practice calibers

[straightshooter]

For all the big cal long range shooters out there, just kind of interested in knowing what rifle and caliber you take out to practice with? Does anyone have any friendly competition they shoot with their buddies to recommend? We get to see pictures of the pride and joy in the gun safe, now lets see the pictures of those practice rigs.

 

[Willys46]

Practice rigs!

First is a HOWA 223 Varminter Supreme. This gunis way more accurate than it should be. Bedded it and replace trigger with Timney. Scope is a 8X32 BSA.
300 yrd rock chuck!

Next is a PSS 308 with Luppy 6X20X40 with M1 knobs. Use it for F-class 600 and 1000 yrds. 175 SMK. Great round to practice reading conditions.

 

[straightshooter]

Looks like you have some fun rigs there Willys. When you are shooting the howa, do you dial in wind and elevation, and if so how is that bsa treating you? What load are you using with that pss? I also load 175 grn for my buddies custom 308 remy, but we haven't shot out to 1000 yards yet, still working up a load for him.

 

[Willys46]

Loads

Straightshooter,
Suprisingly the BSA has treated me pretty well. I only shoot it out to 300 yards so I am not cranking the thing two much, but it has tracked really well. The glass is not the best but I would buy another for a cheap practice gun.

The load for 175 smk.
Black Hills Brass
44.2 grains of Varget,
Primers 210M
Seated 2.820 (mag lenght)

I was running them with 44 grains but was having the ocasional one drop into trasonic. the extra .2 seemed to help.

 

[Lightvarmint]

Hello,

6mmbr in both a pistol and rifle.

James

 

[gamedog]

I'm building a 308 and 6mm BR for practice rifles. Cheap to load and cheap to shoot, plus they have great barrel life.

 

[ol mike]

Some people seem to feel that you need to practice w/a gun the has similar deminsions to the gun you will hunt with ,i think doing a lot of shooting w/any rifle is fine.

My practice rifles are included a gamo fixed barrel pellet rifle and a cz 221 fireball.

 

[royinidaho]

I'm getting a 6BR together for that purpose.


I'm so low that if I were someone's smith they'd fire me.

It will be a similar configuration as my LRH rifle but w/some improvements. I keep learnin' stuff.

I think the optics should be the same on both the practice rifle as the LRH rifle. Switching scopes is just another thing to think about. Which I don't do very well. I screwed up the other day by visualizing an 1/8th minute turret while adjusting a 1/4 minute turret. It was the last shot before dark and I'll be darned if I can remember that I made the correction. Another wasted shot But, I think I did, maybe..........

 

[straightshooter]

I read the article, "Bug holes from a bipod", ever hear of a guy named Froggy. Suppose to do amazing things with a 6.5-284, and 308 off a bipod. We are talking one hole groups at 100 yards. Any way if you haven't read the article, give it a look pretty interesting. The thing is when they asked what he does to practice, he said dry fire trigger work in a dark room, and a lot of time behind a 22. That is what actually got me thinking of this post. Thought we might pick up some more ideas for practicing. Keep it coming!

 

[lucasgreff]

I would think the best learning tool is a good old fashioned 22LR. IT teaches you the pure fundamentals of shooting for cheap. Breathing, trigger squeeze, holding. Everything you need to become a great shooter without the fear of developing a flinch.

I think everyone on this forum learned with the 22LR. Now you may already be beyond that in which case I use a .223 REM because its the next cheapest round compared to a 22LR if you reload.

either way you need to put a lot of rounds downrange to become a proficent long range shooter.

Lucas

 

[esshup]

I had a fast twist .22LR barrel put on a Savage Accutrigger specifically to shoot the 60 grain Aguila SSS rounds. It will shoot right around 1" at 100 Yds, and a hair under 2" @ 200 Yds. It is really affected by the wind, so it's a good teacher, plus ANY yardage change requires a click adjustment.

Cheap to shoot, pretty quiet with a 28" barrel and a good teacher.

 

[AJ Peacock]

Needing a practice platform that is close ergonomically to my A5 stocked 338AM, I built a Savage based practice rifle. I used a laminate A5 stock from Joel Russo and put a short action Savage 300WSM in it. I also have a 338-300RUM (Edge) barrel that is currently at Shawn Carlock's getting a brake installed.

So my light practice rifle is either a 300WSM with 26" barrel, or a 338-300 RUM with a 28" barrel.

Both the 338AM and the Savage have 3.5x15x50 NXS with the NP-R1 reticles. The scope sits a bit lower on the Savage and I get a really nice cheekweld against the stock, although I have the saddle adjustable cheekpiece that I will probably install and leave all the way down. On the 338AM, I need the adjustable cheekpiece to get the same line.

Here are pictures of both rifles.

First the 338AM (18lbs with bipod)

Then the practice rifle (this is with the 300WSM barrel on it). Around 12lb's

AJ

 

[CINOSBUS]

I had a fast twist .22LR barrel put on a Savage Accutrigger specifically to shoot the 60 grain Aguila SSS rounds. It will shoot right around 1" at 100 Yds, and a hair under 2" @ 200 Yds. It is really affected by the wind, so it's a good teacher, plus ANY yardage change requires a click adjustment.

Cheap to shoot, pretty quiet with a 28" barrel and a good teacher.

Which action is this? The Mark II?

Who re-barrelled it for you?

 

[Ryan55555]

My practice rig is a Remington VSSF-II in a .204 with a Zeiss 6.5-20 X 50. Probably not the cheapest gun and glass to practice with but I have learned a ton about reloading and it is similar to the Sendero 300 RUM that I hope to soon have.