RPR purchase may give novice shooters advanced rifle skills

[cougar1717]

Against my better judgment, I went to the local range on Memorial Day weekend. The range is public, with no RSO's and has generally been a lot busier for several months since another local range has been temporarily closed for renovations.

As usual, most people are there to shoot common firearms: AR-15's, handguns, 22's, etc. This is not a serious range, just a place for many to blast at 25/50/100. Truth be told, some come to this range to talk more than actually shoot. Something that I immediately noticed was the number of Ruger precision rifles on the firing line. These used to be rather rare, but with the political climate as it is, they have become much more common and you can walk into a big box store and find one.

What I thought was funny though, was that several asked about what I was shooting (Rem 700) with some sort of expectation that I would fawn over their RPR and ask a million questions! Don't get me wrong, they are well made rifles and I've seen people shoot moa or sub moa groups with off the shelf ammo. I have also seen some 3" groups since they were shooting my target I get that there is excitement about a rifle that is advertised as having a 1600 yard range, however, I have humorously noticed that some owners thought their purchase of the rifle with a monster scope and bipod, weighing in at 13+ lbs somehow transformed them into Carlos Hathcock. While people talk about their teenagers being 13 going on 30, it was rather entertaining to speak with some RPR owners who were 100 going on 1000 Thanks for reading.

 

[Hanzo581]

What would the current political climate have to do with RPR sales? I think you're seeing more because at around $1100 bucks it's a solid platform for people getting into long range.

 

[ontarget]

Amazing how many people seem to think you can bypass the crawl and walk stages and go straight to running by purchasing the right gear.

 

[ilbob]

I belonged to a gun club once that had a 100 yard range. It had a 200 yard range but I can't recall anyone ever shooting on it since you had to shoot kind of diagonally across the 100 yard range so the 200 yard range was always closed when someone was on the 100 yard range.

well anyway there was a guy I saw out there a few times who had an HBAR colt ar15. he told me it was around $1000. he had this humongous scope on it that he said was more than twice the cost of the rifle, although he never gave me an exact cost on either of them. This was back in the mid 80s when $1000 was real money.

he would spend half an hour shooting 5 rounds. it did not seem like it was worth it for the handful of shots he put downrange but to each his own.

 

[wally]

Amazing how many people seem to think you can bypass the crawl and walk stages and go straight to running by purchasing the right gear.

I don't know, my wife had never fired a gun at anything over about 75 yards, she fired two shots with my .308 RPR at 300 yards and with one in the 7-ring at 10 O'clock (she'd never shot such a light trigger before, so it went off before she'd expected) and the other in the 10-ring at 9 O'clock she was stoked. I built her an 18" AR with stock and scope specifically to fit her and she is regularly banging steel at 300 yards and having a lot of fun. The recoil of .308 is a bit much for her for more than a few shots (5'1" 110 lbs).

I'd done the hard work of zeroing and figuring the hold overs/unders but she is really getting a kick out of it! and shooting 100 rounds of 5.56 in an outing is no big deal for her.

No doubt, the RPR is a lot of gun for the money.

 

[hdwhit]

Cougar1717 wrote:
This is not a serious range, just a place for many to blast at 25/50/100.

An RPR seems like overkill for a 100 yard range.

 

[cslinger]

Most people have no idea the skill, knowledge and talent needed to shoot long range.

Most people think it really is all about the kit.

Hell I love gear. I love toys. I also have no illusions about what it will do for my skill......which is jack and well you know.

One of most interesting things is taking a novice / completely new shooter and sticking them behind a higher powered optic and having them immediately say "this is NOTHING like the movies."

Out to 100 yards I am passable. I might be able to eke out some 200 yard hits beyond that.......hell I am just gonna yell "VOLLEY FIRE!!!" And hope for the best.

 

[murf]

next time tell them about us, here on the high road, so they can become carlos hathcock!

murf

 

[Speedo66]

An RPR seems like overkill for a 100 yard range.

Hey, I've seen people driving through traffic in Manhattan with Ferrari's as their daily driver. I guess if you can afford it, you do what you like with it.

 

[Jack B.]

200 yards is max for me. I don't think I would try to shoot at anything further away.

 

[CoalTrain49]

Precision rifles are all the rage now. What many don't know however is you can get a good barrel and trigger with a throw away stock for about half of the cost of a precision rifle. So really a person is paying about half the cost of the rifle for the modular chassis. I think the marketing concept is it's a bolt gun that looks like a modular AR. For a lot of people an AR was their first rifle and for them that's what a rifle should look like. At my range most AR shooters are using reflex dots and shooting about 3 moa. Now they are being told that the precision rifle (1 moa) is a bolt gun with a scope, something us old timers already knew. The focus of the PR marketing is the AR shooters who have no idea what the components of an accurate rifle are. They are able to buy a familiar package that is more accurate and doesn't look like something from the 60's.

I considered buying a Weatherby chassis rifle when they went on sale at Cabelas for 1K. I'm not a hopeless romantic when it comes to rifles but I just couldn't see the added expense for the modular chassis. I ended up paying $500 for a heavy barrel varmint rifle with a throw away stock. My thinking is replacing the stock with a McMillan down the road and still being ahead of the game. The only problem is it won't look like an AR but I've never had one of those either.

 

[Hanzo581]

Sure, you can buy a cheaper rifle and toss the stock, but the price of most chassis are very high. I just don't see the savings there over an $1100 RPR.

 

[CraigC]

As long as it gets more people into shooting, I don't care.

And not everybody has access to a range that's over 100yds.

 

[wally]

As long as it gets more people into shooting, I don't care.

And not everybody has access to a range that's over 100yds.

This.
And if you learn the fundamentals and are good at shorter distances shooting at longer ranges ultimately boils down to range estimation and "reading" the wind. Ain't nothing magic about shooting at longer ranges, but if you can't shoot well at short range, shooting longer range sure won't make you any better. I don't think anything but actual shooting practice can help with reading the the wind (other than an experienced spotter or coach making initial calls and second shot corrections).

If you want to shoot small groups at 100 yards there are a lot of worse choices than the RPR -- the easy adjust-ability of the stock is a big plus -- and of course there are less expensive good options too if you prefer a more traditional "look".

 

[CoalTrain49]

Sure, you can buy a cheaper rifle and toss the stock, but the price of most chassis are very high. I just don't see the savings there over an $1100 RPR.

If a chassis that can accept any of the aftermarket polymer add ons is what you're after then a RPR might be for you. The appeal may be they are modular to some degree. Personally, I like one piece stocks like McMillan as they improve the accuracy by being more rigid overall. Accuracy is a function of the barrel, trigger and stock. The truth is there are many 1 moa rifles out there these days in conventional stocks. I have one with a cheap Hogue stock. My point is you don't have to pay $1200 for a "precision" rifle. There are plenty of rifles with conventional stocks out there for $600. All one really needs to do is get a heavy contour barrel and bingo, 1 moa groups all day long.

If you want a RPR I'm not saying don't buy one and I'm not trying to steer anyone away from one, they have a certain cool factor. The end result for me though is accuracy and it comes in lots of packages.

 

[Dill]

who cares? I'm just glad they're shooting. Where I live in central Minnesota, long range places to shoot aren't easy to come by. We have these things called trees that are everywhere!

 

[cougar1717]

This is why the internet is hilarious... some get it, while others are out there deconstructing with Jacques Derrida
It's not a question about the quality of the RPR - we all know that they'll shoot bugholes, especially with decent glass and a bipod or rest. Shooting one of these at 100 is like shooting your 22LR rifle at 25 yards - if you don't get good groups, it can only be the nut behind the trigger.

It's not about decrying the choice of the these owners to shoot at this lowly, MN/SKS/AR/family fun but don't get caught shooting tannerite range - - as if they are out of place or should only shoot their rifles only at a proper, competitive range. That's not the point.

What was incredibly entertaining was a full frontal assault on these shooters' pride - the breakdown of the idea that owning equipment somehow equates to the skill of shooting. I'm not a competitive shooter or claim to be great, but I know it takes both equipment and skill to get small rifle groups. The target doesn't lie - no one can hide behind excuses or called flyers or internet groups, and a "precision rifle" is only as precise as that nut behind the trigger. Thanks.

 

[Hanzo581]

If a chassis that can accept any of the aftermarket polymer add ons is what you're after then a RPR might be for you. The appeal may be they are modular to some degree. Personally, I like one piece stocks like McMillan as they improve the accuracy by being more rigid overall. Accuracy is a function of the barrel, trigger and stock. The truth is there are many 1 moa rifles out there these days in conventional stocks. I have one with a cheap Hogue stock. My point is you don't have to pay $1200 for a "precision" rifle. There are plenty of rifles with conventional stocks out there for $600. All one really needs to do is get a heavy contour barrel and bingo, 1 moa groups all day long.

If you want a RPR I'm not saying don't buy one and I'm not trying to steer anyone away from one, they have a certain cool factor. The end result for me though is accuracy and it comes in lots of packages.

Oh, well yeah. There are plenty of cheaper rifles that will do just as well, especially at the ranges most people shoot at. I thought you meant like toss the stock and get a chassis or nicer stock and I was just saying by then you're right up there in the RPR range. I'll take my Savage 10FCP-SR I am having magazine feed issues with. It shoots like a dream but I looked into chassis systems since I was about to spend close to $200 just for a bottom metal change.....then I saw most chassis are $600 and up. I paid $600 for the rifle itself.