Gear help

[GE-Minigun]

I’m just starting to get into long range shooting and have some questions. While taking a long range shooting class we got a tour of the firing line, while there I noticed a couple of the guys had hand held weather stations and what looked like Hubble size spotting scopes. I’m a gadget guy as much as the next…some cases more. Do I need a weather station or a spotting scope that cost as much or more than the rifle? Also I noticed a ballistics iPhone app for $20 that has GREAT ratings, is that something I should invest in? As of right now my plan in shooting 1k at the club I belong to and don’t see myself shooting competition. I realize long range shooting is not a cheap game and I have no problem with spending money on the right gear…don’t want to waste money on crap I don’t need. Thanks for the help.

 

[Phylodog]

Re: Gear help

Here's the weather station: LINK

As far as spotting scopes are concerned, buy the best you can afford. You get what you pay for and buy once, cry once applies.

 

[lroseen]

Re: Gear help

Stop, wait, backup... If your just starting out forget the gear, Get a decent rifle and a Good scope spend the rest on ammo. Spend a good amount of time and lots of rounds on primarily marksmanship fundamentals and getting some basic understanding of the ballistics of your rifle and how to read wind. Also find resources and read, read, read. Then as you start to actually know something and are relatively proficient at marksmanship in general start picking up the gear. Cool gear is useless if you aren't proficient at the basics anyway.

The only piece of gear I would recommend right away is a shooting buddy who knows what he's doing.

Just my 2cents.

 

[GE-Minigun]

Re: Gear help

I’m a firm believer in the buy once, cry once and have no problem with spending money on good gear, as mentioned I don’t want to buy stuff I don’t need. Just need to know if I’ll notice a different between a $1000 spotting scope or a $4000 one.
Currently have the guns narrowed down to two; Savage or Remington and I’m leaning towards the Savage for no other reason than easier barrel change. Scope will be a NightForce, waiting till after Christmas to pick it up…same for the scope, I’ve dropped a ton of hints to my wife and she’s normally very good at picking them up. I reload so I have more components than I know what to do with, matter of fact I’ve already loaded some stuff that I’m going to try out with a different rifle to see if I got the velocity in the ball park. Then when I get the new rifle I’ll tweak as needed. I’ve been shooting a lot (rifle) since wanting to get into this. Up until now all of my shooting has been skeet, pistol or machine gun…needless to say nothing longer than 100 yards and that was with the M16 (spray and pray style). What should I be reading…magazine, books, articles and which ones. Again thanks for the help

 

[lroseen]

Re: Gear help

A Nightforce on a Remington or Savage would be a great starting rig. If you go with this setup you should have a nice stick with GREAT glass for maybe 2500-3000. If you have money after that let me re-iterate buy ammo, or bullets and powder if your reloading. Don't spend your money on gear now it will not make you any better.

Also you could skip the Remington, just buy the Nightforce and put it on your AR15/ M16 variant assuming you have an A4 upper. This would save you another thousand that you can spend on ammo/ reloading supplies and shoot more. With minimal work you can turn your AR15 into a decent shooting stick out to 700 or 800meters. It may require a better barrel but thats not so expensive anyway.

As far as reading this site is pretty good, just be careful who's advice you buy. There are many very informative people on this site, however there are also some people who are simply dumb asses. So just be careful. I do not recommend reading to many magazines, most people who write for them are not necessarily the people who should be writing such articles. Its kinda the same as this, or any other site, while you can find good information be careful.

A couple good books to get you going. A couple are on service rifle shooting but there is still tons of good information in them pertaining to any style of shooting.

Applied Ballistics for Long Range Shooting - Bryan Litz
The Rifle Shooter - David Tubb
Highpower Rifle - David Tubb
The Competitive AR15 - Glen Zediker

Can't think of some of the others, I'll check my bookshelf and post later.

 

[lroseen]

Re: Gear help

Also chances are you won't notice the difference between a $1000 spotting scope and a $4000 now or anytime soon. You can purchase a $1000 one and be more than content for many years to come. The thing is if you buy a 5.5-22 Nightforce right now you won't have to much of a need for a spotting scope anyway so once again, to hell with the gear for now, buy BULLETS and shoot them. If you really want a piece of gear RIGHT NOW that might be worth buying go buy a decent relatively inexpensive digital video camera and record yourself shooting then watch and diagnose what your doing wrong. Once again my 2 cents but hope it helps.

 

[GE-Minigun]

Re: Gear help

I’ll get the books, thanks…Tubb I’ve heard of and read a little about him. Nice to hear I have the guns narrowed down to two that will work. I don’t need any gear RIGHT NOW, as matter of fact I would rather NOT have to purchase any gear that is NOT ABSOLUTLY necessary…rifle, scope, reloading components, etc. I’m an RSO at the range that has the 1k I want to shoot on and the spotting scope will “HOPEFULLY” kill couple birds with one stone if you will. We (RSO’s) use our own spotting scopes to help the members with sighting and spotting shots out to 300 yards. So my spotting scope will be used both for that and for my shooting…did that make sense…little confusing to me? My current spotting scope is an older Simmons that’s getting to or possibly past its end of life as the glass is a little cloudy; works fine out to 100 but after 300 it really starts to fall off. What/who’s upper for the AR would or do I need to look at? I read an article couple years back about Rock River’s Varmint A4 with a 24” barrel…that was one shootin’ SoB…that worth looking into? Again thanks for all the help so far.

 

[Redmanss]

Re: Gear help

Read here, an excellent article on getting started by Zak Smith:
http://demigodllc.com/articles/practical-long-range-rifle-shooting-equipment/?p=1