luzyfuerza
Member
A couple of years ago, I bought a piece of property that has room for a 440 yard range on my land, and which has another 800+ yards of public ground beyond, all with a huge natural backstop. I told myself that with that kind of a range, I had a perfect opportunity to learn about long-range shooting.
So, I took a one-day class that covered the basics of rifles, glass, ballistics, wind estimation, and shooting technique. It was clear that the bolt action hunting rifles I already owned wouldn't do; they are light, and are accurate enough for hunting, but weren't adequate for shooting up to 1250 yards. My scopes were durable, but didn't have clear glass. I needed new hardware, good enough to hold 0.5 to 1.0 MOA or so accuracy. All day long. The rig will be shot from the bench or prone, from a bi-pod, so heavy is good.
Also, I realized that I needed to upgrade my reloading skills. For decades, I've been a "meatball reloader". I have always reloaded for function, and to reduce cost. Accuracy was way down the list of priorities. I've loaded and shot perhaps 150k rounds of handgun ammo on my 650. My ARs are volume shooters, very seldom being shot at ranges beyond 100 yards. When I've loaded for bolt guns, I never really did what's necessary to produce fine, accurate cartridges. Close enough was good enough.
So, I was really starting from close to ground zero.
Oh, and I'm cheap. Really cheap. So I looked for hardware and tools that had a chance of meeting the 0.5 to 1.0 MOA goal, but which were VERY cost effective.
So this thread is about assembling a rifle that's as inexpensive as possible, but which still should have good enough quality to help me gain long distance skills. It describes the hardware I chose, and the very preliminary results I have so far.
Here's the hardware:
Rifle: Savage 12FV heavy barrel, with Accutrigger, on sale at Cabela's with the $100 rebate.
Cartridge: 6.5 Creedmore
Glass: SWFA 10X Super Sniper, with parallax adjustment on the tube
Mount: DMZ Products 30mm one-piece base, 20 MOA
Stock: Choate Ultimate Sniper
I also bought new reloading equipment. Hornady case and OAL length comparators, Hornady match neck bushing dies, a straight OAL guage, and 250 Starline cases. To start, I also bought some Privi 120 and 140 grain projectiles, some Hornady ELD 140 grain projectiles, and some IMR 4451 (since H3450 seems to be complete unobtainium). I had Varget on hand.
And I started a log book for this rifle, something I'd never done before for any firearm.
So, I took a one-day class that covered the basics of rifles, glass, ballistics, wind estimation, and shooting technique. It was clear that the bolt action hunting rifles I already owned wouldn't do; they are light, and are accurate enough for hunting, but weren't adequate for shooting up to 1250 yards. My scopes were durable, but didn't have clear glass. I needed new hardware, good enough to hold 0.5 to 1.0 MOA or so accuracy. All day long. The rig will be shot from the bench or prone, from a bi-pod, so heavy is good.
Also, I realized that I needed to upgrade my reloading skills. For decades, I've been a "meatball reloader". I have always reloaded for function, and to reduce cost. Accuracy was way down the list of priorities. I've loaded and shot perhaps 150k rounds of handgun ammo on my 650. My ARs are volume shooters, very seldom being shot at ranges beyond 100 yards. When I've loaded for bolt guns, I never really did what's necessary to produce fine, accurate cartridges. Close enough was good enough.
So, I was really starting from close to ground zero.
Oh, and I'm cheap. Really cheap. So I looked for hardware and tools that had a chance of meeting the 0.5 to 1.0 MOA goal, but which were VERY cost effective.
So this thread is about assembling a rifle that's as inexpensive as possible, but which still should have good enough quality to help me gain long distance skills. It describes the hardware I chose, and the very preliminary results I have so far.
Here's the hardware:
Rifle: Savage 12FV heavy barrel, with Accutrigger, on sale at Cabela's with the $100 rebate.
Cartridge: 6.5 Creedmore
Glass: SWFA 10X Super Sniper, with parallax adjustment on the tube
Mount: DMZ Products 30mm one-piece base, 20 MOA
Stock: Choate Ultimate Sniper
I also bought new reloading equipment. Hornady case and OAL length comparators, Hornady match neck bushing dies, a straight OAL guage, and 250 Starline cases. To start, I also bought some Privi 120 and 140 grain projectiles, some Hornady ELD 140 grain projectiles, and some IMR 4451 (since H3450 seems to be complete unobtainium). I had Varget on hand.
And I started a log book for this rifle, something I'd never done before for any firearm.
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