Long Range Shooter

hi i am bilding a 270 win with 30 “custum brl
your thats?
thanks gil

Should be good gun, are you planing to hunt with this rifle or straight target shooting and what direction are you looking for?

thinking about getting a 338 ultra mag to make a long range hunting gun.What would be the best lenghth barrel to use for this gun? Would it be best to use 180 grain or 200 grain bullet? The 180 grain has a velocity of 3544 and the 200 grain has a velocity of 3200. thanks Dewayne

What I would do is get a 300 ultra mag and neck it up to a 338. The 300 ultra mag brass holds more powder and you can get better performance by necking up to the 338 more commonly know as the 338 Edge. As far as barrel length it depends on how much weight you want. The longer the barrel the more you can get from your rifle but the weight might not be worth the gain. To get a complete powder burn from a big magnum like this it would take over a 40 inch barrel but that is not practical. I would go with a 28 or 30 inch shooting the heaviest bullet that I could keep the MV around 2,900 fps. With the 338 Edge you should be able to get about that muzzle velocity with a 300gr SMK.

Wanting to get into long range shooting can you tell me where i could get a good gun built and where to start

It may be best to start out with a rifle you already have. You don’t need a custom built rifle and extreme accuracy when starting out. If you have a decent bolt action rifle in a modern cartridge (even some not so modern cartridges work well) you can get started. Get a good scope with repeatable adjustable turrets. Develop a good accurate load with respectable ballistics. Print a drop chart from an online ballistic calculator, and go out and get all your confirmed drops at various ranges (whatever’s available to you). Once you have a good feel for what it’s all about, make your decisions about wheather to upgrade your current rifle with a custom barrel in a new cartridge or get another rifle built that will fit your needs. There are custom rifle builders all over the country that can help you… what area do you live in?

I’m out of Dover to the north of you and looking at maximizing my 300 Weatherby magnum. any info you might give would be much appreciated.
The rifles a Vanguard with the black sythetic stock. bushnell Banner scope in 6.5-18X50

I’m not familiar with Dover… The 300 weatherby mag is a cartridge with serious long range potential. The Vanguard is good solid action. I’d recommend working on some hand loads and you may need a new scope (buddy of mine had that same scope fail on his 308win). For detailed info I’d recommend joining the forum and getting specific questions answered. Take care.

Hello Willard nice to have someone near me lol. I would agree with Lucas reloading is probably your next step. Once I get setup again will have to go shooting.

i have a 30.06 bolt with a panther
2.5x10x44 what is your opionion or
should i start with something different thanks

Well that depends on what you what to do with your rifle. Is this strait target shooting or do you plan to hunt with this rifle?

I have a new weatherby 338 win. mag. I want to get into long range shooting(1000yards or better). From what I have read the 300gr.SMK is the way to go. Is this true? Or should I go with 250′s?

Used for both hunting and target shooting.

You will hear from both sides that one may be better then the other. I asked this exact question to Glen Roberts (He trains Snipers in Australia) and a friend of his they both said 300gr hands down but they suggested the 300gr Lapua Scenar over the SMK. I should mention that this question was based on the 338 Edge as the shooting platform and not the 338 win. mag. The MV for the Edge with a 300gr bullet would be around 2,800fps and I am sure that the win. mag would be less. So I would probably say that the 250s would work better in the 338. mag vs the 300s. I think the 300s would be a bit to heavy of a bullet.

Thanks for the info Sean. I appreciate it.

Should I still go with the SMK? Or a different manufacturer? What is your opinion?

The Lapua Scenar 250gr has a G1 BC of .675 and the 250gr SMK has a G1 BC of .587. Or there is the Lapua Lock Base Bullets with a G1 BC of .662.
The Scenar run about 75$ Per 100
The SMK run about 30$ Per 50
The Lock Base run about 70$ Per 100

Based on BC any one of the two Lapua rounds sounds like a good choice although I don’t know much about the Lock Base bullets.
Hopes this helps

So I can shoot the Lapua rounds out of my 338 mag then? Just want to make sure!b

Yes you could with out any trouble.

I have a Springfield Armory M1A Loaded, it shoots 7.62×51 or .308. I have hit a 12″x12″ steel plate at 200 yards with all 20 rnds using an Osprey International scope. My question is, can a semi-auto rifle shoot accuratly past 900yrds? What all have you heard about Osprey Int.? and, should i invest in an LRS-1 for that kind of shooting? Ive read alot about Carlos Hatcock and his use of an M14 and have read about his shot made from a moving vessel that killed an enemy sniper 900 yards away in a tree top.
Thanks for your input,
Ben

Sure a semi-auto can be accurate out that far. Russia has been using semi-auto sniper rifles for a long time. Its just a rule of thumb that a bolt is more accurate. And I wish I could tell you more about the Osprey Int. but I dont know much about it but I will say that you dont need the LRS-1. The LRS-1 has 140 MOA of internal elevation adjustment which is much more then most people need unless they plan on shooting beyond 1,500 yards in the future. If you dont like the scope you have you could get a TRS-1 or
Buck Gold, both made by Millet and I have used both with out any trouble.

OK cool. Yeah I used to own a Millet Buck Gold when I had a Federal Ordnance M14, but the rifle wasnt up to shooting long distance with the standard barrel it had. I may look into investing in the TRS-1 in the future, it seems to have everything i would need for shooting out to 800-900 yards an possibly 1000. Thanks for your input.

I purchased a Osprey International 10-40×50 Scope and mounted it to my 7mm rem mag sendero. To make a long story short I haven’t had any problems with it at all. I’ve put at least 500 rounds through it up to this point using a variety of powders and bullets from 150 grain – 180 grain bullets (Nosler, Sierra, Berger). If its ok with Sean I will post my field test results in a day or two. The tests are ongoing. As soon as the weather cools down I intend to take it back to the range. Its a cheap scope ($169 + tax when I purchased it) but its working. I purchased it at the suggestion of a friend of mine who owns one.

Go for it NatureBoy
I have heard good things about that scope to. How is the glass

Here is a review I posted on another website on August 30, 2009.
“I purchased this scope a few weeks ago for $166.45 and got a chance to check it out yesterday. Because of concerns/complaints expressed by others who had purchased Osprey scopes I checked it out as best I know how before mounting. I didn’t see any o-rings exposed, the adjustment knobs were secure and functioned prorperly, and the glass was clear. After mounting it on my 7mm Rem Mag Sendero I shouldered it and was able to easily and clearly read street signs approximately 500 yards in any direction. I adjusted it back and forth using side parallax adjustment and power adjustment knob and noticed all was well up to 36 power. Past that point thing got blury. I could still put cross hair on a fixed target but blury just the same.
Once we got to the range and got set up I zeroed scope and tested some 150gr Nosler Ballistic Tips/61 grains of IMR 4350 at 100 yards, and Sierra GameKing 160 grain/62.8 of RE-22 powder. After firing 10 rounds I let the barrel cool down and before firing again bore sighted to see if the scope held up. I did this 3 times firing a total of 30 rounds of the above with absolutely no problems. At the end of the day I was very pleased with the results. I should mention the weather conditions. It was 90 degrees and a little muggy with 10-15 mph cross winds at times blowing right to left. 700 yds down range I could clearly see anything I focused on to include mirage. I had no problems clearly accessing targets 700 and beyond once I learned how to use side paralax and other features of the scope.I really thought long and hard about purchasing this scope because of comments made by others on various boards that I frequent. I decided to give it a try and am pleased thus far. More testing to follow using different powders and heavier bullets. I will share results”. See follow up.

Sean, the glass on this scope is pretty darn good. I waited late in the evening and took a look through and if I was locking in on a deer I would like my changes. Here is the follow up to my first post. Remember, I’m a rank amateur. I’m learning as I go along : )

“8 months later and I am still pleased with this scope. Since my last post I’ve spent quite a few hours at the range targe shooting 100-400 yards. 1 loaded up some 168 grain SMKs with 63.5 grains of RE-22 and shot with the scope on 10 power. My first 5 shot group ever at 400 yds avg. 7.304 inches. My second 5 shot group averaged 3.373 inches at 16 power. Since I was tired of walking to my target I pulled it back to 100 yards and adjusted the scope a bit. At 100 yards 5 shot group on 10 power avg. 1.722 inches. I was able to see mirage clearly at 400 yards and had absolutely no problem clearly seeing target at 100 yards. The glass didn’t fall out, the knobs are still attached and functional, it stays on target. When I first mounted the scope it was canted to the right. I didn’t bother fixing it cause it was shooting so well. I made the adjustment, bore sighted, and hit the range. I’m gonna try totighten up the 3.373 group a bit before I move on to 600 yards”.

Appologize for the wordy review. I just wanted to give an accurate account of the test results. All of the above was done before I gave any consideration to concentricity, seating depth, uniform case length, etc. I was just dumping power, seating bullets, and going for it : )

Sean, I recently bought a remington 700 7mm mag. I had one years ago and used one on the military range with good luck at long distances. But I had a friend who was a sniper and did the majority of the set up and I just pulled the trigger. Now I am excited to do it all on my own. What off the shelf load would you recomend. I been looking at FPS and the BC of diferent bullets but can make heads or tails of which gives me the best accuracy at longer ranges. Can you suggest one load over another? And would you suggest one ballist chart over another for a newbie?