500 yard gun off the shelf?

Does any major manufacturer produce a gun that would b considered a true long range rifle? I know savage makes a bench rest model but is it comparible to a custom rifle? Do they really blue print or true the action? Shouldn't all rifles b trued when they leave the factory? I know they are not but seriously is there any rifle in production that should/could possibly b a true long range rifle straight out of the box? No limit on price! Sako, kimber, cooper, weatherby, sig, anybody?
Click to expand...

Here is a list of what I feel are competition ready out of the box, at least for F/TR Class where 308 Win (or 223) is a requirement.

Sako, TRG series.
Accuracy International, Arctic Warfare series
Weatherby, Vanguard SUB MOA
Savage, F Class, Palma and Benchrest models, along with others.
Tikka, T3 Tactical (and Varmint)
Blaser R93
Mauser 86sr
FN SPR A1

A number of these rifles have detachable box magazines, but they are properly mated to high quality factory stocks, so bedding is not an issue.

Will they shoot as tight as a fully custom rifle with a right bolt, left port, no ejector button action? Probably not. But they will stay inside a 1 MOA ten ring at 500 with good ammo. If you lose, it won't be on the rifle at that point.

Jimro
 
A 24" target at 500 yards is the same as a 4.5" target at 100 yards. Several rifles will do very nice. Check Jimro's list. I think the Savage brand has the best track record.
 
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I feel it's the luck of the draw with any rifle, some are shooters and some are not. I was lucky with my Rem. 700 308 LTR. You could find a good used Rem 700 or Win 70, have a new barrel installed , blueprinted & bedded. When I changed my barrel also blueprintid & rebedded by Accurate Ordanance, they turned it arouned in 5 weeks. There great to deal with,went step by step on the phone, very happy with their work. My rifle is match grade, now it's up to me.
 
500 isn't that far. The target at 500 still uses the 400 yard bull. Depends on the match, of course, but the DCRA(NRA equivalent) bull at 500 is 10.5" on a 6 x 6 framed target. Any heavy barreled hunting rifle should shoot into that at 500 with the right ammo. Doesn't mean 500 is a suitable distance for a hunting shot with most hunting ammo though.





'b' is not a word.
 
Just get any of the Savage Target series- Bench Rest, F/TR, or LRP.
It will shoot better than you, probably for the life of the barrel if you shoot as much as you need to become proficient at long range. The LRP is the only repeater action in the lineup. These rifles will get you far beyond 500 yards as your skills improve.

Get decent glass, spend money on a reloading setup if you don't have one already as you need to send a LOT of lead...
 
I think you would be quite happy with a Savage 12 with accu trigger. It will hit the 24" gong with decent optics. It will also be easier to mount a custom barrel onto that will allow you to hit a 5-6" gong regularly at 500 yards.

Some other higher end guns like the HS Precision are better, but the price is so high that you'd be better off to go custom.

At some point, your ability to reload precision ammo will become critical!
 
I will look a lil harder at the savages! Just got back from the range/lease! Shooting my buddies howa in 308! It's a shooter out to 300 but no one could get a good string of 5 shots past that! It's probably the shooters not the gun! I've never found it so hard to squeeze and breath before! We are not accomplished shooters by any stretch of the imagination but we are doing this the poor mans way!
 
What you just described is very common.... there is a step from 250ish to the next level...3-400yds start to see a lot of wiggle in the scope when you are trying to get it close... keep at it.:)
Good Thread and posts.... I love the title..says it all. 500yds off the shelf rifle/
I would say if you (and im not) a 500yd shooter... then the rifle off the shelf in your hands is easier than you (me) doing our part to group at 500yds.
 
Bart is most likely referring to F-class style shooting Borland, of which the pre-requisites alone would disqualify tactical/practical setup rifles like the ones your referring to.

AI
Sako
Savage

Come to mind.

There is also another variable this entire discussion is leaving out and it's the largest variable of long range shooting...the shooter. Doesn't matter if your rifle can shoot 1/10th MOA groups at 2000yds if you don't know how to read wind, don't have tight load tolerances with good ES & SD, and don't know the proper fundamentals of shooting. Some seem to think that LR shooting is so very equipment based when it just isn't. Don't get me wrong you want to rid of all the mechnical variable in the equation (the rifle/scope/ammo) and leave you being the weakest part. Something you can improve on. I can absolutely guarantee you i could hand some of the best shooters in the nation my 5R bedded in an McM A5, with a USO SN-3 on it and you give me the last rifle the late legend Gale McMillan himself built and i wouldn't out shoot them.

This is coming from someone who doesn't really have too much trouble shooting a 1/2-Sub-MOA groups at 500yds either.
 
I'm not referring to only F-class type of shooting.

But Blackop's comments about long range shooting are worth considering. Whatever your rifle's accuracy is will add to the size of the rifle's aiming area on target that's caused by the shooter. Free recoil shooting eliminates the shooters variables. Any shooting position with the human holding the rifle in any way opens up the groups the rifle and ammo alone can produce. F-class positions (prone with rests) typically produce better results than holding onto a rifle as it rests atop something on a bench; especially with rifles having more recoil.

And others built rifles and made barrels that out scored and out grouped what Gale McMillan put out. Except that McMillan 22 caliber rimfire barrels still have yet to be equalled. And Hart 30 caliber barrels rifled by Al Hauser (?) in the '60's through the '80's won more matches and set more records than McMillan ones did.
 
I wasn't sure what rifles you were talking about I thought you meant F class so I assumed, wrongfully I might add.

That said I would put accuracy international in the category of a major manufacturer that will hold a 10 shot 1/2 MOA group at 500yds. Then Sako Then savage. I don't consider GAP, Crescent customs, and other custom rifles major manufacturers but there is no doubt their rifles are capable.

As for my example bringing Mr. Mcmillan into it was just that. An example exemplifying my point that it is not so much the equipment as it is the shooter.
 
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