I want to shoot 1000 yards

My local gun store has a heavy barreled Savage 10 in .308 (used, but in great condition) for like $499 or $519, not sure. Just sayin'. Add tax to that, then put a scope on it, lookin' at about 8-900 total.
 
If I was going to start shooting at 600 and 1000, and didn't have a rifle, from what I know (or think I know) these days, I'd probably go for a Tikka in 223 and put a Vortex Viper 6-24 SFP scope on it. I would be sure the Tikka had a 1 in 9 twist or faster. And if the OP is serious about shooting, he needs to get into reloading. If the OP isn't an old Jarhead like some of us, it would be good to seek some shooting instruction. Heck, if he's anywhere near central Texas, I'll show him the basics of accurate shooting and show him how to reload. Somebody else is going to have to school him in reading the wind.

I just had a fun weekend showing my Granddaughter's cheerleader buddy how to shoot. Amanda turned out to be a natural and was shooting nice groups with my Tikka 260. She snugged into that stock and was working the bunny-ear bag and looked like she'd been doing that all her life. Said it was the most fun weekend she had EVER had. Now she wants a 223, a 260, and a 4wheeler, but that's her dad's problem.:D
 
My local gun store has a heavy barreled Savage 10 in .308 (used, but in great condition) for like $499 or $519, not sure. Just sayin'. Add tax to that, then put a scope on it, lookin' at about 8-900 total.
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Not exactly. That $500 rifle still may need several hundred dollars in bedding/trigger work, etc to be a true 1000 yd gun. Then there is the matter of a scope. Allowing only 300-400 for a scope that will give you clear optics at that great distance is kind of a stretch.
 
Realistically, optics for continuous 1000 yard practice would probably be three or four times the price of the rifle.
 
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Good glass used to be really expensive, but the times have changed. Vortex and Burris have recently added some phenominal optics suitable for long range.

I recently took optics off two of my long range rifles and put on the new Burris XTRIIs. Feature rich...budget priced. They are making some of the elite shooters and glass snobs either uneasy, or excited, depending on how much they have invested in expensive optics. I cut my optics price by over 50% and got better performance.
 
I have a Remington 700 in .300 Win Mag 26" heavy stainless barrel and kevlar stock I zero at 300 yards and make consistant hits at 500 but do not have the room to shoot at 1000 . I have no doubt I could make hits at that range . My rifle cost $1500 around 5 years ago . You dont have to spend thousands but you should get a good quality rifle in a heavy hitting round . There is a shooting club near here that soot on a Goverment range that shoot 1000 yards all the time some of them are sirious some show up with thier deer rifles . For consistant hits the Magnums rule .
 
Here are some rifle marksmanship fundamentals as taught to me by Marine Corps PMIs, granted I've only used what I've been taught out to 500 yards but they are the basics that every Marine starts with, to include our snipers. (Note: I posted this in another thread so ignore the AK references).

Rifle marksmanship starts with you and your body in relation to the rifle.

When you grasp the pistol grip of your AK assume a high firm grip, put the stock high in your shoulder pocket, roughly the bottom one third to one half of the buttstock should be in contact with your shoulder. Then find a comfortable cheek weld and DONT EVER CHANGE IT, consistent cheek weld from shot to shot is crucial, especially when using iron sights.

When assuming a firing stance, be it prone, sitting, kneeling, or standing, use your bones to support the weight of the rifle and not your muscles. I.E. When in the prone you should have the elbow of your support arm on the deck and the barrel of your rifle directly above that elbow. This will reduce muscle fatigue and thus minimize sight movement.

Once you have all of this it is much the same as handgun shooting.

1. Proper sight alignment:
With blade sights like and AK it is exactly like a pistol; front post in the center of and level with the blade. Peep sights like most US service rifles are different, you will have the tip of the post centered in the rear sight.

2. Proper sight picture
With proper sight alignment achieved you will place the tip of the front sight touching your target and focus on it, NOT THE TARGET. This part can be difficult for even experienced shooters because the natural human tendency is to focus on the objective or threat.

3. Breathing
There are different methods taught for breathing. The way I was taught in boot camp was to exhale completely, hold, and then start working the trigger. It works for me. Others teach the respiratory pause method. If you would rather learn that then someone should be along shortly to explain it because I can't. If you exhale 100% and hold, the rifle will be in exactly the same position for every shot.

4. Trigger control
With the pad of your finger, slowly squeeze the trigger. The shot should come as a surprise. After the trigger breaks hold it all the way through the recoil impulse.

*Edit to add- if you begin to tremble while squeezing the trigger, stop. Breathe again, and start over.

5. Follow through and recovery
Hold the trigger all the way through the recoil impulse, once you have recovered from the recoil, release the trigger. You should hear a "clunk" of the trigger resetting, that is how you know you have properly followed through your shot.

* If you fire a shot and remain looking down the sights and after the recoil notice that your rifle is now pointing somewhere other than where you were aiming you need to adjust what is called your natural point of aim. To do this move your body, not your arms, until the rifle is back on target. Once the rights are back on target close your eyes, inhale and exhale 100%, and open them. If the rifle is still on target you have achieved proper natural point of aim, if not, adjust your body and try again.
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I would suggest starting at 100yds, then 200, then 300. If you can hit a man size target at 300, try 500 and keep working your way further and further back until you are confident you can start some meaningful practice at 1000. Again I've never broken the 500yd mark but I plan to soon and this is how I will do it.

The best and least expensive option I can think of as far as caliber would be 7.62x51 NATO (.308 Win). Compared to other candidates (6.5 Creedmoor, .338 Lapua, .300 Win Mag) ammo and rifles are cheaper. A good bolt action in .308 can be had for $600ish, maybe less.
 
There is no need for a magnum cartridge, sorry. Group need to be a lot smaller than human size target at 300 to even think hitting 1k. First be consistent with a tight group at 100, then move down.
 
Note the .223 Rem has fallen out of popularity at 1000 yard matches as the .308 Win produces higher scores. Which is why the US Army team got the NRA to allow AR10's in service rifle matches to shoot as good as M1 and M1A service rifles at long range.

When good 30 caliber match bullets were available in the 1960's, Win. 70 actions were fitted with good barrels, epoxy bedded in cheap wood stocks then shot decent ammo inside 6 to 7 inches at 1000 yards in accuracy tests. Nothing is any better today. But the ignorant and marketing hypesters will try to convince people otherwise. And nothing is better than a Weaver T24, even if it's got 1/4 MOA slop in its adjustments, for optics.

I'd get a .308 to start with. Very accurate, excellent factory ammo, easy to reload for and 3000 rounds of accurate barrel life. While 28, 26 and 24 calibers are a bit easier to shoot accurately, consider the .243 Win's 1500 round barrel life and the 6.5x.284's barrel lasting 900 rounds at most.
 
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I'd go for a decent bolt-action rifle in a cartridge you can afford. For most trying for 1000, that's probably .308, .30-06', or something like that. Learn on cheap ammo, until you are maxing out the capability of the ammo/rifle combo, then go to match ammo to see how well you can do. If you are practicing at 100 or 200 yards, you don't need to be blasting away with $2/shot match ammo.

.223 can do it too, but the cartridge starts getting a little iffy past 800-900 yards, in many cases. (Certainly not impossible, as some people are taking it well past 1000yds accurately!)
 
raimius said:
I'd go for a decent bolt-action rifle in a cartridge you can afford. For most trying for 1000, that's probably .308, .30-06', or something like that. Learn on cheap ammo, until you are maxing out the capability of the ammo/rifle combo, then go to match ammo to see how well you can do. If you are practicing at 100 or 200 yards, you don't need to be blasting away with $2/shot match ammo.

.223 can do it too, but the cartridge starts getting a little iffy past 800-900 yards, in many cases. (Certainly not impossible, as some people are taking it well past 1000yds accurately!)
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I tend to disagree for the cheap ammo part, in my opinion, using cheap ammo to learn is not a good idea. I have use cheap ammo before I started reloading and they were all over the place. I dont think you can learn and correct your mistakes this way. Shooting at 100 or 200 yards correctly (sub moa) and consistently is definetly not a waste of time or a waste of ammo.
On this picture,
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5 shot group at 100, you can see the flier on top, almost 100% chance I screwed up, the bottom right I realy believe it is my ammo. While reloading the night before I notice that some case neck tension were "loose" I reloaded them anyway. Next time I found some with loose neck tension I will mark them and try on the side to see if I can confirm my thinking.

To go back to "cheap" ammo, last monday I went back to try at 1k yards with my 22-250, then I took my ar and try again with it. I was using federal 62 gr ( I actually need a much heavier bullet, my twist rate is 1-7) there was no wind at all, my hits were all over the place, some close to the target, few hit and some more that 8 feet away to the right, left, top etc... yeas I will miss my target at that distance because I am not that good and still have a lot to learn but at the same time I will not miss by 8 feet.
 
I would consider shooting a 62 grain bullet at 1000 yards an exercise in futility. I was not able to find a 62 grain federal bullet but with a 60 grain v-max, you would need a muzzle velocity of 4300 ft/s to stay supersonic to 1000 (at 80 F), and then it would just barely be supersonic. A 62 grain bullet would need slightly lower muzzle velocity but it is probably more than a 22-250 can muster.

A .224 69 grain SMK would require a muzzle velocity of 3700 ft / s to stay supersonic to 1000. A tall order in most cartridges.

It is difficult to get .224 bullets to the velocities required for 1000 yards with 223 and 22-250. If you can stabilize them, Bergers 90 gr VLDs in .224 require 'only' 2400 ft/s to stay supersonic to 1000 (and again, that is just barely supersonic).
 
Tge 62 gr bullet was shot with my ar.
With the 22-250 im shooting 55 gr nosler with 34.8 of varget.
I use to shoot the vmax 55 gr (in the begining that rifle was for varmint but i am been caught up in something else now...lol) the vmax are ok but fir my rifle, tge most accurate load I could get with them using varget was/is 36 gr of powder with an average of 3940 fps which is faster that I want. I still load and shoot them but now im liading the nosler that I like better for this rifle.
 
I agree with loic about using cheap ammo to learn marksmanship; especially at longer ranges.

If you call a shot dead center and it's way out in left field, how do you know what put that shot there?

If you you use good stuff (rifle and ammo) and do that, every shot called dead center will be way out there at the same place in left field.

If you use bad stuff, you can call several shots all over the target and they'll all land in the center; sometimes. When that happens, you'll think your a world class marksman. For a while, anyway, until you call a bunch of shots all over the target and some of them don't even hit it.
 
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