Long range target rifle

Beezer, a heavy .223 bullet from a 1:7 twist barrel will stay stable out to 600+ yards, so you really don't need anything bigger than a .223 if all you want to do is punch paper out to that distance. That said, the various 6.5s (6.5x55, 6.5 Creedmoor, .260 Remington) have taken the tactical competitions by storm. These can also be excellent hunting cartridges with the right bullet. And the .243 Winchester is almost as capable. Any of these latter cartridges can do 1000 yards with ease.

My choice for long range targets was the .260 Remington. I wanted a 6.5 for which I could easily form brass from the stash of .243 and .308 once-fired cases I have. I bought a Defensive Edge, built on a trued Remington 700 action with a 26-inch fluted Hart barrel in an HS Precision stock with adjustable cheek piece. Scope is a Nightforce 5.5-22x50 NXS scope in 20 MOA Nightforce rings.

But I also have a Remington Model 7 in the same cartridge; it is my "carry all day" hunting rifle. The Model 7 shoots sub-MOA with the right loads; the DE better than 1/2 MOA.

Your .30-06 will go 1000 yards, too. But for a range gun, I'd not want to put up with the recoil ... but that's just me. So you have lots of options.
 
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Your 30'06 with decent glass would get you started.

If you don't want to work with that, Savage 12 rifles are an easy way to shoot longer ranges. 223, 243, 308, are good calibers to start with.

My rig is a Savage 12 300WSM, bedded and scoped with a Burris XTR Optic.
 
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Beezer, your 30-06 should do you just fine for out to 1000 yards. Even to get good groups at 300 is going to take practice.

I'm using a "cheap" hunting rifle.
Stevens 200 in 7mm-08. I have a Redfield Revenge 4-12x42 scope with the ranging "Varmint" reticle.
Zero sight in for the scope is 200 yards.
Using Nosler Ballistic Tip 140gr. bullet over 47.0 gr. of Reloader 19.

I shot my first honest 1/2" group with it last week.:D This was at 169 yards.(don't know why the distance is that, to that berm, just is.)

My point is, even hunting rifles can shoot.
 
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If you shoot a few thousand 5-shot groups with any rifle, one of them will be very, very tiny. Even 1/4" at 300 yards. Very much smaller than the largest ones shot. Problem is, you don't know if it'll happen in the first dozen groups, middle hundreds or thousands of groups, or even the last 10 groups.
 
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the term "target rifle" is a broad term. There are benchrest target rifles, silhouette guns, biathalon guns, position specific guns, etc. What you want to do will determine what you should have. It sounds like you're not competing so really there's no right or best rifle and no rules to comply with. Just build or buy what appeals to you and learn to use it.

Personally, I used to shoot and instruct for NRA Light Rifle competitions. For me a target rifle is an accurized 6 lb sporter rifle and a leather sling, and I can do a lot with that. It just goes to show that it's not all about the gun. Remember that within the capabilities of the projectile, a minute of angle is a minute of angle no matter what the distance. If you can make a particular rifle shoot MOA or better groups at 100 yd, it will do that at 200 yd, 300 yd, 400, and so on until the ballistics of the bullet fall apart.
 
you can shoot 750-1000yrds without spending a fortune. I have a Savage Axis .223 ($279) with Boyds Pro Varmint Stock ($109), E.R. Shaw Varmint Barrel($199) and Timney Trigger ($95) that has kills on whistlepigs out beyond 500 yards. I have shot steel at 1000 yards and as long as the wind is in my favor i have been real successful.
It just takes practice and more practice. I love to shoot long range and try to get to my long shot capable range at least once a month. If you start doing it and like it you will always love it!!!! the only down side is you will find your self buying special toys just for long range shooting ( trust me, my new Savage 110BA in .338 Lapua with Magpul PRS stock is on the way to my FFL as we speak!!!)
 
Beezer said:


I was talking to a friend about rifles set up for target shooting vs. those set up for hunting. It got me to thinking about getting myself a rifle specifically for long range target shooting.

I'm curious to know what kind of set ups folks have. Caliber? Barrel length? Optics? Etc....

I have a Remington 700 in 30-06. In addition to that, I've primarily shot .308 and 22-250. I've shot .223 in AR style rifles, but never in a bolt rifle.

When I say long range, I'm thinking I'll be starting out in the 300 yard range.
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I happen to have a target rifle. I attended my first 300 yard F-TR match in July at my range. I enjoyed it a great deal. Love the early morning sunrise meeting the guys at the range, the smell of gunpowder in the air. It brought back memories of the summer of '72 when I was in Basic Training.

Yogi Berra once said "Somebody has to win and somebody has to lose, let's not fight about it, let's practice more and get better." That's the way I'm going about.

Here's a couple of pictures of my .308. It has a Pierce action, Jewel trigger, Krieger 30" barrel, a Sinclair bipod, and a March 10-60x52 scope.

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Eppie-Hows that scope?. I have been checking them out a lot here. Hows the clarity on 60 power and more so ,hows the tracking ?. I have heard nothing but good about them so far.
 
Eppie-Hows that scope?. I have been checking them out a lot here. Hows the clarity on 60 power and more so ,hows the tracking ?. I have heard nothing but good about them so far.
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I've only had the March scope since August. After my first match I realized that I had upgrade to meet the competition. With the March I won my second match the "unclassified" class, there were six of us. Now I am classified as a Marksman/Kindergarten. Of course my scores were horrible when you look at the Expert, Master and High Master classes. Hey, I gotta start somewhere and the bottom seems like a good place to start.

Back to the my March, I like it a lot. It has the clarity of my old Swarovski at a much higher magnification. It is a real fine piece of engineering. Mine has the fine reticle with the 1/8 dot, and the big well marked turrets that makes adjustments a snap. I've been practicing at the 1k yards, but I've not attended a 1k match yet, maybe next month if time permits.

Jim Kelbly brought all his scope (exclusive dealer of March scopes) and some rifles to display them last Sunday at our 600 yard match I got to look at the 8-80x scope and I've decided that it really doesn't add anything for me. The heat from the barrel renders the last 20x pretty useless. IMO it isn't worth spending the money. YMMV.
 
Hal says:
If you can make a particular rifle shoot MOA or better groups at 100 yd, it will do that at 200 yd, 300 yd, 400, and so on until the ballistics of the bullet fall apart.
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I disagree.

The most accurate rifles and ammo on this planet shoot test group under the best conditions that open up about 1/10th MOA for every 100 yards past the first one. The bullet's muzzle velocity and BC spread, subtle wind currents and other changes in atmospheric conditions between muzzle and target are the reason. All bullets fly through constantly changing conditions.

That's easily seen by checking the benchrest records at short range and see how the group record sizes increase in MOA numbers as range increases. As well as running ballistic programs to see what the change in bullet impact direction is at different ranges for a 10 fps change in muzzle velocity as well as a 1/2 MPH change in wind speed.
 
Bart B. Hal says:
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If you can make a particular rifle shoot MOA or better groups at 100 yd, it will do that at 200 yd, 300 yd, 400, and so on until the ballistics of the bullet fall apart.

I disagree.

The most accurate rifles and ammo on this planet shoot test group under the best conditions that open up about 1/10th MOA for every 100 yards past the first one. The bullet's muzzle velocity and BC spread, subtle wind currents and other changes in atmospheric conditions between muzzle and target are the reason. All bullets fly through constantly changing conditions.

That's easily seen by checking the benchrest records at short range and see how the group record sizes increase in MOA numbers as range increases. As well as running ballistic programs to see what the change in bullet impact direction is at different ranges for a 10 fps change in muzzle velocity as well as a 1/2 MPH change in wind speed.
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I'm with Bart on this one.

Hal Yogi Berra said "In theory there is no difference between practice and theory. In practice there is."

In his book Accuracy and Precision Brian Litz states that reading the wind is the single most important factor in determining success for the long range shooter. And he shows the data to back that up. He shows one scatter graph where the shooter misreads the wind by 2 mph and the results are quite dramatic.
 
But wait. There's more.

If you're shooting a British SMLE and its .303 ammo loaded with Cordite dealing with its almost 100 fps muzzle velocity spread, the groups at 1000 yards will be near 1/2 the size in MOA of what they are at 500 yards.
 
My favorite long range set up is an FNH M70 short magnum action launching 243AI down 26 inches of Bartlein with a Nightforce 5x25.

My favorite hunting rig is a Winchester M70 long action launching .264WM down a 24" barrel with an Unertl 4x...


 
My favorite long range set up is an FNH M70 short magnum action launching 243AI down 26 inches of Bartlein with a Nightforce 5x25.

My favorite hunting rig is a Winchester M70 long action launching .264WM down a 24" barrel with an Unertl 4x.
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Here's a couple of pictures of my .308. It has a Pierce action, Jewel trigger, Krieger 30" barrel, a Sinclair bipod, and a March 10-60x52 scope.
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Gentlemen, I have but one thing to say: Day-um!! :)
 
Gents, I feel that only the latest/greatest are getting any love here. I like to go back to the basics. While I have a current 'long range rifle' (EDM Arms .50BMG Windrunner), I really enjoy shooting two old-school guns for that. The newbie is a Chiappa 1874 Sharps Creedmoor in 45-70. It has a Pedersoli tang sight with a Hadley aperture. Great fun to shoot, and accurate with either a 535gr Postell or a 500gr paper patched slick. The old rifle is an 1894 DOM Marlin 1893 in 38-55. It sports a new Marble tang sight with a Merritt aperture. A sweet rifle that I would not hesitate to hunt with. Either one of these rifles can maintain 1 MOA accuracy with comfortable hunting loads. FWIW, I don't shoot black in either of them. I'm lazy and don't like the extra cleaning.
 
I appreciate the old big bore rifles, but it is easier to use something slightly more modern, like that young upstart the 30-06, or it's younger brother the 308 Win.

Kinda hard to call a 62 and 108 year old cartridges "latest and greatest" even against the 148 year old 45-70.

Funny how less time passed between the adoption of the 45-70 and 30-06 (40 years) than between the 30-06 and the 308 (46 years).

Jimro
 
The NRA kept the same long range target scoring ring values and sizes and aiming bull the same size from 1876 to 1973. It was the improved accuracy of the newer 30 caliber magnums and .308 Winchester coupled with better bullets and epoxy bedding starting in the 1960's that convinced them to do so. Long range accuracy was pretty much the same across all cartridges until then.
 
What are the recorded best group sizes shot at 1000 yards for any type rifle?

I was recently at a match where a shooter fired a 2.045" 5-shot group at 1000 yards.

Curious what other groups have obtained ?
 
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