Its about 6-7K to do a really cheap but usable setup. Bellow is a list of the cheapest you can get away with and it still be decent/reliable enough to use. Yes you can find cheaper gear but its mosty chinese garbage you will replace quickly and it will not retain its value if you want to trade up/get out of shooting.
You will need:
Rifle $1k
Rings $90
Optic $ 800
Mags $ 100
Ammo $500
Chronograph $300
Kestrel $300
Phone ballistic comp $10-30
Rangfiner $600
Binos $500
Spotter $500
Bipod $300
Shooting Bag $100
Tripod Setup $800
Tool Kit /Torque $100
Misc $300
Rifle Bag/Case $160
Bag to carry all the shit $100
There is some stuff left out but if you want to do long range shooting, this is what you will want to have. If you got buddies to shoot with, you can get away with sharing but you really should have your own shit. And all of these are lower end pieces of gear, if your shooting alot you will step up to better,lighter,easier to use gear.
You will still need more ammo, barrels. reloading gear if you get into that, may end up needing to buy steel/targets, range fees, ect.
Its not a cheap hobby and IMO, is not worth getting into if you cant afford to do it at a basic level. There are much cheaper shooting disciplines out there that are more accessable and easier to find ranges. Most guys who are into it easily have $20K in equipment and spend much more just traveling to shoot and in consumables. Shooting twice a month could easily cost another $5K a year.
This is pretty good advice. I will say that I started on a very tight budget. I agree that a person who is serious at long range will buy all of the stuff listed and probably more. I will also admit that I made a career change to afford to get more serious about this hobby. In full disclosure I have a $5k gun with a $2.5k optic setup and am considering buying a TT 5-25. The cost of getting the bug is real. Having said that, DON'T LET A $2500 BUDGET KEEP YOU FROM ENTERING THE SPORT BECAUSE A BUNCH OF GUYS SAY THEY SPENT $20K.
Back on track. I will go down the list of what I started with.
Rifle: $1k...bought savage 12fv on sale. Put action in HSP stock with cdi bottom metal and Criterion prefit from NSS
Rings: $100
Optic: $900 Burris XTR2 4-20
Mags: $80 for 2 Magpul aics poly mags
Ammo: I reloaded prior to shooting long range but spent about $500-600 on brass, bullets, powder for new caliber
Chronograph: I got by without one for a long time. I now have the Magnetospeed Sporter for $160
Kestrel: These are WAY overrated in my opinion. I still don't have one. I use a $35 anemometer and a $30 device that give temp and baro pressure. If I had found a good basic used Kestrel at the time for the same money I would have bought it. I believe they are a superior anemometer than the one I have. I honestly rarely use my anemometer anymore.
Phone ballistic app: I have been using Hornady 4DOF. It is free and is the best thing I have found if your bullet is in the library. Before that I used excel spreadsheet that was a reformatted version of Arthur Pejsa's free program. Once trued it was very accurate to 1000 yds.
Rangefinder: Find a used rangefinder in the PX with good reviews. You can get a new leica for around $500. This is a spot where more $ is better, but I haven't needed anything better than a Bushnell 1 mile arc to this point. With all of the ukd comps coming up I am considering upgrading this.
Binos: For a long time I used my $200 hunting binos to find targets. When I became a serious comp shooter I bought some 15x Bushnell Forge. I have seen these on sale in the $600 range. I believe I paid $800.
Spotter: I still don't have one
Bipod: You can get by with $100 Harris with podlok. When I bought a CAL2 my groups shrank significantly and it became rather easy to shoot 1/2 moa and better from my belly at 100 yds. If you can swing at least an Atlas here, I think the money is well spent.
Shooting bag: I bought some cordura, thread, and fill. Except for the fill we have enough stuff to make 25 bags. My wife sews and I cut the pieces. She has made a bunch, but I am still shooting with the original rear bag and barricade bag she made me in 2017. I have picked up several bags off of prize tables and still like the homemade ones better. I spent around $200 originally, but my entire family shoots. We have made well into $1k worth of bags if purchased from the original supplies and still have a bunch left.
Tripod Setup: I have about $500 in a tripod setup at this point, but I went without one for shooting off of for 3 years. My binos were in a very cheap camera tripod. It worked, but wasn't ideal.
Tools: $100 is pretty realistic. It is probably on the low side if you are starting with nothing. At this point I have roughly $1k in tools and am considering a lathe and a mill, but $100 will probably get the job done while you are learning.
Rifle bag/case: I should probably make an investment in this area. My gun still rides in a $30 hard case.
Bag to carry all the shit: $100 is probably a good starting point. I still use a cheap bag I bought to hunt out of. I live in Iowa where a big section is a couple miles between roads. I don't need a great pack. The bag is definitely low end. It works fine for prs style matches.
My reloading setup: When I started, I shot around 2000 rds per year of precision rifle. My reloading setup was a Lee anniversary kit with an old Oahu's 1010 from Ebay. I used lee dies and had very little trouble getting 1/2 moa with a little load development. I have upgraded some of this now for better speed, but still use a lot of stuff from the kit. People poo poo Lee stuff, but with Peterson or Lapua brass and Berger bullets (quality components) my stuff consistently shoots between .2 and .35 moa at 100 yards. Plenty good for PRS.
I also spent some time figuring out what I spent one year. I shot around 7 or 8 one day matches. For a new barrel, components to burn it out, match fees, and travel it was around $4k to $5k. The closest match was 45 min and the furthest was about 7 hours.
If starting today, I would try really hard to put together the money to have an origin in a Bravo. I would use a Criterion savage prefit in 6 dasher or 6 br. The trigger would be a trigger tech of the best I could afford at the time. I would try to spring for an Atlas CAL. An apa lb gen3 would be my brake of choice. I would search for a good deal on an optic. There always seems to be a screaming deal on something good. Lately midway has had deals on Bushnell Elite tactical stuff. Before that Camerlandny had a screaming deal on the gen1 cronus btr from athlon.
If you watch for deals you have a really competitive setup for the $3k range. If that is too steep, the Bergara HMR is a start and you can add the TT diamond. When you are ready to rebarrel, throw an origin with a Criterion in the hmr stock and you're set. If you're lucky, maybe there will be prefit barrels readily available for the hmr by then and you could just rebarrel and continue to shoot it.
For guys that already have the bug, and have gone deep down the rabbit hole, it is easy to spend your money. While I believe it is somewhat crucial that guys know going in what this will cost, it doesn't have to cost $20k. You can start out with the basics for $2500 or really even less if that is all you have. It will be a bit more of a struggle to be competitive, but you can certainly shoot long range for recreation and place mid pack at matches. I even pulled a couple top tens at border wars matches with my budget gear.
Don't let a $2500 budget keep you from dipping a toe in because a bunch of guys are saying they dropped $20k.
looking back I wish I would have gotten a forster co ax right off the bat.
