First long range gun. Opinions encouraged!

[mwurdeman07]

Hi guys, so I have been looking into a long range rifle for a while now and I think I have found the most knowledgeable forum on the internet to locate the help I need.
Some information which may be helpful:

-I intend on using a .308 cartridge.
-I intend on upgrading nearly everything on the rifle with the exception of the action and barrel.
-As I will be upgrading alot I am hoping to get the rifle itself somewhat inexpensive.
-Upgrading to a detachable mag would be nice, is this even possible?

So I am looking at a few rifles, but as I said I am open to all suggestions. My local cabelas has a r700 sps varmint for $599. I thought with a 26"bull barrel it would be a great start. I have also looked into the savage 10fp rifles, but they are not readily available where I live.

For each rifle which scope base and rings would you recommend? I have read 20moa is pretty standard in the sport but as I said I have never made such a machine

Basically if you were to buy this r700 sps varmint or a similar rifle, what gear would you use? From the stock to the trigger to the optic rings and base. I want to know what your list for a build would include.

Any and all help is GREATLY appreciated! Thanks guys, I know you won't let me down.

 

[nauta]

Re: First long range gun. Opinions encouraged!

You can add a detachable magazine later or you can buy a stock with a chassis system (Manners mini-chassis, AICS, etc.) so that you don't have to worry about the stock having the proper inletting done for it.

You can find plenty of reviews on scope rings on here. If you want really good ones the first time so that you don't have to upgrade them later, check out Seekins and Aadland. There are more expensive options but you won't get any more value out of them for the situation you describe. An EGW base should be fine for the rifle you describe and not too expensive but almost any manufacturer will have what you need. Again, just read some threads to see what people are using.

20 MOA is pretty standard just because any scope should still be able to zero at 100 yards but you will have an extra 20 MOA of adjustment available for longer ranges. There's no reason I know of not to get it.

 

[Josh Ward]

Re: First long range gun. Opinions encouraged!

Rem700 is a great place to start! Get a quality optic and base/rings and SHOOT IT !

 

[dddoo7]

Re: First long range gun. Opinions encouraged!

This is the route I went with. I got my sps-v about 18 months ago for $550+tax, but rem had a rebate so I got $75 back.

I put it in an aics chassis, which has dbm built in and works flawlessly.

I put a badger rail on it. I recommend a steel rail with recoil lug. Don't go cheap on base and rings. I can take my scope off of the gun, and out of the rings, and when I put it back it is within 1 moa of dead on. I used mark 4 steel rings, but most any quality steel rings should do. Badger are very high quality as well.

I have a jewel trigger set at a very crisp 12 oz's. This is a great improvement over the factory trigger.

I use alpha type 2 mags in the aics so that I can load long. The throat in the rem 700's is very long. Mine coal is 2.950. Check yours before loading that long. If you are not hand loading, then don't expect much more than 3/4-1 1/4 moa. You might do better, but it would be an exception.

I consistently shoot in the low .3's and every once in a while the high .2's. I am using 175 Smk's and 43.5 varget. They run about 2600 fps which gets them to 1000 still supersonic. It did however take a lot of load development and several hundred rounds of seasoning the barrel before it shot this well.

If you have any questions, let me know.

 

[JB02]

Re: First long range gun. Opinions encouraged!

You don't have to follow this completely, but lots of good advice regarding this topic is here:

http://www.8541tactical.com/budget%20precision%20article.php

I like the manners mini-chassis too, but consider getting a B&C or HS inletted for Surgeon DBM if that would fit your budget better. The Surgeon DBM is nicer than the Badger M5.

You don't have to buy your rifle from a local store. I haven't. Go to Gunbroker.com and find an FFL. There are many sites you can order a rifle from and have it shipped to you via an FFL.

 

[mwurdeman07]

Re: First long range gun. Opinions encouraged!

Hey guys thanks for the posts, it is really helping me move in the right direction! I hope you don't mind if I pm you in the future.

 

[Glen1978]

Re: First long range gun. Opinions encouraged!

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: LT JGB</div><div class="ubbcode-body">You don't have to follow this completely, but lots of good advice regarding this topic is here:

http://www.8541tactical.com/budget%20precision%20article.php

I like the manners mini-chassis too, but consider getting a B&C or HS inletted for Surgeon DBM if that would fit your budget better. The Surgeon DBM is nicer than the Badger M5.

You don't have to buy your rifle from a local store. I haven't. Go to Gunbroker.com and find an FFL. There are many sites you can order a rifle from and have it shipped to you via an FFL.</div></div>
Lots of good info in that link! Thanks!

 

[Nuttshooter]

Re: First long range gun. Opinions encouraged!

The for sale section can be your friend. You can go ahead and buy what you are looking for and normally as a loss to the seller.

 

[264Charlie]

Re: First long range gun. Opinions encouraged!

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Nuttshooter</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The for sale section can be your friend. You can go ahead and buy what you are looking for and normally as a loss to the seller. </div></div>

This is a great idea. You might find a custom for less money than a upgraded factory gun if you keep your eye out.

I would stick with a Rem 700 SA rifle and build from that. I'm personally not a fan of the Savage actions.

 

[steve123]

Re: First long range gun. Opinions encouraged!

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: 264Charlie</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Nuttshooter</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The for sale section can be your friend. You can go ahead and buy what you are looking for and normally as a loss to the seller. </div></div>

This is a great idea. You might find a custom for less money that a upgrade factory gun if you keep your eye out.

I would stick with a Rem 700 SA rifle and build from that. I'm personally not a fan of the Savage actions. </div></div>

+1 to what Charlie advised!

 

[TonyAngel]

Re: First long range gun. Opinions encouraged!

With your intention of upgrading everything except the barrel and action, I think you're looking at this a$$ backwards. You want to get into long range shooting and hopefully shoot accurately. An expensive stock and detachable magazine will do little to nothing to get you there.

First get your budget constraints in order. Lots of guys get the idea of the rifle in their mind, get it together and then wind up asking questions like, "what's the best scope of under $300?"

The scope is important. You can't hit what you can't see. For a good inexpensive optic, I think that a Vortex PST 6-24X is a good reference point. You are going down the right path with the Seekins mounting hardware. I went NIghtforce all the way around, but that was just a personal choice.

As far as the rifle goes, just get something that will get you shooting. Even the crappy little SPS Tactical with the crappy finish, crappy stock that everyone complains about and the crappy X-Mark Pro trigger will shoot sub MOA out of the box.

So, once you get the rifle with a good scope on top of it, you'll need to worry about ammunition, but that is beyond the scope of this post. Once you're shooting, the first thing I'd do is get a better trigger. Shilen, Timney, Jewel...all are improvements over the stock trigger, with the Jewel being the top of the heap.

After the trigger, I'd look at getting a barrel or a stock, depending on the performance of your barrel in terms of how much copper fouling you are getting, how long the throat is and your velocities. For me, I jumped on an after market stock pretty quickly because at the time, HS Precision pull off stocks were all over the place for around $200, so I just grabbed one.

If I had to choose between the stock and barrel, I'd go with the barrel. A custom barrel is going to get you much less copper fouling, a tighter chamber for higher velocities and longer brass life and a shorter throat so that you aren't loading your rounds super long just to get to the lands, while sacrificing neck tension. A good barrel is also going to let you shoot while it's hot without groups opening up a whole lot and points of impact shifting.

A good shooting rifle is all about the ammunition, barrel and trigger. Everything else is for comfort and convenience.

If you decide to consider used, just keep your eyes open. I sold a .308 based on a 700 action sporting a Krieger barrel, Bell & Carlson M40 stock and Timney trigger for around $1000 here not too long ago.

 

[SIE107]

Re: First long range gun. Opinions encouraged!

If you buy that Rem SPS Varmint model, go ahead and shoot that barrel, as long as you can develop a load that is .5 MOA then your good to go and learn the game your wanting to play, learn good wind reading. If your going to upgrade, start with a good trigger, I personally like the triggers that come from X-Treme Shooting, Tom makes a great trigger for Remingtons and clones. After you burn up that first barrel and have played a little at distance, you will have a lot better idea of what you really need. Other active compeditors will point you in the right direction.

You may want to go to the local matches first and ask questions first, see what people are actually using and what really is practical.

 

[majohnson2]

Re: First long range gun. Opinions encouraged!

To build my 6.5CM, I purchased a new R700 SPS in 308. Braking down the gun I only reused the action. I was able to sell the new 308 barrel. And still have the bottom metal and stock to sell. Selling off the unused items reduces your outlay. There are lots of ways to go about building a custom rifle.

 

[Swift]

Re: First long range gun. Opinions encouraged!

Sniper's Hide Google Search. This topic has been covered to death.

http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=010955838166721108978:qcbx5qqy10o

 

[dpodgurs]

Re: First long range gun. Opinions encouraged!

R700 is one of the best starting platforms for precision rifle builds in my opinion. There is a lot out there that you can readily get to upgrade as you go. What you need to look at is if you intend on ever suppressing your rifle or running a brake and if so I would probably look into the R700 AAC-SD (20" threaded barrel). You could get that rifle sent to your FFL for about 150-200 more than the SPS varmint and would allow you the option of adding that suppressor or brake in the future. But of course if you never intend on adding those then the SPSV would be a perfect start.

For optics it again depends on what you want to use the rifle for. I have had some excellent advice as far as what glass is good/bad from redneckbmxer24 and if you have any questions I'm sure he would be glad to help. From my research and his advice I would suggest a FFP (Front Focal Plane) optic. There are several good FFP optics such as the Bushnell Elite Tactical line and SWFA SS if you are on a budget of around $1000-1500. Personally I am going to save for a Nightforce F1. In any scope look into getting MRAD adjustments and a mil based reticle (mil/mil). Keeping the turret adjustment and reticle the same in terms of adjustment definitely simplifies making quick and effective corrections because what you see in your scope you can directly adjust with your turret or simply use that hold. So for example if shoot and you see that you were .7 mils high and 1.1 mils to the left you simply put in the correction into your turret or use a hold and bam you should be on target.

I've done a R700 build before in 7mm Mag and if you don't do the research and take the time to learn about what you buy then you will not be happy with what you get in the long run. I learned this the hard way. Somethings you can get away with but when you start to talk optics and even the base rifle, you are going to need to take the time to look at everything and decide what is best for you.

I wish you the best of luck with your build. This forum has a lot of information, and there are a lot of people here who have been doing this stuff for years and know all the ends and outs of precision builds. I'm sure you will find all the help you need and then some.

 

[Glen1978]

Re: First long range gun. Opinions encouraged!

Im in the same boat. Ive read long and hard and what I thought I wanted has changed more to what do I need to do this and do it properly. Redneckbmxer24 has been INVALUABLE to me over the last couple weeks and I appreciate the hell out of that. He has helped me make some really good choices.

I started out planning on going with the SPS-varmint. I didnt like the short barrels of the SPS-tactical but the more I read the more I saw of them and that they WERE capable of 1000 yds I begin to change my mind. Then learned more about the twist rates and such for .308 and learned that the SPS have a 1-12 twist....not the best for heavier stuff and long range. Found the AAC-SD and it has a 1-10 twist and is also threaded. I dont ever feel like I will do a suppressor but a brake maybe....if nothing else I am threaded in whatever case. Just some stuff to think about from one newb to another. And not to mention there not much more than the SPS varmint....I think around $75 just looking on GB.