Ok you Dopers, help me put together my 1000 yard rifle.
I am thinking of starting with a Remington Model 700 Sendero in .300 Win Mag. If you can keep the gun in that 1200 dollar range, please feel free to suggest alternatives.
Then scope it (especially reticles if you have experience) and let me know what other must haves there are.
I work with a guy that shot 1000 yard competitions before, and he is willing to coach me, but right now, I need some Straight Dope and opinions.
So, IYHO, what do I need to be competitive? OK, I know I need skill, besides that.
I grew up with a gun dealer father with three shooting ranges at our house. However, I haven’t done much of it in years so please forgive my ignorance. Your proposed rifle sounds outstanding as a general idea. However, can you really hit anything at 1000 yards with a .300 Win Magnum? That seems like an extremely long range to me.
I thought that was the domain of the 50 caliber rifles.
What do you plan to shoot, targets off a bench or will you hunt with it?
Either way, I have to say this sounds like a bad idea. If you plan to shoot 1,000yard benchrest with a $1,200 rifle, you will be disappointed. Mine was $4,000 with scope, plus reloading equipment, some of it custom-made.
If you plan to shoot animals at 1,000 yards and don’t already know the answers you need, well that’s also a bad idea.
I don’t mean to burst your bubble or get into an ethics debate. You asked for opinions and I gave mine.
Shagnasty-
.300 WinMag is entirely adequate for reaching out to 1,000 yards. It will still have enough energy to kill many North American game animals.
Shag: It’s a bit of a stretch, but a 300 Win-Mag can be somewhat accurate out to 1000 yards. (The Marines say a .308 is even good out to 1000 yards, but I disagree.)
I don’t own a Remington 700 or Winchester 70. (Wish I did.) But from what I’ve heard, you’re going to want the following:
A good stock. I’ve heard McMillan stocks are the best. And then you’ll need to do the bedding and stuff.
A good trigger group. Probably the single most important thing. You’ll want a very experienced gunsmith install it.
A good scope. I have a Nightforce scope on my .50 BMG rifle. It’s bullet-proof.
A reloading bench. To get the accuracies you’re looking for, you’ll probably have to load your own.
Another thing to consider: while the 300 WM is an awesome round, it has a reputation for burning up barrels within 1000 rounds. Consider a slightly less powerful cartridge such as the 7 mm RM or .30-06.
If we’re not talking a game rifle – as I infer from the “…I work with a guy that shot 1000 yard competitions before, and he is willing to coach me…” comment, then I’d cast a vote for the .308 Winchester, which conveniently, is no challenge to find chambered in a Remington Model 700. I’d think about replacing the stock with something comfortable – you’ll have to try out what works for you. I like the Boyd Varmint stock, myself.
Think about reloading. 168-grain Match Kings will turn this into a pretty expensive hobby pretty quickly if you’re buying them off the shelf.
Optics… a fixed power scope should be sufficient for basic competition. But I like the Leupold Mark 4 base. This thing is a freakin’ anvil: integral ring and base machined from a single piece of heavy steel and secured with an actual hex nut. I like their scope, too, but this may be a bit on the pricey side.
It doesn’t address your OP, but you reminded me of a 1000 yard blackpowder shoot I watched once. The rules were blackpowder and open sights. The rifles were Sharps, Martinis, and Remington rolling blocks. I was at the range one quiet Sunday morning doing some 100 yard shooting with my Springfield; 100 yards being about the limit of my steadiness when I heard this match start. I was humbled after watching those guys for a while.
I love my 700 VLS, but it’s a .308 and my club only goes to 500 meters. Sub-MOA, rarely do I have a target good enough for serious competition, but I am quite sure that the majority of the problem lies with me and not the rifle. I don’t think you can go wrong with a Rem 700 action.
.300 Win Mag is not really all that punishing a caliber, especially with a heavy barreled, 10+ pound gun. 100 rounds a day leaves me sore but doesn’t incapacitate me or anything.
A little trigger work will help, straight from the factory Remington is better then Ruger and good enough for hunting or 200, but not any real distance.
A decent scope will run more then the rifle, of course. I like Springfield with 1/8 MOA adjustment and find 24x to be a bit much at 500. I’ve never messed around with fancy reticles, mil-dot is good enough for me (but again, I don’t seriously compete at 500).
You might want to check the rules before you invest too much, IIRC there are max weights and other restrictions.
Don’t know how much that helps, and it looks like the National Bench Rest Shooters Association is having trouble with their website (if they still exist, I haven’t been a member since my kids got into Cub Scouts) but I think Precision Shooting is still publishing.
Good luck! I envy you. It’s been far to long since I got to do any real shooting.
Precision work at 1000 yards takes a lot of time, money, and skill. I wouldn’t even think of getting into the 1000 yard club unless I had at least $6K to spend, as I would need a basic rifle, match-grade barrel, excellent scope & rings, trigger group, trigger job, reloading bench, dies, brass, powder, bullets, scales, ballistics calculator, barometer, anemometer, spotting scope, maintenance and cleaning equipment, spare parts, shooting sling, custom bench, etc. etc. etc.
Even if I had the money to spend on this stuff, I don’t have the skill to pull it off. So I’ve set the bar a bit lower for me. My goal is to be a “rifleman,” which means hitting a man-sized target at 500 yards using a rack-grade rifle and surplus/ball ammo. It’s a ***lot ** * cheaper than trying to be a 1000 yard sniper, yet still fun and challenging.
Thanks for the replies. I want to lay on the ground wrapped in the sling, peep through a scope, and squeeze rounds off at paper 1000 yards away. No hunting or bench rest shooting.
Here is a link to the Sendero. I was only talking a price for the rifle itself, not $1200 being my total outlay. Anyway, it’s closer to 1300 to start with. Lots of the other stuff I have. I started shooting competetively in college and have shot pretty much constantly since then. 1000 yards is is just branching out, not getting started. I have reloaded and fuly expected to do that to wring out max accuracy.
Regarding the .308 Winchester, my buddy says that it’s iffy at 1000 yards, it’s going trans-sonic at that point and in his experience may lose stability and keyhole. The Marines load them hot and when they shoot the guns to shit send them back to the armory for work. It’s how they can use the .308 Win.
Bricker that is some scope, the optical eqivalent of a Bentley, I suppose. Thanks for the link.
Crafter_man, You mentioned a ballistics calculator. Do you know of a good one?
Well, as always, the Dope has me thinking, and that’s what I wanted.
My goal is to be a “rifleman,” which means hitting a man-sized target at 500 yards using a rack-grade rifle and surplus/ball ammo. It’s a ***lot ** * cheaper than trying to be a 1000 yard sniper, yet still fun and challenging. 