OK, so a friend of mine always hears us talking about hunting and shooting and finally broke down and admitted he wants to try it out. He wants nothing to do with hunting, just target shooting..
I of course offered to let him use one of my guns, well that night he called and said he was on gun broker and wanted to buy his own. I told him if he didn't like shooting he would be stuck with it, so buy something cheap in 22 that is easy to sell. The next day he was at my house and I was showing him some of my guns and the ammo and he wanted to jump right into the 338 lapua, lol...
We finally convinced him to go with 223 or 308, which will be actually be better because I am NEVER around the 100 yard target area at the range unless I am sighting in a new scope. So if he wants to shoot with us, hes better off with something that can reach out to 300 without 29 ft of drop...
He wants to spend $2000, which I thought was a lot, but I seen his point, he is only buying one gun {thats what he thinks, lol}, and wants something nice, he has no kids and does well for himself, so really not a lot of money for him. For me I would personally be looking at a police model 700, BUT he hated the look of it, he wants something pretty, {I gave him a break on that one, he's new}...
We came across a Savage Palma 12, the gun is gorgeous, and we found one for $1400 {figured $1500 to his door}, he loved the looks of it, and it is a nice gun... http://www.savagearms.com/firearms/model/12PALMA , next was the scope and mount which a local shop has some m30 Konus scopes on sale for $250 {thats a steal} and he spent another $150 on a mount... For ammo I sold him 4 boxes of HSM 168gr match I had in the safe {I still have plenty for myself, don't worry}...
So he spends another $400 on non sense at the local shop, noise cancelling electric muffs, barretta glasses, gloves, I was surprised he didn't buy a vest and a donkey to carry his pack. Honestly he dodn't need any of it, I have ear protection I told him he could have, I use simple band plugs I think they are $6 a set...
ANYWAY we finally get to the range, and they are having a pig roast for lunch, so of course we eat 3 lbs of pork and then start walking up to the golf carts
...
The night before I lapped his scope rings, mounted everything up, boresighted it, cleaned and oiled it and test fired it {it was rainy so shot off of my porch
}, I have a target about 50 yards out, it hit paper, thats all I cared about...
We settle in and show him the rules one last time, finger off the trigger, bla bla bla, then he sits down at the bench and we adjust the gun to him {its really fancy and impressive for $1500!!!}, I show him how to get a good face meld and to make sure he could get a position that he could remember and go to every single time he picked it up. Then of course showed him how to breath and where to put the pad of his finger, ect ect ect. 15 minutes of the basic shooting class BS...
Then was the moment of truth, we are at the 300 yard range but we towed a target out to 100 for him. I told him to he was going to shoot 2 and then we would adjust the scope, aim for dead center... Bang, OK, a little high and to the left, he recycles, and BANG again, COMPLETE MISS? I am in my spotting scope and cant see where he hit... I said do one more BANG, complete miss?
So just for s&g I adjusted his scope down and right, send another one... BANG bullseye, send another one, bang same hole!!!! Now we take a ride out to the target, he was laying each bullet inside each other first time shooting a gun!!!!!!!
We were all impressed... So we go out to 300 yards and he is shooting like a seasoned vet. Now I know a lot of it is natural ability, I can tell, he is holding the gun well, no flinches {my buddy who is an instructor said thats because he is wearing the face mask {it was cold} and has nice earmuffs, so he is getting no blast and no noise so there will be no flinching}...
Now I wont say he had a chance of outshooting me
, but he did outshoot my buddy who shoots a stock model 700 {had it forever} in 22-250, I had brought my 5r barrelled 700 with the same ammo he was shooting and I have been shooting that gun 1500 times a year for 5 years {gone through some barrels on it} so I shoot that well...
Anyway, I figured I would share the story, I was impressed both by him and the gun, I shot the gun and it is a shooter, them savages are no joke, I will put that with my sako trg for out of the box accuracy, and I paid a LOT more for that than he did for his...
So now anyway we were driving back and he had shot my gun too, also very well but not as good as he shot his {I wasn't letting him move my adjustments, lol}, and he asked how accurate a gun he could get for $10K, I said maybe you should try pistol and keep this gun for a while. HE IS HOOKED, he didn't even care he shot $100 of ammo in a couple hours, that is usually the deciding factor, when guys see what it costs to target practice a big caliber long range, they opt to go out to the short range with their 22 bolt gun, I admit I like to shoot 22lr too, but its too crowded over there and when we shoot 300-500 we are the only ones there...
Hope you enjoyed the story, if anyone is in the market for what i think would be the most accurate 308 setup for under $2000, check out the savage 12 palma and the konus m30 tactical scope with some 168gr HSM match loads, you will look like a surgeon out there {if you don't mind the single}...
I of course offered to let him use one of my guns, well that night he called and said he was on gun broker and wanted to buy his own. I told him if he didn't like shooting he would be stuck with it, so buy something cheap in 22 that is easy to sell. The next day he was at my house and I was showing him some of my guns and the ammo and he wanted to jump right into the 338 lapua, lol...
We finally convinced him to go with 223 or 308, which will be actually be better because I am NEVER around the 100 yard target area at the range unless I am sighting in a new scope. So if he wants to shoot with us, hes better off with something that can reach out to 300 without 29 ft of drop...
He wants to spend $2000, which I thought was a lot, but I seen his point, he is only buying one gun {thats what he thinks, lol}, and wants something nice, he has no kids and does well for himself, so really not a lot of money for him. For me I would personally be looking at a police model 700, BUT he hated the look of it, he wants something pretty, {I gave him a break on that one, he's new}...
We came across a Savage Palma 12, the gun is gorgeous, and we found one for $1400 {figured $1500 to his door}, he loved the looks of it, and it is a nice gun... http://www.savagearms.com/firearms/model/12PALMA , next was the scope and mount which a local shop has some m30 Konus scopes on sale for $250 {thats a steal} and he spent another $150 on a mount... For ammo I sold him 4 boxes of HSM 168gr match I had in the safe {I still have plenty for myself, don't worry}...
So he spends another $400 on non sense at the local shop, noise cancelling electric muffs, barretta glasses, gloves, I was surprised he didn't buy a vest and a donkey to carry his pack. Honestly he dodn't need any of it, I have ear protection I told him he could have, I use simple band plugs I think they are $6 a set...
ANYWAY we finally get to the range, and they are having a pig roast for lunch, so of course we eat 3 lbs of pork and then start walking up to the golf carts
...The night before I lapped his scope rings, mounted everything up, boresighted it, cleaned and oiled it and test fired it {it was rainy so shot off of my porch
}, I have a target about 50 yards out, it hit paper, thats all I cared about...We settle in and show him the rules one last time, finger off the trigger, bla bla bla, then he sits down at the bench and we adjust the gun to him {its really fancy and impressive for $1500!!!}, I show him how to get a good face meld and to make sure he could get a position that he could remember and go to every single time he picked it up. Then of course showed him how to breath and where to put the pad of his finger, ect ect ect. 15 minutes of the basic shooting class BS...
Then was the moment of truth, we are at the 300 yard range but we towed a target out to 100 for him. I told him to he was going to shoot 2 and then we would adjust the scope, aim for dead center... Bang, OK, a little high and to the left, he recycles, and BANG again, COMPLETE MISS? I am in my spotting scope and cant see where he hit... I said do one more BANG, complete miss?
So just for s&g I adjusted his scope down and right, send another one... BANG bullseye, send another one, bang same hole!!!! Now we take a ride out to the target, he was laying each bullet inside each other first time shooting a gun!!!!!!!
We were all impressed... So we go out to 300 yards and he is shooting like a seasoned vet. Now I know a lot of it is natural ability, I can tell, he is holding the gun well, no flinches {my buddy who is an instructor said thats because he is wearing the face mask {it was cold} and has nice earmuffs, so he is getting no blast and no noise so there will be no flinching}...
Now I wont say he had a chance of outshooting me
, but he did outshoot my buddy who shoots a stock model 700 {had it forever} in 22-250, I had brought my 5r barrelled 700 with the same ammo he was shooting and I have been shooting that gun 1500 times a year for 5 years {gone through some barrels on it} so I shoot that well... Anyway, I figured I would share the story, I was impressed both by him and the gun, I shot the gun and it is a shooter, them savages are no joke, I will put that with my sako trg for out of the box accuracy, and I paid a LOT more for that than he did for his...
So now anyway we were driving back and he had shot my gun too, also very well but not as good as he shot his {I wasn't letting him move my adjustments, lol}, and he asked how accurate a gun he could get for $10K, I said maybe you should try pistol and keep this gun for a while. HE IS HOOKED, he didn't even care he shot $100 of ammo in a couple hours, that is usually the deciding factor, when guys see what it costs to target practice a big caliber long range, they opt to go out to the short range with their 22 bolt gun, I admit I like to shoot 22lr too, but its too crowded over there and when we shoot 300-500 we are the only ones there...
Hope you enjoyed the story, if anyone is in the market for what i think would be the most accurate 308 setup for under $2000, check out the savage 12 palma and the konus m30 tactical scope with some 168gr HSM match loads, you will look like a surgeon out there {if you don't mind the single}...
. The top five kids (age 10-13) got to shoot our clubs Kimber 82G rifles. The others had to provide their own rifles. 