to take some nice pictures of it whenever we get the new scope on it. I filled out the information for the rebate but something goofy happened with it and I never bothered with it anymore. The same thing happened to my cousin, he bought one in .308 just for the action and trigger, but his rebate got screwed up too. Oh well. Great deal either way!

The first "long range" rifle I ever got was a Remington 700 ADL Varmint in .243 Win. I still have that rifle and it's my primary Varmint rig. I've never had a problem with it other than the cheap stock that I plan on upgrading.
 
I found that using 215's over the 210's tightened up my ES considerably. From high teens to 6 on annealed brass new or otherwise. Even with 3 firings it woldn't growm more than 10 or 11ES.
45.5 is in the ones in my rifle with naked 147's 46.3 with WS2 coated bullets runs about 15fps slower than that with es of 6 or less from 0-48 degrees on a 10 shot string.
Seating has been funny 2.800 2.825, 2.842 and 2.855 have all been indistinguishable as far as group size. Velocities and es change though. 2.842 has everything 2840fps ES 6 or less and 1/3moa or better out to 700yds. The rifle I may regret selling at some point, however I sold it to a new to long range shooter and he's thrilled with it.
 
I have the same rifle and I can say that everything you wrote up is true about it! I can't complain about anything on the gun.
 
It has been awhile since I have posted any updates, but it has been a busy summer! This rifle continues to impress me and those who have shot it. My brother loves it and so do I. We have settled on the load using a 140gr Hornady ELD Match pushed with 45.5gr of RL26, loaded in Peterson large rifle primer brass, and lit with a Wolf primer. This load has produced back to back sub half MOA groups at 100 yards! My brother shot a group the other day that measures 0.260! After letting the rifle cool, I fired a 3 shot group out of it that was around .4 MOA! This rifle hammers! All with a rifle and scope combo that's around $600! You just cannot beat that. Our extreme spreads have tightened up with the 45.5gr load, giving us an average velocity of 2860fps with an ES of 19.

So far we have taken out 2 groundhogs with this rig. My brother nailed one at 305 yards in the body and I pulled a headshot on one at 280 yards. The 140 ELD at 2860 really messes them up! We look forward to getting a few more after the next hay cut.

Below is a picture of the rifle that my brother quickly took. And a picture of the 3 shot group he fired right before taking the picture of his rifle, he was a little excited! I removed the sticky target he shot from the large piece of backing paper and stuck it to this scrap piece to better show the group.
 

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It has been awhile since I have posted any updates, but it has been a busy summer! This rifle continues to impress me and those who have shot it. My brother loves it and so do I. We have settled on the load using a 140gr Hornady ELD Match pushed with 45.5gr of RL26, loaded in Peterson large rifle primer brass, and lit with a Wolf primer. This load has produced back to back sub half MOA groups at 100 yards! My brother shot a group the other day that measures 0.260! After letting the rifle cool, I fired a 3 shot group out of it that was around .4 MOA! This rifle hammers! All with a rifle and scope combo that's around $600! You just cannot beat that. Our extreme spreads have tightened up with the 45.5gr load, giving us an average velocity of 2860fps with an ES of 19.

So far we have taken out 2 groundhogs with this rig. My brother nailed one at 305 yards in the body and I pulled a headshot on one at 280 yards. The 140 ELD at 2860 really messes them up! We look forward to getting a few more after the next hay cut.

Below is a picture of the rifle that my brother quickly took. And a picture of the 3 shot group he fired right before taking the picture of his rifle, he was a little excited! I removed the sticky target he shot from the large piece of backing paper and stuck it to this scrap piece to better show the group.

Very nice group! And with great velocities too! I finally got to shoot mine enough to finally work up a load with 43.7 grains of superpreformance. And below is the 5 shot group with it I pulled the 5th shot so I cut it out of the picture lol. It also had an average velocity of around 2780 I think. I've had my rifle out to 1300 yards so far and was still very impressed with it!!
 

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Nice score on the optic. Those Bushnell Elites are very underrated imo. Good weight, great glass, and spot on adjustments.

I paid $600 for a BNIB 2.5-16 Elite Tactical. Perfect combination of magnification up high and FOV down low.

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