Hey guys,
I’ve been lurking around the hide for years but haven’t become a member until now due to my age. I’m almost 17 years old and a junior (11th grade) in high school in the state of Arizona. I bought my second gun after saving money for four years (my first was a gift for x-mass) and it’s a Weatherby Vanguard “Package Rifle”, meaning it came complete with base, rings, and a cheap scope. Well I had a bit less than 500 to spend and the rifle was marked for 400. I thought this was a bit odd so we went home and I researched the rifle a bit and it should’ve been marked for 600 so we went back to the store and inquired about it but they said no it’s correctly marked so I went ahead and played with the action for a few minutes and made the decision to buy. It is chambered in 300WSM and lucky for me, that was the exact cartridge I was looking for when shopping in the first place. I chose the 300WSM because my dad has a browning a-bolt in 270WSM and ballistically it seemed like the best choice in a short action. But since he was having trouble finding 270 bullets at one point I opted for the more popular 30 caliber cartridge. He reloads so it was a perfect opportunity for me to learn how to myself so I did. And now that I have a lot of money (a lot in my opinion as an unemployed teenager) I’ve decided I might want something different.
First, I’ll talk about the Weatherby. This rifle was guaranteed to be a 1.5 MOA rifle straight from the factory and I was packaged with a target that supposedly proves that. Now I’m skeptical about targets in the first place so I pretty much discounted that target and set off to make my own. I bore sighted it at home and then at the range I wasn’t even on the 5x3.5ft target frame. That in itself annoyed me but after a few more rounds we finally got it on target but the shots were going all over the place and I couldn’t even justify calling it a group. We thought maybe it was shooters error but my dad wasn’t getting much better results. Even playing around with different bullet combinations wasn’t helping much. It kicks like a mule (think 300WM in a 7.5lb rifle) and we bet it was inducing flinch on me as we both noticed my groups with much more accurate rifles were opening up considerably. I’ve tried 165 or 168grn Hornady SST’s, 110grn V-Max’s (coyote hunting), and am currently playing with 175grn SMK’s. So far the 175’s are yielding the best results and that may also be due to myself becoming more accustomed to the heavy recoil but I’m still only getting about 3-4inch groups at 100yrds and that’s less than acceptable for a very new rifle however it is acceptable for a deer rifle which was the original intention. It only has about 200 rounds through it so far so maybe there is still some breaking in to do? I have no clue. I have read a lot on how to make a factory rifle more accurate and I want to buy a new stock, free float the barrel, and bed the action. If that doesn’t help then the scope is the next thing to look at as it is just a $60 Bushnell and I fear it shifts POI due to the heavy recoil of the rifle. To help tame some of the recoil I want to have the barrel cut back a few inches (for maneuverability), threaded for a break, and crowned properly. And that should do for a year or so until I can afford a heavy barrel. In addition to that the action sticks really bad; it doesn’t matter if the cartridge has been fired or not it is simply impossible to lift the bolt while in a shooting position with out putting your weight into it. Well that might be a tad exaggerated but it is very bad and I hope this can be fixed as well.
Now with all that is wrong with this rifle, and considering I bought it for 200 less than its actual worth, wouldn’t it just make much more sense to sell the Weatherby and buy the Remington 700 I had originally wanted when I bought this? It seems like it would be a better idea to me. Or another option would also be to keep the Weatherby, fix it up, and upgrade it to be what I want except it wouldn’t be a Remington 700 action and would end up being more expensive in the long run because I would have to have a custom heavy barrel made to have exactly what I want.
Now the other thing I have to consider is I’m looking into joining the military (USMC or Army is another debate I’m having with myself) and as I’m sure you guessed, yes I aim to be a sniper/marksman whatever you want to call it. Now don’t flame me for having this dream, just know I’m absolutely not the typical teenager who thinks being a sniper is going to be like a video game or even close to the glamorous job that Hollywood makes it out to be but it is what I want to do regardless. I have read a lot on what being a sniper actually entails and it’s a challenge I’m going to take on. Now with that being said I have been shooting for most of my life and I don’t plan on ever stopping unless I’m physically incapable. I want to have at least some experience behind a precision rifle relatively close to what I’d be issued in the military. That means either a 308 Win or a 300WM is what I’m looking for. And considering the ballistics of the 300WSM is fairly close to that of a 300 WM I’m wondering which direction I should go.
I’ve been looking at a lot of different yet similar rifles from Remington including but not limited to the SPS, SPS-T, and 700P models. Whatever direction I end up going, the rifle must be capable of killing an elk as that is the largest animal we would hunt, and obviously needs to be able to punch paper at longer ranges. I’m open to all of your opinions, comments, questions, and concerns. All help is greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Dylan
I’ve been lurking around the hide for years but haven’t become a member until now due to my age. I’m almost 17 years old and a junior (11th grade) in high school in the state of Arizona. I bought my second gun after saving money for four years (my first was a gift for x-mass) and it’s a Weatherby Vanguard “Package Rifle”, meaning it came complete with base, rings, and a cheap scope. Well I had a bit less than 500 to spend and the rifle was marked for 400. I thought this was a bit odd so we went home and I researched the rifle a bit and it should’ve been marked for 600 so we went back to the store and inquired about it but they said no it’s correctly marked so I went ahead and played with the action for a few minutes and made the decision to buy. It is chambered in 300WSM and lucky for me, that was the exact cartridge I was looking for when shopping in the first place. I chose the 300WSM because my dad has a browning a-bolt in 270WSM and ballistically it seemed like the best choice in a short action. But since he was having trouble finding 270 bullets at one point I opted for the more popular 30 caliber cartridge. He reloads so it was a perfect opportunity for me to learn how to myself so I did. And now that I have a lot of money (a lot in my opinion as an unemployed teenager) I’ve decided I might want something different.
First, I’ll talk about the Weatherby. This rifle was guaranteed to be a 1.5 MOA rifle straight from the factory and I was packaged with a target that supposedly proves that. Now I’m skeptical about targets in the first place so I pretty much discounted that target and set off to make my own. I bore sighted it at home and then at the range I wasn’t even on the 5x3.5ft target frame. That in itself annoyed me but after a few more rounds we finally got it on target but the shots were going all over the place and I couldn’t even justify calling it a group. We thought maybe it was shooters error but my dad wasn’t getting much better results. Even playing around with different bullet combinations wasn’t helping much. It kicks like a mule (think 300WM in a 7.5lb rifle) and we bet it was inducing flinch on me as we both noticed my groups with much more accurate rifles were opening up considerably. I’ve tried 165 or 168grn Hornady SST’s, 110grn V-Max’s (coyote hunting), and am currently playing with 175grn SMK’s. So far the 175’s are yielding the best results and that may also be due to myself becoming more accustomed to the heavy recoil but I’m still only getting about 3-4inch groups at 100yrds and that’s less than acceptable for a very new rifle however it is acceptable for a deer rifle which was the original intention. It only has about 200 rounds through it so far so maybe there is still some breaking in to do? I have no clue. I have read a lot on how to make a factory rifle more accurate and I want to buy a new stock, free float the barrel, and bed the action. If that doesn’t help then the scope is the next thing to look at as it is just a $60 Bushnell and I fear it shifts POI due to the heavy recoil of the rifle. To help tame some of the recoil I want to have the barrel cut back a few inches (for maneuverability), threaded for a break, and crowned properly. And that should do for a year or so until I can afford a heavy barrel. In addition to that the action sticks really bad; it doesn’t matter if the cartridge has been fired or not it is simply impossible to lift the bolt while in a shooting position with out putting your weight into it. Well that might be a tad exaggerated but it is very bad and I hope this can be fixed as well.
Now with all that is wrong with this rifle, and considering I bought it for 200 less than its actual worth, wouldn’t it just make much more sense to sell the Weatherby and buy the Remington 700 I had originally wanted when I bought this? It seems like it would be a better idea to me. Or another option would also be to keep the Weatherby, fix it up, and upgrade it to be what I want except it wouldn’t be a Remington 700 action and would end up being more expensive in the long run because I would have to have a custom heavy barrel made to have exactly what I want.
Now the other thing I have to consider is I’m looking into joining the military (USMC or Army is another debate I’m having with myself) and as I’m sure you guessed, yes I aim to be a sniper/marksman whatever you want to call it. Now don’t flame me for having this dream, just know I’m absolutely not the typical teenager who thinks being a sniper is going to be like a video game or even close to the glamorous job that Hollywood makes it out to be but it is what I want to do regardless. I have read a lot on what being a sniper actually entails and it’s a challenge I’m going to take on. Now with that being said I have been shooting for most of my life and I don’t plan on ever stopping unless I’m physically incapable. I want to have at least some experience behind a precision rifle relatively close to what I’d be issued in the military. That means either a 308 Win or a 300WM is what I’m looking for. And considering the ballistics of the 300WSM is fairly close to that of a 300 WM I’m wondering which direction I should go.
I’ve been looking at a lot of different yet similar rifles from Remington including but not limited to the SPS, SPS-T, and 700P models. Whatever direction I end up going, the rifle must be capable of killing an elk as that is the largest animal we would hunt, and obviously needs to be able to punch paper at longer ranges. I’m open to all of your opinions, comments, questions, and concerns. All help is greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Dylan
