frumious said:
First, yes, the money is supposed to get you from a position of owning no rifle, no rest, and no reloading setup, all the way to shooting those itty-bitty groups. Although presumably you know how to shoot already and have at least an inkling of how to handload.
Second, a whole lot of you are chiming in with your half-inch groups and whatnot, but please remember that I asked about 1/4 to 3/8 inch groups at 100 yards, not 1/2 inch. And as FiveInADime stated, "That last tiny little but of accuracy is obviously the hardest to achieve.".
Well, that changes things... by about 1/8th of an inch.
There's not much to argue, really. 3/8th inch groups are not THAT tiny and $5,000 is a BOAT LOAD of cash to spend on a rifle, even including equipment.
Could you spend 5 Gs? Yeah, you sure could.
What are you getting for the difference between "needs" for 3/8s and the $5Gs? You're getting cosmetics, and a few luxuries.
The
necessary parts just don't cost THAT much money.
You COULD buy a $2,000 Nightforce, but a $450 Sightron will certainly do the job.
Yeah, you could have the whole gun custom made by a world renowned gunsmith, but you don't NEED to for 3/8th groups. You CAN do it yourself.
The stuff just doesn't cost that much money.
Look, you can buy VERY high-end BR actions from Barnard, Borden or Farley for like $1,100. Barrels from Lilja are maybe $450 if you try hard, plus maybe $250 for chambering. That's only $2,000 and you're 80% done. All you need is a stock, optics and reloading equipment. Even a $1,200 scope, $700 stock and $600 worth of other gear only gets you to about $4,500 and that's going ultra-high end on EVERYTHING.
You could buy the scope, stock and all your reloading equipment for $1,200 TOTAL. That puts you at under $3,300, finished product, and that's still REALLY high-end stuff.
I really think that $5,000 is unrealistically HIGH, not low.